Local cinema records

[darrenburnfan]

drumbeg: Silly me...I missed a cinema out of that list. So here it is:



PLAZA, Fenton - (Three Days) - Tony Curtis and Colleen Miller in THE RAWHIDE YEARS (a) Technicolor also Anthony Steel and Anna Maria Sandri in THE BLACK TENT (u) VistaVision and Technicolor.



The films were certainly very different in those days, weren't they? Every cinema on that list has long since closed and all but four of the buildings have long since been demolished. The foyer part of the one time Odeon, Hanley (1937 - 1975), has been turned into a restaraunt, while the auditorium remains out of use. The one time Gaumont, Hanley (1929 - 1989), is now the Regent theatre, putting on live shows and the Plaza, Fenton (1910 - 1982), is now a snooker hall. Missing from the list is the ABC Cine-Bowl, Hanley, as it wasn't built and opened until 1963. But even that's had a date with the bulldozers recently.



Wearysloth, I didn't think that the Savoy was still open as late as 1983. I'm surprised to hear that.

[wearysloth]

I can vouch for the Savoy still going in 1983, not a bad little cinema, 2 screens? 200 seats maybe?



War of the Worlds and The Sentinal has to be a strange double bill if ever there was one.

Was mildly amusing being in with the dirty mackintosh brigade for Caligula, where each patron chose a seat perfectly equi-distant from the next. As it was the censored print, I think they were disappointed.

[darrenburnfan]

Yes, according to Allen Eyles book, ABC The First Name In Entertainment, the Savoy closed as an ABC cinema on April 11th, 1964 (where my records of its programmes seem to stop). It was then a Bingo hall until it was re-opened as a 200 seat cinema in the circle only on December 4th, 1975 and closed on April 9th, 1986. It reopened again at a date not specified and closed for good in February, 1991. As far as I know, it's since been demolished.

[Rick C]

name='darrenburnfan']drumbeg: Silly me...I missed a cinema out of that list. So here it is:



PLAZA, Fenton - (Three Days) - Tony Curtis and Colleen Miller in THE RAWHIDE YEARS (a) Technicolor also Anthony Steel and Anna Maria Sandri in THE BLACK TENT (u) VistaVision and Technicolor.



The films were certainly very different in those days, weren't they? Every cinema on that list has long since closed and all but four of the buildings have long since been demolished. The foyer part of the one time Odeon, Hanley (1937 - 1975), has been turned into a restaraunt, while the auditorium remains out of use. The one time Gaumont, Hanley (1929 - 1989), is now the Regent theatre, putting on live shows and the Plaza, Fenton (1910 - 1982), is now a snooker hall. Missing from the list is the ABC Cine-Bowl, Hanley, as it wasn't built and opened until 1963. But even that's had a date with the bulldozers recently.



Wearysloth, I didn't think that the Savoy was still open as late as 1983. I'm surprised to hear that.

Darrenburnfan: I recently did a profile on the ABC Cine-Bowl Hanley on a local history website. Just a decade-by-decade synopsis there to start.

[drumbeg]

There is something profoundly sad about the demise of all these wonderful old buildings. I know how much it affected me when they recently demolished the school I attended as a child in the late '50's and early '60's. So much more than just bricks and mortar are destroyed in the process of levelling a building , there are all those childhood memories, both good and bad , that also lie in the dust and ruins.

[Rick C]

name='drumbeg']There is something profoundly sad about the demise of all these wonderful old buildings. I know how much it affected me when they recently demolished the school I attended as a child in the late '50's and early '60's. So much more than just bricks and mortar are destroyed in the process of levelling a building , there are all those childhood memories, both good and bad , that also lie in the dust and ruins.

But when one goes back as i do and see the catastrophe launched on our previous schools and workplaces you wonder whether death would have been a better option..

[darrenburnfan]

name='Rick C']Darrenburnfan: I recently did a profile on the ABC Cine-Bowl Hanley on a local history website. Just a decade-by-decade synopsis there to start.

Would that be the Midlands Heritage website by any chance, Rick? I've just taken a look at postings on there from "Richie" containing some flickr links to vintage photos of the ABC Cine-Bowl, when it was under construction in September, 1962 and on the opening day of the cinema part in August, 1963 and a street scene from 1965. Some of the links no longer work, though.