Palladium Cinema

Nice to see the picture of John Hughes the Chief projectionist above my introductory contribution on the Palladium,I guess Mr Morris Jones posted it, anyway it’s very good.I also have a photo somewhere of John, when I find it I’ll try to include it on this site.

The film advertised on the still box is probably the"Dragnet" that was released in 1947,the tv series with Jack Webb according to IMDB started in 1951.

I was also interested in Mr Morris'comment about changing the records on the single 78 rpm turntable in the minimum amount of time, as a schoolboy I always wondered how the Town Hall Cinema (Neuadd Dwyfor)were able to play continuous music,I soon found out when I started there as a trainee projectionist,it never occured to Me that they had two turntables.

My uncle, J E (Jack) Lewis, was the manager of the Palladium Cinema. I spent much of my summer holidays in Pwllheli in the operating box – a hot and noisy place where the clatter of the Gaumont Kalee projectors was almost overwhelmed by the volume of the film audio coming from a speaker with the level cranked up to the max. There was a first and second house each evening with matinees on Saturdays (for children) and at midweek. Each house closed with a film of the National Anthem – a short film of the Queen trooping the colour with the anthem playing on the sound track. The audience always stood up at this point. Another job for the projectionist was to operate the switch to start the curtains closing. Because they took a while to close (the screen was a big one) this had to be done on the word at the point in the national anthem where the word “victorious” would have been sung. If he got it right the curtains would be fully closed by the time the anthem ended. There sound track was just a military band so the projectionist had to mentally “sing” the anthem in his head whilst the film ran in order to flick the switch at the right point. Interval music was played in from 78rpm discs on a single turntable. Again it was a challenge to the manual dexterity of the projectionst (or more usually the assistant projectionist) to minimise the time between the end of one record and the start of the next.The new record was slid down onto the turntable from the left forearm of the projectionist whilst his left hand removed the old record and his right hand moved the arm of the gramophone. With practice there was a barely discernible gap between the two records. The key job was to look after the 35mm film. The feature movie changed every two days – so there was a new programme to be put together every two days – along with shorts, travelogues, documentaries, (like the March of Time) and cartoons (eg “Mighty Mouse” or “Tom and Jerry”. When each new batch of features and shorts arrived at the Palladium (delivered in metal containers in special fireproof delivery vans) they were run through on a winder before being put in sequence into one of a numbered rank of specially-made fireproof metal cupboards. Every join in the film was checked by John by hand and usually remade by him with film cement to make sure it didn’t break during the performance. (He never trusted the joins made by other projectionists on the Paramount Circuit) When the show started it was a matter of starting at reel one and going on, reel by reel, until the end (the National Athem) . Each reel would be taken out in sequence, threaded into the projector. As the previous reel on the other projector came to an end e a round dot mark would appear on the top right hand of the screen. This was the signal to run the second projector and operate the lever to open the metal plate which protected the film from the hot light of the arc lamp. The projectionist then had to watch for the second “dot” (top right hand of the screen again). This was the change-over signal – the point at which interconnected shutters were simultaneously operated on both prokectors – cutting off the light from the first projector and allowing the light from the from the second projector to hit the screen. The light in each projector was generated by carbon arcs encased in glass which gradually burned down during each run. An automatic feed system kept the carbons towards the incandescent burn point – but they also needed constant manual adjustment to ensure the light was at the optimum. This was gauged by a simple transluscent indicator on the side of the projector which showed where the burn point was in relation to the optimum position. The Palladium showed Pathe newsreels which arrived by Crosville bus – but which were sometimes up to 13 days old. The manager – Jack Lewis – always complained to head office when this happened The Palladium also had a cafe at first floor level which was open all day and was a favourite haunt of local retired sea-captains who used to meet there for coffee most mornings.

Just noticed that in my introductory posting on the Palladium, I stated that it was demolished in the late 1980’s, typing error should have been 1990’s.

Here is a photo from 1991 during the supermarket years, It’s not the same without the name Palladium on that white wall.
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The late John Hughes Palladium’s chief projectionist was an excellent self taught tv engineer, probably the most knowledgable in town.
He could be quite witty, he once told me during the run of ‘The Longest Day’ “another week of this and I would have been suffering from shell shock” !.

I also remember the school trips to the cinema, another one during the same year as The Conquest Of Everest (1953) was the Coronation Of Queen Elizabeth II, not a film to hold the attention of us under 11’s.

The Palladium was probably struggling like most cinemas when it closed, but it i’m not sure it would have closed when it did, that is 7 years before the rest of the curcuit.

It did not close only to stand empty for years like many others, they had an offer from Kwik Save supermarkets, probably an offer they could not refuse,the local council looked into the possibility of purchasing the building, but as I understand it they can have grants for refurbishing a building they own but not for buying one.

The council were already running the Town Hall cinema in the town, and would have replaced it with the palladium. However even if they could have bought it I don’t think they would have, as most councillors in those days like many other people thought that cinemas were things of the past. Who would of forecasted today’s multiplexes springing up everywhere ?

The Palladium converted to Cinemascope in 1956 one year after Pwllheli’s other cinema The Town Hall (now Neuadd Dwyfor)and in order to ensure that they had a bigger screen than the opposition they did something different to their other cinemas,they erected the screen in front of the proscenium arch.

The screen curtains reached from wall to wall, which I thought was rather untidy,(but then some would say that I would say that as I was a projectionist at the other cinema! !)actually I grew up a stone’s throw from the Palladium and thought the world of the place.

The first Cinemascope film to be screened at the Palladium was ‘Ferry To Hong Kong'starring Curt Jurgens.also 1956 was the year Palladium celebrated it’s 21st anniversary.