OBITUARY- Arthur Ernest Northover

Arthur Northover, mobile cinema owner and author, died, aged 81, on Tuesday 1st February 2005. A Northamptonian by birth and up-bringing, he had lived in Rushden for over 35 years. For twenty-seven of these years he and his wife ran what he claimed was the best fish-and-chip in Rushden, and the only one which sold wet fish during the day.
Arthur had had three careers: as a boy he was a projectionist at various Northampton cinemas – the Cinema de Luxe, the Picturedrome, and the Ritz, ending at the Savoy, running the projection box alone for several weeks during the war at the age of 16. Service in the R.A.F. followed, where he was an aircraft electrician by day and projectionist at night in various camp cinemas, culminating at R.A.F. Habbaniya in Iraq. After demob he returned to Northampton and projected at the Regal (later the Essoldo), whilst planning his next venture.
This was a mobile cinema operation, taking feature film programmes to surrounding villages including Roade, Harpole, Silverstone, Creaton, Hanslope, and Broughton, and presenting shows at private house parties. He built up a successful business, and was able to marry his girl-friend, Lois, who had her own business as a ladies’ hairdresser.
The increase of ownership of television sets for the Coronation in 1953 finished his mobile circuit, and he moved into newspaper advertising, firstly in Northampton on the old ‘Independent’, and then on the ‘Evening Telegraph’, moving to Kettering in the process.
He still hankered to work for himself, and for many years had been aware of the profits on fish-and-chips. When the opportunity came up, he bought the Rushden business freehold for £3,000, and stayed there until he retired in 1994, when he sold the shop premises and bought a house, remaining in Rushden. He wrote, “The Rushden shop was taking a hundred pounds weekly, selling fish-and-chips at 1/4d per portion. I opened on 5 November 1964. When we arrived from Kettering our fourth child was barely five weeks old. The first year proved hard work – we never enjoyed an evening out or a holiday break, but profits were good…”
He and Lois brought up their five children in the shop, and he carried on with hospital film shows in his spare time.
His life story in projection, The Picture Man, was published by the Mercia Cinema Society in 2002, and is still available. Most appropriately, the book was launched in the Picturedrome, Northampton, where he had spent a week as relief projectionist in 1940.
His last outing was in December, to the re-opening of what he called his ‘old show’ – the ex-Savoy, Northampton, when it threw open the doors as the Jesus Centre. Although he had lost the use of his legs, and was in great pain, he delighted in using the new disabled lift to take him to the rear of the circle, in order to see the restored auditorium.
Arthur is survived by his wife, Lois, four of their children, and thirteen grandchildren.

Arthur Northover- The Picture Man

Click on front or rear cover for a larger picture

Press release below

MERCIA CINEMA SOCIETY
(A national organisation for research into the history of the cinema)
Secretary: Mervyn Gould
29 Blackbrook Court LOUGHBOROUGH Leicestershire LE11 5UA
Telephone/Facsimile 01509 218393 E-mail: Mervyn.Gould@virgin.net
21 June, 2003

BOOK LAUNCH - PRESS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE

On Thursday 20 June Arthur Northover will be at Northampton’s PICTUREDROME to launch and sign copies of his autobiography
‘ THE PICTURE MAN - Part of a Life in Northampton cinemas’
which will be published on that day by the Mercia Cinema Society.

Arthur was born in Northampton in 1924, and became fascinated with cinema projection at a young age. From projecting scraps of film in his bedroom he progressed to working in various local cinemas, including the Regal (later Essoldo) and the Picturedrome.
The beginning of the war found him at the Savoy (latter ABC / Cannon), where because of staff call-up he was alone in the box – a Chief Projectionist at the age of 18. Called up himself into the R.A.F. he spent his spare time projecting in the camp cinemas, ending up at R.A.F. Habbaniya, in Iraq.
Two chapters tell of his life in the R.A.F., with unique photographs of the indoor and outdoor cinemas at Habbaniya, together with projection equipment there.
Post-war, after demob., he went back to the Regal and then set up his own mobile cinema show operation, in villages and hospitals around the Northamptonshire countryside.
The impact of T.V. for the Coronation brought this to an end, and he started another career in newspaper advertising. Working first for the Northampton Independent (under the highly-respected editor Bernard Holloway) he was then poached by the Northants. Evening Telegraph. This came to a dramatic end when he was sacked by the Kettering firm EMAP for being convicted in court of possessing obscene images – ‘stag’ films he was repairing for private shows.
He remembered the-then Chief Projectionist of the Cinema de Luxe telling him as a boy that the fish-and chip shop next door made more profit than selling cinema seats, so bought a shop in Rushden, where he spent the next 27 selling the best fish-and-chips in the town!
Now retired, and only semi-mobile, he has put his memories down on paper, and with remarkable recall, including prices, he has made not only a cinema history, but also a social history of Northampton in the middle of the twentieth century.
It is available through bookshops or direct from the Mercia Sales Officer: Stuart R. Smith 100 Wickfield Road Hackenthorpe Sheffield Yorkshire S12 4TT 0777-155-4605
Ends
Further information from Mervyn Gould (see above)

Arthur Northover is available before the launch – tel: 01933 312756
The Picture Man ISBN: 0 946406 52 £9.50 – soft-back 222 x 159mm 170pp + laminated gloss art board covers. Indexed. 40 illustrations. Cover printed 4-colour front and back
Trade enquiries welcomed

The MERCIA CINEMA SOCIETY
The Mercia Cinema Society was started by four people in Birmingham (hence the name) in 1980, and since then we have grown nation-wide and become an educational charity (no. 1001524). Our declared purpose is to encourage, promote, and publish research on cinema building history (which includes theatres which have been used for film). In addition we run an annual celebration of cinema history, and offer discounts on our publications to members.
We publish a quarterly journal, the Mercia Bioscope, sent free to all members, run the annual celebration (held on the third Saturday in September at the Sir Robert Martin Theatre, Loughborough University, and are the largest publisher of books on cinema buildings, the architects, and the owners in the country.
Occasionally we issue a free booklet - in Spring 1998 on The Black Family: their circuits; their cinemas by Frank Manders, the author of The Cinemas of Newcastle and The Cinemas of Gateshead. It is available (£2.00 inc. p+p.) from the Sales Officer. The last was in February 1999 on The Cinemas of the Weisker Brothers by Brian Hornsey. He has published many ‘cheap and cheerful’ booklets on towns around the country with brief details of their cinemas under his own imprint Fuchsiaprint of Stamford. These are all available from our Sales Officer.
Inside the Mercia Bioscope you will find articles on towns, on individual cinemas, multiplex openings, cinema news, book reviews, and the Collector’s Corner, for sales and wants at a very low advertising cost for use by both members and non-members. (Copy for this comes to me - all else to the Editor.) Should you wish to contact several officers at once, please send all the letters/orders and cheque(s) to me and I will distribute the material, thus saving you postage.
We are compiling a gazetteer of cinema buildings nationally, and I send a survey form to copy and fill what you can, for cinema buildings known to you.
Among our most recent books are: Whitstable Cinemas Remembered by Mick Glover, (£4.99 / £4.49 members), Ribbon of Dreams (cinemas of Cardiff) by Gary Wharton (£8.85 non-members /£7.50 members - both inc. p+p., Cinemas of Essex by Bob Grimwood (£13.50/£12.00 members + £3.20 p&p) and Loughborough & Coalville’s Stage and Screen by Mervyn Gould (£15.50/£13.00 members inc. p&p).
We invite all who are interested in the ‘hardware’ of cinema to join us. The annual membership is a very reasonable £10.00 / £15.00 in sterling cheque overseas (cheques made payable to Mercia Cinema Society).
Secretary: Mervyn Gould 29 Blackbrook Court, Durham Road, Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 5UA. Tel/fax: 01509 218393 e-mail: Mervyn.Gould@virgin.net

Chairman: Kate Taylor 19 Pinder’s Grove Wakefield West Yorkshire WF1 4AH Tel: 01924 372748 e-mail: kate@airtime.co.uk

Sales Officer: Stuart R. Smith 100 Wickfield Road Hackenthorpe Sheffield Yorkshire S12 4TT 0777-155-4605

The author, Arthur Northover at the book launch, Northampton Picturedrome, June 2003