London Cinemas Before the war.

[torchy36]

Can anyone direct me somewhere where i might find a list of all london cinema names in use during 1936/37.



My Mom and Dad met in one which i cant remember the name of, it must have been huge because they used to say it had 4000 seats.



My Dad was the projectionist and my Mom an usherette, during the managers week off my Dad took his own records in to play during the breaks between films. Which was against the rules of the performing rights society, when the manager returned my Mom asked him why they were not playing all the nice music like the week before, this obviously got Dad into trouble and that was how they met.





Cheers



torchy36

[faginsgirl]

Scroll down to cinemas here:



The Appolo Victoria and the Astoria are listed in the theatre section and are early cinemas.



http://www.london-footprints.co.uk/a...gs.htm#CINEMAS



Can`t find more of a list at the minute but this article may interest you anyway. It starts to talk about London cinemas half way down. Sorry I can`t be more help.



BFI Screenonline: Cinemas and Cinemagoing



xx

[Mark O]

4000 seats, flippin 'eck!



The Kilburn State on Edgware Road comes to mind, I believe that was London's largest Cinema at one time.

[didi-5]

Try Allen Eyles' book London West End Cinemas, also the ones about Camden, Hillingdon, etc - all still in print. Cinema Treasures is also a decent website which might give you some pointers, you can search by region.



Plus the publications of the Cinema Theatre Association, particularly Picture House magazine and Richard Gray's book Cinemas in Britain.

[torchy36]

Thank you very much. I will peruse the articles you advised and let you know how i get on.



Regards





torchy36

[torchy36]

Thank you faginsgirl, your first link was right on the button, It was the "Troxy" in the Commercial Road. As soon as i saw it i remembered.



Thanks once again.





torchy36

[orpheum]

What you need is the Kine Weekly Year Books.They listed all cinemas for that year.Contact the CTA as they are likely to have copies in their archive.

[faginsgirl]

name='torchy36']Thank you faginsgirl, your first link was right on the button, It was the "Troxy" in the Commercial Road. As soon as i saw it i remembered.



Thanks once again.





torchy36

Glad I could help.



It`s such a romantic story too



xx