RECOLLECTIONS OF A Lincolnshire MOBILE SHOWMAN

Extracts from a taped interview with Fredrick Norris

The following article appeared in the Mercia Bioscope no. 86, February 2003, and wais the third reprint from George Clark’s The Cinemas of Lincolnshire published by the Society in 1994. As this is now out of print, his long-standing friend Brian Hornsey considered they were worth a larger audience. The second was in the previous issue, while the first, with Syd Donaldson as an early cinema sound specialist, was in Nov 98 issue 69 p.6

Around 1910, as a young lad in his early teens, Fred took an intense interest in the new-fangled Bioscope that had appeared at the local fairground. He toured any local venue where such a show appeared and pestered the owner of the equipment for information of ‘the works’. About this time shows began to appear at Lincoln’s Monks Road Hall, where the ‘Happy Hour’ was being held. This was a show based on an ‘in-out’ basis, each lasting an hour, at the rate of three per night. Gleaning some information from these early offerings, he went on to the Theatre Royal, where he got a job helping the stage hands on the lighting, and often operating a spotlight from the ‘gods’.

The treasurer of the residential concert party was W. Gadsby, and when they went into liquidation, he managed to raise the money to pay off the outstanding debts, and bought the Central Hall, which he turned into a cinema.

Fred, in the mean-time, had obtained a job at the newly-opened Picture House in Lincoln’s High Street, operating a No 6 Powergraph projector. On the first show, No.1 machine failed to operate, and Fred on No.2 started up with the film on his machine, which was a single reeler called Two Brothers, and Mary Pickford was in the cast as an extra. Working from 1pm to 10pm for six days earned Fred 15/- per week. The Chief Projectionist earned 25/-, and the future Mrs. Norris in the cash box earned 9/9d.

The Theatre Royal in the meantime had been leased to Messrs Payne & Seddon, who presented regular Music Shows at 7.15 pm every night except Saturday, when Mystery plays were a regular feature, on a twice-nightly basis. Business was poor, and other attractions were being considered.

The talk of London at that time was a show of Kinemacolor. This was a system of projecting a black & white film at twice the normal silent speed, using the cut-off shutter to apply the colour to each frame as it passed through the gate. Each segment of the shutter of which there was two, one of which was orange/red and the other b1ue-green. The correct filter had to be before the correct frame in the gate, as an incorrect frame in the gate produced brown grass and green skies! Moving images across the screen left a rainbow trail.

The Theatre at this time did not have an operating box, so in order to show this system, they knocked a hole in the rear wall, at the Kings Arms yard end, and put a tin box there. The film to be shown was The Construction of the Panama Canal, which ran for two weeks. When the film broke, as it often did, as moving at 32 frames per second, which is faster than the sound films run today, the film shot through the port hole and into the auditorium. Not an outstanding success, and it was replaced by the theatre’s own projector. This was to show a 30-minute film in subdued lighting whilst the audience found their seats for the Musical Show.

When the summer season started, the Royal became a full-time cinema for a trial period of three months. Next to the Royal, on the corner was a tailor’s shop, and behind the shop where the gents toilet is today, was an undertaker, which had to be walked through in order to get to the ‘spots’ and replace the carbons! This was usually done on a Sunday morning. In the photograph of the Royal of the staff members, sits a little chap, that is Fred, and was taken on May 5th 1913. The lessees are also in the picture.

By 1914 Fred had acquired a second-hand projector and accessories, and was planning to go into business as a mobile showman, as the ‘Empire Picture Co’. Having had posters printed by local printer Hedley Slack he set about distributing them in the Coningsby area. These advertised a show at the Temperance Hall. Spotting a convenient telegraph pole at the junction of Railway St. and the road to Tattershall, he proudly and prominently displayed his poster.

On the day, he hired a horse & cart to transport everything, including the heavy gas cylinders of oxygen & hydrogen used in providing a light for his projectors. All set to show, when the village constable appear­ed, and after a longish chat, and the parting of five passes for his family to see the night show, the constable told him the sad news. He was obliged to take out a summons for sticking a poster on a telegraph post! Taken before the magistrates in Horncastle, he was fined 7/6d. Whilst he was there he put in an application for a licence, which was granted on the spot.

Lincoln’s Theatre Royal staff in May 1913 – the young Fred Norris centre front.

 

At another venue in Bardney, the Unionist Hall, now part of the canning factory, was almost a disaster, for having prepared every­thing in readiness for the show, a matinée for children, very nearly didn’t see the screen, as the roof was made of glass! Fred however, not to be outdone, did a few conjuring tricks, told a few jokes, end generally entertained the kids until it was dusk enough to show the films.

Another show at Coningsby, after plenty of billing in the area, a full house waited for the show to begin. Some had travelled some distance: people from Dogdyke and New York arrived by pony & trap to see this new entertainment. At that time, Fred’s gas cylinders were supplied by Penny & Porters from their premises at the corner of Broadgate and Rhumbold Street, where the telephone exchange stands today. Unfortunately for Fred, they had given him an empty cylinder. Unable to provide light for his machine, he had to apologise and make refund for the tickets sold. There was nearly a riot and poor Fred was chased out of the hall, never to return.

Hiring a horse and cart and now joined by another enthusiast, they loaded up the cart and set off for Sturton-by-Stow. Billed in advance, the show was for Boxing Day. Arriving around midday, they stabled the horse at the local pub, and arranged for tea for after the matinée. They set about getting ready for the show, his assistant set up the ancient gramophone behind the screen, to play music for the films being shown. Time to open, and not a single person to be seen, the village appeared empty! Back at the pub, the old lady told them they had picked the wrong day, “as there’s a do on at the church, and another in the chapel”. Returning to the hall to pack up, and feeling very despondent, in total darkness he stumbled into someone who asked him where he thought he was going, Fred said to the hall, back came the reply, ‘then get in the ruddy queue’. Half the village was waiting for the doors to open.

After a successful show, and around 10-0pm, they started the journey home. Then it rained, soaking wet amid the deluge, the lights on the cart extinguished by the wind, they plodded on to the Saxilby turnoff and on toward the racecourse where they managed to relight the candles in the coach lights before being seen by a local ‘bobby’. They arrived at the Stonebow in Lincoln at 12.20 am. All for £3 10s, the nights takings.

Fred was also a member of the Lincoln Amateur Dramatic Society, and later its treasurer. His wife also a member played the lead in several productions; one such show, Dorothy, was presented at the Central Hall. Recalling those early cinema days at the Central when the Temperance Society presented silent films twice nightly at 6pm and 8pm, at prices of 2d 4d & 6d with a matinée on Saturday afternoons, when a stick of nougat was offered as a bribe to the kids to tell their parents about the wonderful show, and sometimes an orange as an extra on the way out, brought a smile and a laugh from him as Fred enjoyed so much recounting those far-off days.

His interest in the cinema never waned, and in 1936 he ran a very successful 9.5mm. Pathé film library, mainly comedies of the Charlie Chaplin type. Which brings me to the place where I first met him, as I asked to borrow my first film, price 9d for the weekend.

In 1946/7 I renewed my own interest in the cinema, with a Mobile 16mm sound Cinema Unit, covering many villages in the region, even through the extreme weather of the winter of ’47. I can vouch for Fred’s remarks of “You earn every penny.”

Sadly Fred died a few months after this 5^th October 1971 interview at his home in South Park, Lincoln. He was a really splendid character in the early showbiz scene.

Bardney Village Hall set up for a show in 1947 for George Clark’s mobile unit.

We apologize for the poor quality of these illustrations, but The Cinemas of Lincolnshire was published in our former ‘cheap & cheerful’ format – i.e. expensive photo-copying and poor quality. This policy has long  been abandoned by the society.

---

To set the date, the Central Hall became cinema c.1914, and the Picture House opened on 15 Jan 15. (M.S-G.)