BASINGSTOKE ENTERTAINED

Mervyn Gould

Mercia Cinema Society, 2007

Paperback, 98pp., £8.95

ISBN 10: 0-946406-62-6

Since Basingstoke has never had a purpose built theatre this book, perhaps naturally, centres on the history its cinemas. However there is a record of plenty of live entertainment within its pages and its author, long time SMA member, Mervyn Gould, in his fourth book (and there are three more in the pipeline!) has, as usual, spared no effort in his research to provide an exhaustive study of his subject. We may read about strolling players, live entertainment at the Hiring Fairs, and fit-ups in various venues both under cover and al fresco, long before the moving pictures came on the scene. Later there was still room for variety, pantomime and even weekly rep. and no theatre history is complete without a fire.

For this reader a gazetteer would have been useful to help keep track of the frequent changes of name and the rebuilds at the numerous sites enumerated in this work. Much at the centre of cinematic activity in Basingtoke for more than twenty years was George Casey, who in 1913 converted the Corn Exchange, at that time a skating rink, into a cinema and variety theatre. He later converted the old Drill Hall into a variety theatre before it was reconstructed as a cinema. His other interests and activities are fully explored.

Appended is a lengthy newspaper report of the fire which all but destroyed the Grand Cinema, formerly the Corn Exchange, in 1925. The fire occurring at night, there were no fatalities, but a touring revue company, currently in occupation, lost all their props and costumes. The shell of the building was later redeveloped and eventually renamed the Haymarket.

The expansion of the cinema industry, developments in sound technology, the rise of the national circuits and the more recent arrival of the multiplex cinema, are all subjects examined in as far as they were manifested in Basingstoke.

The book concludes with a study of the formation of the Horseshoe Theatre Company at the Haymarket, later developments at that venue, the building of the Anvil concert hall in 1994 and the current provision of public entertainment in Basingstoke.

The author’s thoroughly readable style, is, as usual, enriched by the provision of numerous illustrations, from photographs, plans, programmes and advertisements. Interwoven throughout are details of both amateur and professional live entertainment and wider aspects of social history, making this a valuable aid to our understanding and a wider knowledge of our national culture.

(Reviewed by Graeme Cruickshank)

Basingtoke Entertained is available from: Mervyn Gould, 29 Blackbrook Court, Durham Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 5UA.

Tel/fax: 01509 218393
e-mail: Mervyn.Gould@virgin.net

At £8.95 post free (payable to Mercia Cinema Society)

BASINGSTOKE ENTERTAINED Mervyn Gould, Mercia Cinema Society, 2007

Jeremy Buck – CTA Bulletin Jan/Feb 2008

This new publication from the Mercia Cinema Society is a comprehensive review of the theatres and cinemas in this Hampshire town. Basingstoke has never had a purpose-built theatre, live entertainment taking place in an assortment of converted premises, including the former Corn Exchange which has evolved through a period as the Union Cinemas’ Grand to become today’s Haymarket Theatre. A new concert hall, the Anvil, was opened in 1994. There have been several cinema buildings including, in the 1930s, the Waldorf, the Savoy and the Plaza, which from the pictures here appeared to be fine, modern buildings with art-deco interiors. Alas, they have all now gone and today’s cinema-goers have two multiplexes to visit, the Vue and the Odeon (a rebranded Warner). Mervyn takes us through the fascinating history of these buildings in his usual enjoyable style and there are many good pictures and also reproductions of press advertising and posters. Thoroughly recommended. Read the rest of this entry »

PUBLISHED 1st December:

Basingstoke Entertained - Mervyn Gould
86pp + prelims & index
£8.95 / £7.90 to members
NOW AVAILABLE ***READ PRESS RELEASE***

LATEST PUBLICATION: Basingstoke Entertained by Mervyn Gould, £8.95/£7.90 Mercia Members *(updated)*

PRESS RELEASE

New books charts Basingstoke’s chequered cinema history

Basingstoke’s chequered picture-house history is told in detail in a newly published (Dec 1st) book, Basingstoke Entertained, by cinema and theatre historian Mervyn Gould.

The fully illustrated account is published by Mercia Cinema Society at £8 95p and is available from the Willis Museum or post-free by sending a cheque made payable to Mercia Cinema Society to Stuart Smith, Mercia Sales, 100 Wickfield Road, Hackenthorpe, Sheffield, S12 4TT.

The book tells of three early cinemas, converted from the Corn Exchange, a swimming baths, and the Drill Hall. It records the fire which destroyed the Grand in 1925, the race to show the first talkies in 1929, and the building of a super cinema on a concrete raft on swampy ground in 1935. It notes the first incursion of a national cinema circuit when Union Cinemas acquired three Basingstoke venues in 1937 and of the muted opening of the Savoy in the first months of the second world war. There are some who will remember the formation of the ABC Minors’ Club in 1945 and the experiments with 3D and Cinemascope in the 1950s. The struggles of the cinema industry nationally are reflected in the closing of the Savoy in 1966 and the conversion of the ABC to provide two screens in 1977. But the resurgence of moving pictures as popular entertainment is evidenced by the opening of the Warner multiplex in 1990.

It is not certain when or where films were first shown in Basingstoke but the first documented screening of what were called ‘animated pictures’ was at the Corn Exchange in 1900.

Basingstoke’s first permanent cinema came in 1910 with the aptly named Electric Theatre, at the bottom of Wote Street, converted from a disused swimming bath and provided with its own electricity generator – although the film-projector was turned by hand.

George Casey, who leased the Corn Exchange in 1913 and converted it into the Grand Exchange Cinema and Vaudeville Theatre, was perhaps the man who had the most impact on Basingstoke entertainment, subsequently converting the old drill hall into the Pavilion dance hall, reconstructing it as the Plaza, and opening the purpose-built Waldorf in 1935.

Author Mervyn Gould threads the account of Basingstoke’s cinemas with details of both professional and amateur theatrical entertainment in the town. He brings his knowledge as a professional member of both the Stage Management Association and the Association of Lighting Designers to this history.

He started his career in 1963 in the projection room of a 1937 super-cinema, reminiscent of the Waldorf here. After touring and West End work, he became a university technical tutor in stage management and lighting.

This is his fourth cinema/theatre history book, and three more are in preparation, for expected publication next year.

Mercia Cinema Society was founded in 1980 to promote and publish research into the history of picture houses. It is the country’s principal publisher of cinema history and Basingstoke Entertained is its 63rd book.

Ends
ISBN: 0-946406-62-6 A5, section-sewn, 98pp inc. index, laminated card cover
Mervyn Gould can be contacted on
01509 218393 / 07812 723270
Mervyn.Gould@virgin.net

Mervyn Gould can supply any illustration from the book as a .jpg for review purposes

Mercia Cinema Society history and list of current publications can be viewed on the web-site at www.merciacinema.org.uk

Mercia Bioscope No. 26
– special edition –

THE PARAMOUNT ASTORIAS
David Jones

This booklet traces the building and history of the four LONDON ASTORIA
Cinemas – the Brixton Astoria, the Old Kent Road Astoria, the Finsbury Park
Astoria and the Streatham Astoria.

<- front back ->

(Click on the front and back covers for larger images)

This booklet traces the building and history of the four LONDON ASTORIAS – Brixton, Old Kent Road, Finsbury Park, and Stretham. All were designed by E.A. Stone, F.S.I., with the assistance of T.R. ‘Tommy’ Somerford, A.R.I.B.A. (and Marc-Henri at Finsbury Park & G. Laverdet at Streatham Astoria).
All were built by the Picture House Trust Ltd. with A. Segal as Managing Director, and Stone as Chairman. (E.A. Stone also designed provincial Astorias (i.e. Southend) for a separate firm under E.A. Lyons.) In 1931 the London Astorias were bought by Paramount, which went on to build its seven provincial Paramounts to create a small English national circuit. Later, Oscar Deutsch bought into the circuit, and later still, under J. Arthur Rank, they were all taken into the C.M.A. and became Odeons.
Illustrated with contemporary and modern colour photographs.

A4 colour paper cover. Saddle stitched. 34pp inc. cover
£3.00 inc p+p.
Available from Administrator
Separate A4 index free

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 Acting Sales Officer: Mervyn Gould, 29 Blackbrook Court, Durham Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 5UA.Tel/fax: 01509 218393
e-mail: Mervyn.Gould@virgin.net

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