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Gallery- March 2005 LOUGHBOROUGH CINEMAS
by Mervyn Gould You can also download this gallery as a 12 page acrobat document file HERE (WARNING- 14 Megabyte zipped file)
Important Note: All text and photographs herein are copyright
to Mervyn Gould. Permission is hereby granted to the Mercia Cinema
Society only to use this compilation as a web-site monthly gallery. No-one else may use any item without the express
permission of the copyright holder. |
||
(Some photos & images will resolve to a larger screen size when clicked) Based on Loughborough's stage & screen available from the society. |
The first cinematograph
exhibitions in Loughborough would be, like many other towns, by showmen during
the annual street fair in November (still held – one of the last of the touring
season), but indoor venues would be booked as well. One very rare survival is
the handbill in Loughborough Library for the Corn Exchange (part of and behind
the 1855 Town Hall). Other halls available then were the Oddfellows’ Hall
(built in 1820 as the Sparrow Hill Theatre), the Temperance Hall (q.v.), and
the Philharmonic Hall.
Theatre
Royal
The Theatre Royal was built by Messrs. Payne & Seddon, of the Lincoln Theatre Royal, who had been bringing shows to the Town Hall. It was built on spare land in Packe Street, with a long corridor – foyer running across the Woodbrook to an alley between buildings on Malt Mill Lane (later, and still today, Market Street). The architect was the local Albert King. The opening show was Monsieur Beaucaire on 26th January 1905. A photograph of the occasion was taken from the stage, and it is apparent from this that the theatre was only half-full.
It lasted only until 1910, when it joined
Leon Vint’s pictures and variety circuit as the Hippodrome. This was
more successful, though later, the circuit collapsed. 1912 was the year of the first cinema competition in Loughborough, as
the 1909 skating rink on Ashby Road (on the site of the former New Theatre)
re-opened in October as the New Playhouse.
Further competition was to come in 1914, with the building and opening of the Empire Cinema in September, but by that time Leon Vint had suddenly given up either the lease or the ownership of the Market Street house. The last newspaper advertisement for Vint’s Hippodrome was for the week of 22 June 1914, when the attraction was:
First time in
Loughborough, THE KINETOPHONE, Edison’s Talking Pictures. The Sensation of the
Century. Not only the voice but every movement made by the persons depicted on
the screen is heard by the audience. This is not the old-fashioned Gramophone,
It is the real thing itself.
Strangely, after this technical coup, the
advertisements stop. No more is heard of Leon Vint or the Hippodrome, though
details emerged later during a bankruptcy hearing. He had started as a
proprietor in Kettering about 1906, and later acquired more halls and theatres,
including venues at Neath, Exmouth, LIanelli, and Aberavon, run as the Leon
Vint Organisation. These were among seven theatres he sold to Vints Theatres
Ltd (formed in 1911 with a capital of £20,000) for £6,000 in cash and the
allotment of 14,000 fully paid-up shares, and for which he was Managing
Director at a salary of £500 per year. The business failure he attributed at
his examination to a slump in the entertainment trades, to living beyond his
income, to high interest on borrowed money, losses on horse-race betting, and
to high expenditure on entertainment and travel in the course of running the
businesses4.
At Loughborough, the building reverted to the
Theatre Royal name for a ‘grand re-opening’ on August 3rd with a split week of
‘the great Moral Play (not a picture)’ The White Slave Traffic for the
first half, and on Thursday to Saturday The Bad Girl of the Family. Prices
were : Pit 3d., stalls 6d., Circle 9d., Dress Circle 1/- and boxes to seat four
7/6d. In the second week, there was still a split programme, and the
advertisement asked ‘Patrons please note these Dramas are NOT Pictures’, adding
that refreshment bars were now open. The resident manager was P Leonard, but
there is no mention of the owning company.
After the first War, though there is still no
mention of the owning company, by 1920 and 1921 there was a succession of
stirring dramas and the occasional musical comedy. In 1921, for instance, Frank
Forbes Robertson visited the Royal with his company in his most famous role as
the Stranger in The Passing of the Third Floor Back. There were
repertoire seasons, too, but in 1922 came a season of pictures and variety —
the ‘turns’ being on all week, the films changed on Thursday.
By 1926 the lessee was Warwick Major, who ran
a programme mainly consisting of touring revues, billing himself during 1928 as
‘also lessee of Theatre Royal Ilkeston, Palace Theatre Nottingham’.
A fire destroyed the stage end of the
building on the night of Tuesday 12 Wednesday 13 May 1931. Though The Laugh
Parade company lost all their scenery, costumes, and props, the theatre cat
was saved.
Warwick Major either was under-insured, or
had had enough of Loughborough, and presumably decided to cut his losses and
leave.
Cinema rebuild
The Theatre Royal re-opened in its new guise as a cinema under the
Universal Car Company management on Monday 23rd November 1931. Both the
original and the rebuilding plans are still extant. There was a simple reopening
ceremony attended by the Mayor and Mayoress (AId. & Mrs. T W Bailey),
during which it was explained the future policy was to run talkie films one
week and a stage show the next. The re-opening main feature was Constance
Bennett & Basil Rathbone in Sin takes a Holiday which ran
till Wednesday. Programmes were to be at 6.15 and 8.30, though 15 minutes
earlier on Saturdays, with prices being 9d & 1/- for the stalls and 1/4 for
the balcony.
The rebuilding plans –
shewing the stage reduced by half and projection box block built on to the
rear.
A single column on the back page of the
Monitor says more about the policy and alterations:
The stage area has
been reduced, the proscenium set back, and the additional floor space thus
obtained has enlarged the seating accommodation in the auditorium. The angle
and slope of the pit floor has been lowered to enable the whole of the screen,
which is 20ft. by l5ft. to be comfortably seen by the audiences. New
upholstered tip-up seats have been installed throughout, and the heating and
lighting equipments improved. The most up-to-date equipment for the projection
of picture and sound films has been provided, the results of which are highly
satisfactory. An alteration adding greatly to the comfort and safety of patrons
has been effected at the main entrance from Mill-street, by the construction of
a more spacious passage, with a new staircase leading to the circle. The whole
of the reconstructed building has been re-decorated in tasteful and pleasing
colours, and the proprietors can justly claim the theatre to be one of the most
comfortable and artistic places of amusement in the Midlands.
Some of these points were amplified and
clarified in a larger eature in the following day’s Echo, vhich told the
patrons of the revamped house that the sound-film equipment was by British
Thomson-Houston (B.TH.) of Rugby; stage lighting was by W. J. Furse, seating
and curtains by Griffin & Spalding, both of Nottingham; building work had
been carried out by Arthur Faulks of Sparrow Hill (who had been the original
builders in 1904); and the plasterwork, both plain and ornamental, was by
William Jackson & Sons, of 20a Forest Road, who had worked on both the
Victory and the Empire when they had been built. In addition —
...The stage and auditorium are not alone in their new
glory. The main entrance in Mill-street has received its share of consideration.
In the stead of the uninviting entrance, a wider, more lofty, and better
lighted foyer and passage have been constructed with a modern type of canopy
Marble linings panel the dado of the outer lobby and the floor presents a
tasteful pattern in coloured terrazzo. An important and very necessary
improvement has been the demolition of the staircase to the circle and the
construction of a wide and easy-going new staircase from the booking hall to
the circle landing, this new staircase incidentally being constructed over the
brook which flows behind the property in Mill-street. Colour lighting effects
on the stage are being introduced with duplicate control so that the footlights
can be used during the weeks that the films reign The screen is of a substance new to the cinematograph world, and
although 20 feet wide by 15 feet high is supported on a metal frame suspended
from heavy hangers, and so constructed that when not required it can be moved
to the rear of the stage as easily as a child moves its toys. A pleasing
feature of this screen is the introduction of a pair of curtains hung on the
screen frame which will be operated by the touch of a switch in the operator’s
box. A colour scheme of blue, cream, and gold has been undertaken by Messrs.
Street & Son, of Loughborough, and looks most effective and artistic. The
ceiling is of blue and cream with cloud effects while the walls are worked in
old gold with blue styles. All the woodwork of the interior and the dado are of
a rosewood colour.
From the issue of 27 November the Theatre
Royal was under the ‘Loughborough Amusements’ banner in the local newspapers, a
block of four formed by the Empire, Victory, Premier and Theatre Royal. This
block advertising arrangement remained until the closure of the Premier and
later opening of the Odeon, both in 1936.
During the 30s films were the staple diet at
the Royal, with an occasional half week of an amateur show, or a one night
boxing presentation (usually on a Monday), and the pattern was kept when C.K.
Deeming bought the owning company during 1933. War brought a greater demand for
stage shows, so most of the time then was as a theatre. After the War, the
cinema equipment was renewed, as a (misplaced, alas) vote of confidence in the
future of cinema.
Film seasons and show seasons alternated for
the rest of the theatre’s life. Most of the box office cards for shows that
played the Loughborough Theatre Royal in the post-War period are, though, of
the ‘cheeky’ type and outnumber the occasional Revue and Variety bill in the
archives. Some of the touring shows would be displaying box office cards (the
hanging advertisements that one found in pubs, shops, and so forth) that were
printed locally beside the Victory Cinema by the Echo Press, as they had
somehow built up a considerable sideline in theatrical printing, as well as
publishing the Loughborough Echo.
Deeming leased the Theatre Royal in the summer of 1951 to Edgar M. Gain, who kept the vaudeville and play policy—but not, alas, for long. He was a theatre-struck bachelor in his forties, who unfortunately suffered from epilepsy. After a promising start, his money gave out and he defaulted on payment, so the Circuit had to take the theatre back. In fact (as Edward Deeming pointed out in a letter to the author), the Deemings tried virtually every form of stage entertainment to keep the theatre alive and profitable—the Harry Hanson Repertory Company (The Court Players), variety, revues, puppet shows, pantomimes, circuses, and local dramatic and operatic society productions—even the rather highbrow Midland Theatre Company for one week in three under the artistic direction of Anthony John. The Deemings concluded that a town with a population (then) of only 33,000 was too small to support a year-round theatre. The article in the Loughborough Echo that announced the sale by the Deeming Circuit of the Empire and Victory cinemas also said:
Thousands of pounds were “sunk” in the
Theatre Royal, but whether showing films, “straight” plays or revue it never
really proved financially successful. The last professional shows there were
the Christmas pantomimes of the 1951 season, since when, apart from amateur
productions, the theatre has been closed. Now it appears that the Loughborough
Amateur Operatic Society’s production Merrie England, showing
there this week, will be the last show to be staged at the Theatre Royal, which
will cease to be a place of entertainment.’
And so it proved. On the 1962 Ordinance
Survey map, the site was designated as a warehouse. It was used for storage by
several firms (including the local amusement arcade firm Thomas Automatics who
moved from the former Regent Theatre) until they moved out in 1971. It then lay
derelict until being almost entirely demolished finally in July 1972 — still
owned by the Deemings. The empty site was sold in November ’72 and a Kwik-save
store built – now Peacock’s. A five-foot high corner of the upstage left wall
remains in Packe Street to define the lorry park. The sawn-off joists of the
stage can still be seen. Such is the site where the young Julie Andrews sang
with her parents, and Norman Wisdom earned £5 per week.
 |
The closed
Theatre Royal frontage. It stood for nearly twenty years after closure
before demolition in the 70s. The auditorium was rented out as a store,
first, to the next-door department store Clemerson’s, and then to Jimmy
Thomas for slot machine storage. On the left ajoins the cottage occupied
for many years by the Resident Stage Manager, George Chesney and his wife Joan. Their son, Grant,
was born there, who was to spend 40 years in local cinema before his
untimely in 2000. |
The
Temperance Hall
Built in 1900, it was used for a variety of activities, including bazaars, parties, dances, and cinematograph displays. With the passing of the 1909 Cinematograph Act, a permanent iron fire-proof projection box was installed, making this Loughborough’s first full-time cinema.
The front and the rear
of the Temperance Hall. The entrance to the upper floor cinema was around the left-hand
corner of the façade. Perhaps the upper window and turret became the projection
box and rewind room. To the rear, the four windows of the hall, and the
louvres of the exhaust flue for the gas-lighting can be seen.
Photographs taken 1990 by the author.
With the building of the Victory, in 1921, it became the Palais de Danse. Later it was bought by the local auctioneer firm Garton’s, and was used for offices and sales. It still stands today.
The Picture Playhouse
Built as a skating rink on the site of the burned-out New Theatre, the cinema operation opened on 26th Oct 1912, and ran under various names and owners until 1927, when it became the Premier dance hall. The Regal was proposed for the site in 1930, but was never built. After the Empire opened, with ball-room, Deeming sold the Premier to the College. When the College moved out of town it was demolished, and the site is part of Sainsbury’s access road.
The Empire
The Empire was a purpose-built cine-variety house, opening on Monday 14 September 1914, and fronting on to the Cattle Market. It seated about 1,000. Unfortunately no photographs are known of this building, either inside or out.
The
scenery has been carried out by Messrs. Dobson & Spencer, Bradford, and
will agreeably enhance the first-class variety turns which the management have
booked .... the Hall is equipped with one of the latest cinematograph machines,
which gives steady and flickerless pictures, while an orchestra will also be in
attendance, under the leadership of Mr. H. J. Haworth, of Loughborough.
The Empire’s first advertisement (shewn
right) appeared in the Loughborough Echo of 11 Sept 1914, in the same issue
as the above passage. For the
opening, Halleys Komets (15 in number was boasted in the newspaper) ‘presented
their Original Vocal and Patriotic Scena, entitled A Garden Revue’. The films were changed twice a week, and were
interspersed with variety turns which stayed for the whole week. Prices were
advertised as ‘popular’, at 3d., 6d., 9d., and is. In addition, early doors
could be taken at 6-45 & 8-45 for 4d., 8d., ls., and ls 3d. On
the following Sunday, a Grand PATRIOTIC CONCERT was billed, with proceeds to go
to the National Relief Fund.
By March 1915, performances at the Empire were continuous daily from 3 to 10.30, and on Saturday from 5— 10.30. Tea and biscuits were served free daily except for Saturday, when there was a children’s’ matinee at 2.30. The telephone apparatus was still connected: now with two numbers being 43 for the Picture House and 519 for the Cafe (the original single number had been 103).
In a letter to the present author, the Loughburian Mr. Fred Edgington, a long-time stalwart of the Male Voice Choir, who as such sang on stage at the New Empire, recalled ‘The old EMPIRE Cinema during the First World War’:
Memories of visits on occasional Saturday
mornings when I would be about 7 or 8 years old are still vivid. I think the
cost would be the old twopence. We could not afford fruit, and sweets etc. were
quite out of the question. So a raw carrot to chew was quite a luxury! Film
stars were Eddie Polo, Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton to name a
few. There was usually a serial, which always ended with the heroine left in an
impossible situation such as being tied to the railway line with a train fast
approaching. Then flashed across the screen were the words “See next week’s
thrilling instalment.” These were the days of the silent film, with a lone
pianist thumping out the effects.
The façade was rebuilt in 1929, with new café and kitchen, and we have day and night photographs of this appearance. A B. T-H. sound system was installed in 1931, later than the Victory. In 1933 the then owner, Percy Oswin (also connected with the City Cinema, Leicester), sold the Empire, Victory, and Theatre Royal, all running under the Universal Car Company, Ltd., to Charles Knight Deeming, who had run the Coalville Grand since 1920. Managers telephoned the daily takings to Head Office by means of a code based on the ten letters of Oswin’s name – which continued under Deeming.
The Victory
The Victory, on Biggin Street near the Market Place, was opened on Friday 16th September 1921. The Loughborough Echo reported this event, being led by the -
... Mayor-elect (Coun. Armstrong), who congratulated
the town upon having so large and so up-to-date a picture house, and the
proprietors, the Universal Car Co., Leicester, upon their enterprise. He was
sure everyone would wish them success in the venture. That firm was also the
proprietor of the Empire Cinema and Restaurant. The architect, Mr. Albert
Edward Bullock, A.R.I.B.A., of the firm of Messrs. Albert E. Bullock and
Jeeves, of 141 New Bond-street, London, gave a lucid description of the
building, which, he stated, was planned upon theatre lines in a free Greek
design, in which the details of every feature had received special attention.
The window glazing, door frames, metal furniture, and plaster work occupied the
architect’s continual supervision, and the colour scheme of Greek blue and
gold, was arranged to give the most soothing effect in comparison with the
object of the screen and its attraction. The seating capacity exceeds 1,000
people, and the cost of erection, including special electric plant, is over
£30,000. A feature of the scheme is the special attention to the concealed
lighting, which is confined principally to the main cornice, with subsidiary
lamps fixed at salient points under the gallery. The crush hall is made in
mahogany and bronze, with a specially designed tiled floor of pale colours in
keeping with the general tone of other parts of the building. The contractors
were Wm. Moss and Sons, Ltd., and the plaster work of local execution from the
architect’s design with the exception of the front columns and cement
enrichments to the tower. Messrs. Armstrong and son supplied the carpeting of
the whole auditorium, which with the spacious seating accommodation forms a
distinct feature, and ensures the comfort of the audience. Three houses of over
one thousand each time attended the opening day, the proprietors generously
giving the entertainment free, while a collection for the Loughborough Hospital
obtained over £71 for the funds of that institution....The directors of the
company were represented by Mr Clarke, the originator of the cinema, and Mr. P.
Oswin, who has been most assiduous in securing a success in the erection and
also in the opening. Mr. Higgins, who was at one time manager of the Empire,
has been appointed manager of the Victory. During the day, music was given by a
small orchestra conducted by Mrs. Garrett.
The cinema included a boardroom on the
first-floor, for which there had
been no provision at the Empire, complete with a large polished oval table for the use of the company directors. Either
then or later, there was space behind the screen end of the cinema for a car
park. There is no record of the
opening film programme, and the first display advertisement appeared the day of
the opening — there seems to have been no prior press publicity With prices at
9d & 1/- for the stalls and 1/3d & 1/7d for the balcony, the first film
advertised was for the following Monday (19th September), and was
Mary Pickford in Pollyanna. Performances were to be continuous every
evening from 6 to 10.30, with a matinée on Saturdays at 2.30: special prices
were for children accompanied by their parents every Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday. Of the decorations mentioned in the account of the building and its
opening, the auditorium saucer dome had lions heads cast by Mr Page of
Johnson’s Stone Works, Forest Road. The metal edge of the canopy over the
entrance doors also had lion heads on the front under the glazing.
In the issue of the ‘Echo’ of the 22nd
November 1929, under the headlines
THE REAL “TALKIES” FOR LOUGHBOROUGH –
Expensive Installation at Victory Cinema
an announcement was made that the Western Electric sound system was
being installed. This was the first sound-on-film system, not the Vitaphone
sound-on-disc machinery used by the Warner Brothers’ for the Jolson films The
Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool. The opening sound attraction was
the Columbia Studio’s “All Talking Mystery Thriller The Donovan Affair” for
the week of 2nd Monday
December 1929, supported by Carl Brisson and Mimi Crawford in Chelsea Nights
— ‘a musical cameo’. This was, in fact, Columbia’s first feature-length
talkie. In the press Mr. Percy Oswin, the Managing Director, reported that in
view of the expense involved not only in the installation, but also in renting
the product, the prices were going to be increased from the silent ones of 5d.,
8d., 1/- & 1/3d; to 8d & 1/- in the stalls; l/6d reserved & 1/3d
unreserved in the balcony.
At the same time, the two houses a night
system was instituted, with three performances on Saturday. The box office was
open daily for reserving seats from 9.30 to 12.30 and 5 to 10 pm. The last
night of silent films was celebrated at 7.45 on Sunday December 1st 1929 by a
special performance of The Business Girl with all proceeds going to the
St. John Ambulance Fund. Still under the heading ‘The Real “Talkies” For
Loughborough’, in addition to what has been quoted earlier, the Echo of
November 22nd was:
...able to announce
exclusively that Mr Percy Oswin, managing director of the Victory Cinema, has
decided to install one of the finest talking picture sets in the country and
similar to the sets which are installed in the Tivoli (Leicester-square) and
other leading picture houses in London, such as the Plaza, New Regent, New
Gallery, and the Regal. Mr Oswin, ...said the apparatus was being installed by
the Western Electric company and that it would cost several thousands of
pounds Eleven men are busily engaged
in installing the new apparatus, which contain many intricate and interesting
parts. The installation will require considerable alteration in the structure
of the building, particularly where the screen apparatus will be. New film
machines will have to be installed and the whole principle of the showing of
the pictures will be on an entirely new basis. Following the rebuilding of the
Empire Cinema, this is another example of the up-to-date methods employed by Mr
Oswin in his various business activities in Loughborough.
The members of the orchestra (called the
Victory Quartette in 1927) displaced by talkies were moved across to augment
the Empire orchestra, with the Managing Director telling the press that no
musician’s job would be lost. They were out of work, of course, like nearly all
the others throughout the country a year later when the Empire, in turn, was
equipped for sound.
For
the week of Monday 7 November, 1938 the advertisement reads: ‘SPECIAL NOTICE!
On and after Monday November 14, the Victory Cinema will be closed for
alterations, re-seating and re-decoration, etc. Watch for further
announcements.’ The alterations took seven weeks, a long time to be
closed for a commercial undertaking. The cinema re-opened with 1,200 seats as
The New Victory on Boxing Day 1938 with, as the bills read:
GIGANTIC OPENING PROGRAMME It Will Sweep You Along in A Rushing Torrent
of Drama! GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT GEORGE BRENT * OLIVIA de HAVILLAND CLAUDE
RAINS * MARGARET LINDSAY for six days (Matinees Mondays, Wednesdays, and
Saturdays at 2-15p.m.: Evenings continuous from 5.30p.m.)
A
popular feature of the revamped rear circle was the provision of double seats
in the two back rows for the delectation of courting couples. These had such
intensive use that James Hubbard, one patron of the facility in the ’50s,
recalls that the seats had slipped and sloped down—unwary cinéastes could be
precipitated onto the floor!
In 1953 Charles Deeming, having closed the Theatre Royal, sold the Victory and Empire Cinemas to the then-expanding Newcastle based Essoldo group. In the newspaper article concerning the sale of the cinemas, Deeming listed the long-serving members of the Victory staff: Mr Walter Swainson, chief projectionist, 32 years; Mr Edwin S Jones, manager, 18 years; and Mrs Weger, cashier and secretary, 10 years. Also, before he retired in 1952, Mr Henry P Higgins had served for 32 years, originally at the Empire, then the first Victory manager, later being promoted to the New Empire as its manager in 1936.
The Essoldo circuit did, however, provide the
Loughborough Victory with one claim to fame. It was only the second cinema (the
first being the Company’s flagship, the Essoldo, Westgate, Newcastle upon Tyne)
to have the automatic timing system installed which had been invented by Jim
Speirs, an Essoldo circuit engineer. The system was named ‘Essoldomatic’, and
changed the projectors over at the end of each spool (approximately 20
minutes), closed the screen tabs, brought up the colour display lighting,
followed by the house lights — and all this without the need for an operator to
be in the box. The system was later sold, and the idea, under different names
such as ‘Projectamatic’ and ‘Cinemation’ was in common use throughout the
exhibition side of the industry in the late 60s and 70s, including the
present-day Curzon. With a national circuit as owners, a boardroom was no
longer necessary, so Oswin’s room and its large, polished, oval table became a
sales store, with outers of sweets and confectionery piled where the Directors
had formerly met. This situation lasted until the cinema closed.
By the late fifties the Victory was very much the third cinema of the town, and at a time when cinemas and film studios were closing, sometimes it must have been difficult to get product. In some ways, for a town of this size, it is remarkable that it stayed open as late as it did. After all, although revamped in 1938, it was still basically a 1921 cinema, whereas the 1936 Empire and Odeon were Art Deco palaces by comparison. On the other hand, a former patron, Mr Brian Russell, remembers the Victory not only with affection, but with practicality, stating that he still considers the Victory to have been the town’s best cinema for the house acoustics and standards of projection, and that he always preferred to see a film there rather than the two 1936 Supers. This attitude is bolstered by a comment by Charles Deeming, quoted in the Loughborough Echo obituary of him in 1978 — “At Loughborough, the high class films went to the Victory, and the more popular pictures such as cowboys and Indians to the Empire”.
It was closed very suddenly by Essoldo on Tuesday 16 January 1967, in the middle of the run of The Exterminator. No warning had been given. The property company formed by Essoldo quickly moved in an the building was demolished. By the early summer the site was vacant, and a super-market built.
Although this
tenancy did not last for many years, the substitute building is still there,
now split into several shop units.
