BOSTON and SPALDING ENTERTAINMENT and the ASPLAND HOWDENS by Mervyn Gould

BOOK REVIEWS

As is well known, it was the fairground of a century ago, when the Bioscope Shows were all the rage, that created an audience not only for the nascent film industry but the cinemas that were to exhibit its products.
This link with the fairground was, in some cases, direct as many of the early Bioscope proprietors, seeing a new business opportunity, abandoned the travelling life to open their own permanent cinemas.
One such showman was George Aspland Howden, the son of Ben Howden who had travelled in partnership with George Aspland.
The partnership traded as ‘Aspland’s’ and owned, among other rides, the set of Venetian Gondolas (later Percy Cole’s) that survives as part of the Thursford Collection.
George Aspland retired through ill-health in 1895, but his partner continued the business. In 1906, by which time George Aspland Howden was in charge, the firm acquired a Bioscope show. Within a matter of just a few years, however, the Bioscope boom was over as permanent cinemas were opened.
GAH obviously saw which way the wind was blowing and, with his fiancée being unwilling to travel, look a lease in 1910 on the Corn Exchange in his home town of Boston. After some rebuilding work it reopened as the ‘New Electric Theatre’ for the exhibition of -animated pictures’.
Within a year he had also built a purpose-designed Picture House in Spalding, a venture in which he had a local partner. In subsequent years he was also to open Super Cinemas in both Boston and Spalding.
This lengthy book relates George Aspland Howden’s career as an exhibitor in great detail. Not only does it cover the cinemas he operated in these two Lincolnshire towns but also his business rivals there, including the arrival of the Odeon chain at both places.
GAH died in 1955. leaving his business to his three sons, George Jnr, Ralph and Brian. It was Ralph, who died in July of this year, to whom the author is indebted for having provided him with his first job in the theatre profession.
The writing of this book has been, therefore, something of a labour of love and the author has been unstinting in the depth of his research, Although its greatest appeal will be to cinema buffs, this book contains much that will be of interest to fairground fans.
It is available from FAGB Sales, price £23 inclusive of post and packing.
Fairground Mercury(vol 28 no 3 - December 2005).

Long-time theatre practitioner and tutor, Mervyn Gould, has spent the last fifteen studying the development of theatrical and cinematic entertainment in his native town of Boston and nearby Spalding, in Lincolnshire. The result of his extensive research has now been published in the form of a densely packed and profusely illustrated book centring on the Aspland Howden family, showmen and entrepreneurs, with one of whom the author commenced his theatrical career
The book is concerned with buildings and companies, as well as the Howden dynasty, and commences with a twenty three-page chapter on theatrical enterprise and entertainment in the area from 1578 until the end of the 19th century: a subject not thoroughly covered in any previous publication.
George Aspland and Ben Howden, fairground showmen, became business partners and brothers-in-law (their wives being sisters). Operating in the mid- to late nineteenth century, their activities are well documented and illustrated here. Always on the look-out for something new, in 1906 the firm invested in a travelling Bioscope show, of which Ben’s eldest son, George Aspland Howden became manager. Before long, young George left the travelling life and set up as a ‘Cinema Proprietor.’ His operations expanded until by the 1930s there were three super cinemas in Boston and Spalding. At this point in the book the author widens his interest in a chapter on rising competition in the shape of Oscar Deutsch’s Odeon Cinemas. By the time of G. A. Howden’s death in 1955, the third generation, in shape of his sons, Ralph and George Benjamin Howden, was in control of various interests. Aside from film, live variety shows, pantomimes, and amateur productions were heavily featured, and an important event in 1963 was the rebuilding of the stage house at the Boston Regal by a young local architect, Alan Meldrum. This was Meldrum’s first theatre commission but was followed in 1965 by his clever development of the Boston Blackfriars’ Theatre (later ‘Arts Centre’). In 1972, the Spalding Corn Exchange was demolished and replaced by the South Holland Centre, which, rebuilt in 1997/98, now provides a well designed and comfortable cinema and theatre facility.
The last surviving member of the Aspland Howden dynasty, Ralph, died in 2005, but the author concludes this saga with a consideration of the current provision of live and recorded entertainment in the area.
Every section of this book is profusely illustrated with images of buildings, plans, fairground and cinema equipment, programmes, posters, advertisements, and even tickets, as well as portraits of the personalities involved. The picture research involved alone demonstrates the author’s dedication to the task of producing such an exhaustive study of his subject. Backed up by diligent trawling of the local press and archives and interviews with many of those involved in the story, this work is a model for all those involved in recording entertainment and local history.
Graeme Cruickshank

-oOo-

Lincs with the past: Boston and Spalding Entertainment and the Aspland Howdens.

How many of us think: “I have something interesting to say about a subject that I know a lot about and I shall write it into a book”, but we haven’t yet got round to it? I’m guilty, to the exasperation of several publishers. However, long-time Maestro of Mercia Cinema Society and ALD member, Mervyn Gould, can definitely say, “Indeed and here it is”, with this profusely illustrated 353-page volume.

Mervyn Gould’s area of special interest is in local Theatre/Cinema history and, as his stamping ground is the corner of Lincolnshire covered by this book, the results are very detailed about a subject hitherto untouched in any depth.

He starts with a chapter on the history of Theatre in Boston & Spalding up to 1900, which is a story of Georgian circuit companies, a saga with parallels throughout much of England. The barnstorming traditions are extensively explored & the first buildings to be used for Cinema are established from those used earlier for Theatre.

The Aspland and Howden families started in show business with fairground sideshows that led to travelling bioscope shows, known as ‘Aspland’s Pictureland’. How this highly successful venture of 1906 led to the establishment of, first, roughly fitted out picture houses &, within a generation, super cinemas, is a fascinating story, with research provided willingly by the families involved. Local politics and commentary on the social pressures of the wider world are intertwined to relate the development of the cinema industry in the two market towns. The story is taken through to the present with the story of the Blackfriars’ Theatre, Boston, amongst several others.

Theatre is not forgotten and indeed the author’s first professional experience was on ASM/Props duty for ‘Babes in the Wood’ at the Regal Theatre, Boston in 1963. However, he attended many earlier shows & recorded or saved the minutiae of Boston showbiz. For instance, how else would you know that Maid Marion & Baron Hard-Up shared Mrs. Taylor’s double room at 39 Peck Avenue in 1954?

Of course, this extreme example only goes to show the wealth of detail that makes up an almost tangible picture of Boston & Spalding’s entertainments through the years. There are numerous lessons to be learned from history: as an example, for a plausible reason why most lyric houses have bastard prompts, turn to page 258.

There is a certain amount of technical comment & documentation, some carried out by the author, who had a sense of passing history at a remarkably young age, but the story is as much about the Aspland Howdens and their times as it is about their many places of entertainment. If there is any message to be gleaned about lighting, it is that people were very happy to have a good night out, not withstanding the surprisingly economical installations prevalent through the first three quarters of the 20th century.

The Index is masterly, the scholarship is prodigious: my only wish is that that simple town plans of the two towns could be included, although the author could of course post them on his website. This book is about the sort of places where many of us have worked, and for detailed theatre history, related to its district & laced with nostalgia, it takes some beating.

James Laws.
26 January 2006.

***NOW AVAILABLE!***

Mervyn Gould’s

Boston and Spalding Entertainment
and the
Aspland Howdens

Octavo – 6¼’ wide 8¾’ high. 353pp including appendices and full index.
Stitched. Laminated colour card covers. Price c.£19.95, Members £16.50

ISBN  0 946406 59 6
Now published

All Mercia publications may be obtained from:

Stuart Smith, Mercia Sales Office, 100 Wickfield Road, Hackenthorpe, Sheffield S12 4TT

Tel: 0777 155 4605.

The Press Release is after the front and back covers below.

Front cover (actual)

Back cover graphic

BOSTON and SPALDING ENTERTAINMENT
and the ASPLAND HOWDENS

PRESS RELEASE

The life and work of fairground worker turned cinema proprietor George Aspland Howden (1883-1955) is central to this study by Mervyn Gould. It follows his career starting from early days - travelling on the fairground amusements his father and uncle owned - to transferring to a permanent cinema base.
Building a local entertainment empire as the managing director of two companies, he was a most successful entrepreneur.
To introduce the story and lay the scene, a prologue gives a rapid glimpse of the theatre history of these two Lincolnshire fenland towns, from ‘plaies’ being barred by the Corporation of Boston in 1578 to them paying for the erection of a theatre in 1777 – the shell of which still stands - and the Lincoln circuit playing there and at Spalding. Both towns had Corn Exchanges in the mid-19th century, which later staged theatrical and early cinematograph performances.
Act One then takes us to two men, George Aspland from Holbeach and Benjamin Howden from Boston, who between them built a then well-known fairground business, and married sisters. When George Aspland died in 1911 his obituary and photograph formed the centrepiece of the front page of The World’s Fair that week.
Ben Howden’s second child and eldest son, George Aspland Howden, was named after his business partner and brother-in-law. He was brought up and educated by George Aspland, his uncle and mentor. Leaving commercial school at 16, he joined the fairground business and travelled with the roundabouts, soon becoming manager of the ‘Whirl of the World’. Later he was to recall – “I tackled the business in all its phases, from engine-driver to taking the money, or any other job. We had to do everything or anything in those days.”
In 1906 the firm invested in an organ-fronted Bioscope show, which then were moving into a new phase of opulence. Young George became the manager of this – he had bought a moving picture camera in 1904 – and here his working life was set for the future. In 1910 he left the travelling life and set up in business as a ‘Cinematograph Proprietor’ at Boston Corn Exchange. Two years later he was in partnership with a Spalding businessman and built the Picture House there, running both ventures. This forms Act Two.
Two opposition ventures opened in Boston in 1914, one being almost adjacent. So successfully did he ‘see off’ this competition that in 1917 the board of the more opulent new house next door asked him to be the managing director of a joint operation. In Spalding success meant the building of a second cinema in 1927.
Act Three is the heart of the book. It was at this time the Boston Corn Exchange was thoroughly re-built as the New Theatre in 1926, and in 1930/31 George installed Western Electric sound in all four houses. A valuable interview with a former cinema pianist tells of the dispersal of the orchestra at Spalding following the installation of a ‘Sonatone’ triple-deck gramophone reproducer before sound films proper came.
In the mid-30s, his corner of the fens was invaded by the rapidly-expanding Odeon chain, so before they opened their halls he built a modern Super-Cinema in each town, just before the two Odeons opened. An Interval tells the story of the Oscar Deutsch expansion and the Odeons in each town.
War and eventual decline of theatre and cinema in the 50s, after a remission caused by 3-D and CinemaScope, occupies Act Four, ending with the death of George in 1955 and the closures of the Boston New and Spalding Regent in 1959 and 1960.
Many illustrations, ranging from plans, photographs of the buildings, to artefacts and ephemera, accompany the relation of the tale and bring the buildings back to life, and there are several interpolations concerning members of staff, and the careers of two of George’s sons, who were to run the companies later. Technical and stage management equipment and problems are related, giving the reader an insight into less public matters of cinema and theatre operation.
The surprise of the book is Act Five, whereby Ralph, George’s second son, takes over the helm at Boston and, after closing the New Theatre, uses the money to build a complete stage and fly-tower onto the Regal, opening this as a commercial theatre as late as 1963! Details here include not only the technical side of the Regal, but local cultural life and the opening of a second theatre, the Blackfriars’ Art Centre, in 1965.
The story of the two Odeons is continued, with Boston becoming a theatre/cinema/ bingo operation after the Regal closed, and Spalding being twinned. Sadly, both are now demolished.
Ralph’s elder brother, George Benjamin, retired from the Spalding operation in 1970, and Ralph Aspland Howden closed the Regal in 1976, ending the Howden presence in these towns from 1910 and 1912 respectively. An epilogue charts the subsequent entertainment history of the area with film closure at Spalding, the re-opening of the Regal as a circle-only mini, until the rebuild of the Spalding Corn Exchange to the present highly-successful South Holland Centre, and the opening of a 5-screen multiplex near the now burned-out Regal in Boston.
Deposited annual accounts are used to show the financial structure of the companies, and the fact that dividends of 15 and 20% were not uncommon in the years of plenty. This is a social, as well as a cinema, history, and records changes that occurred not just here, but throughout the country.
The author knows his subject well, as that is where he started his career, which later was to take him to the West End, major provincial pantomimes and number one tours, and culminated in seventeen years as technical tutor and Theatre House & Stage Manager at a well-known midlands university.
Publishing the book, the Mercia Cinema Society celebrates twenty-five years, and brings its list up to sixty texts. Founded in 1980, it is now a charity defined as ‘a national society for the promotion and publication of research into cinema history’. Members, who pay only £10 per year, receive the quarterly journal The Mercia Bioscope, and have the privilege of discounted book prices.
All Mercia publications may be obtained from: Stuart Smith Mercia Sales Office 100
Wickfield Road Hackenthorpe Sheffield S12 4TT - 0777 155 4605.

ENDS
1046 words

Octavo – 6¼’ wide x 8¾’ high. 353pp including appendices and full index.
Stitched. Laminated colour card covers. ISBN
Publication date – autumn 2005. Price c.£19.95, £16.50 Society Members

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