The Regal went over to bingo from Monday October 16th, however films returned from November 27th with what were described as “2 in one cine-bingo” sessions on Monday and Saturday with films only the rest of the week.
The Gaumont was Rank’s only city centre cinema in Dundee. During the fifties it played the Gaumont release while the usually superior Odeon release played at the Kinnaird. Playhouse and La Scala (the “Odeon Dundee” was a poorly located second run house). From 1959 when Rank reorganised its releases the Gaumont was designated the Rank release house, leaving the independents to pick up the inferior National release.
It is somewhat surprising that Rank didn’t take the opportunity to re-name the Gaumont to Odeon after the six week closure for refurbishment in 1961. The Odeon could have reverted to its original name, which would have been perfectly well suited to its second run status.
The “Odeon Dundee” was situated over a mile north of the city centre and was not a first run cinema. It played the Odeon and later Rank release a few weeks after the city centre cinemas, usually not opening until after five in the afternoon. Rank’s principal cinema was the Gaumont which in the fifties played the Gaumont release but from 1959 played the Rank release.
On line newspaper archives show that the Capitol was advertised as a J. B. Milne cinema until Saturday May 2nd 1959. On Monday May 4th ABC were advising that the Capitol was closed for installation of Todd AO.
The ABC Capitol reopened with South Pacific on Monday May 25th 1959.
A rather strange photo. The building to the right of the entrance is nothing to do with the cinema, the auditorium of which lies at right angles to the street behind the building on the left of the entrance.
Let us be clear about the assertion that “ABC” took over Odeon. Odeon was taken over by a venture capitalist company, Cinven, which already owned the final iteration of the ABC circuit. Now owning two cinema circuits, it was inevitable that the much larger and better known Odeon would prevail.
Rank continued to operate the Plaza under that name until renaming it Odeon from Friday April 17th 1987. This was part of Managing Director Jim Whittell’s determination to focus on the Odeon brand which led to the renaming of the last Gaumonts and the change in the company’s name from Rank Theatres Ltd. to Odeon Cinemas Ltd. It was, thus, an Odeon for just its last few years.
According to the listings in the Rugby Advertiser, The Regent did not close for the CinemaScope installation. The name presumably changed for the Monday July 25th opening of Lucky Me (supporting film Red Desert). This programme played Monday to Wednesday, followed on Thursday July 28th by Green Fire (supporting film Secret Venture) which ran until Saturday. The Regent/Century seems to have been an established split week house with a separate programme of old revivals on Sundays.
Advertising in the Reading Evening Post from July 25th 1971 refers to ABC Friar Street, with ABC’s other Reading cinema becoming ABC London Road on the same date.
Perusal of the Reading Evening Post on Newspapers.com shows that the naming situation for ABC’s Reading cinemas is more complicated than stated. From the end of October 1965 the Granby is advertised as “ABC Reading”, with the Central retaining it’s name. This presumably confused people and from November 12 1967 the Granby gets it’s name back and advertising refers to ABC Central and ABC Granby. This continues until July 25th 1971 when the Central is advertised as ABC Friar Street and the Granby becomes ABC London Road.
If Studio Two stayed open during the tripling of Studio One, it did so without any advertising of programmes in the London evening papers. More likely is that it was closed for the duration of the conversion work.
According to listings in the Evening Standard archive, Studio Two closed after business on May 31st 1971 for refurbishment and re-opened as a feature film venue on June 24th 1971 with a revival of The Aristocats (Which had had an 18 week premiere run in Studio One ending on April 21st).
Recent perusal of the Evening Standard archive shows that the name change to ABC Edgware Road took place from Sunday March 21st 1965. Until this point the listing was “ABC (Regal) Harrow Road”. The Use of this theatre and the ABC Fulham Road as pre-release theatres dates from Sunday December 30th 1962.
The Healey International Car Centre was opened on July 3rd 1963 according to a report in Autocar magazine of July 12th. The opening ceremony was carried out by Alec Issigonis, designer of the Mini.
To clear up any misunderstandings, there were no pop concerts at the ABC in the 1960’s, or any other stage presentations. When the cinema was converted for Todd-AO in February 1959 the new 70mm screen was erected in front of the original proscenium and as it was not moveable the stage was rendered unusable from this time on.
Aerial photographs on the Historic England website show views of the Super in 1946 with the bulk of the auditorium roof intact (with some damage on the Ley Street side). A June 1947 view shows the auditorium roof having been removed. This is the state I remember from visits to my grandma who lived in the first surviving house at the top end of Ley Street (number 13, numbers 7, 9 and 11 having been destroyed in the V2 blast).
I see that the overview has been amended, but with the wrong closure date. The Royal closed in 1966, not 1956. From mid 1954 to 1958 the Royal was the Halifax home of 20th Century Fox CinemaScope films and the only cinema in town with 4 track mag. stereo sound. The last film advertised in stereo was a revival of Mary Poppins from Dec 26th 1965, but the early February 1966 revival of The King and I was probably the last film in stereo.
The Royal (as it was advertised in its last decade or so) closed on Saturday February 26th 1966 after a seven day run of the revival double bill Ivanhoe and Tarzan and the Mermaids. The cafe appears to been open to the end.
The Regal went over to bingo from Monday October 16th, however films returned from November 27th with what were described as “2 in one cine-bingo” sessions on Monday and Saturday with films only the rest of the week.
The Gaumont was Rank’s only city centre cinema in Dundee. During the fifties it played the Gaumont release while the usually superior Odeon release played at the Kinnaird. Playhouse and La Scala (the “Odeon Dundee” was a poorly located second run house). From 1959 when Rank reorganised its releases the Gaumont was designated the Rank release house, leaving the independents to pick up the inferior National release. It is somewhat surprising that Rank didn’t take the opportunity to re-name the Gaumont to Odeon after the six week closure for refurbishment in 1961. The Odeon could have reverted to its original name, which would have been perfectly well suited to its second run status.
The “Odeon Dundee” was situated over a mile north of the city centre and was not a first run cinema. It played the Odeon and later Rank release a few weeks after the city centre cinemas, usually not opening until after five in the afternoon. Rank’s principal cinema was the Gaumont which in the fifties played the Gaumont release but from 1959 played the Rank release.
On line newspaper archives show that the Capitol was advertised as a J. B. Milne cinema until Saturday May 2nd 1959. On Monday May 4th ABC were advising that the Capitol was closed for installation of Todd AO. The ABC Capitol reopened with South Pacific on Monday May 25th 1959.
The opening film on August 6th 1956 at the Capitol was Carousel in CinemaScope and 4 track magnetic stereophonic sound.
The cinema closed and went over to bingo in 1963, not 1983.
A rather strange photo. The building to the right of the entrance is nothing to do with the cinema, the auditorium of which lies at right angles to the street behind the building on the left of the entrance.
Rather surprisingly, until 1963 the telephone number of the ABC/Ritz was Barrow 999. During 1963 it was altered to Barrow 880.
Let us be clear about the assertion that “ABC” took over Odeon. Odeon was taken over by a venture capitalist company, Cinven, which already owned the final iteration of the ABC circuit. Now owning two cinema circuits, it was inevitable that the much larger and better known Odeon would prevail.
On the 1949 Ordnance Survey 6 inch map the Dominion is marked as a “ruin”. Wartime damage?
The reopening film after the 1962 refurbishment was HMS Defiant, not Sink the Bismarck which was two years old by then. Still a nautical theme though!
Rank continued to operate the Plaza under that name until renaming it Odeon from Friday April 17th 1987. This was part of Managing Director Jim Whittell’s determination to focus on the Odeon brand which led to the renaming of the last Gaumonts and the change in the company’s name from Rank Theatres Ltd. to Odeon Cinemas Ltd. It was, thus, an Odeon for just its last few years.
According to the listings in the Rugby Advertiser, The Regent did not close for the CinemaScope installation. The name presumably changed for the Monday July 25th opening of Lucky Me (supporting film Red Desert). This programme played Monday to Wednesday, followed on Thursday July 28th by Green Fire (supporting film Secret Venture) which ran until Saturday. The Regent/Century seems to have been an established split week house with a separate programme of old revivals on Sundays.
Advertising in the Reading Evening Post from July 25th 1971 refers to ABC Friar Street, with ABC’s other Reading cinema becoming ABC London Road on the same date.
Perusal of the Reading Evening Post on Newspapers.com shows that the naming situation for ABC’s Reading cinemas is more complicated than stated. From the end of October 1965 the Granby is advertised as “ABC Reading”, with the Central retaining it’s name. This presumably confused people and from November 12 1967 the Granby gets it’s name back and advertising refers to ABC Central and ABC Granby. This continues until July 25th 1971 when the Central is advertised as ABC Friar Street and the Granby becomes ABC London Road.
If Studio Two stayed open during the tripling of Studio One, it did so without any advertising of programmes in the London evening papers. More likely is that it was closed for the duration of the conversion work.
According to listings in the Evening Standard archive, Studio Two closed after business on May 31st 1971 for refurbishment and re-opened as a feature film venue on June 24th 1971 with a revival of The Aristocats (Which had had an 18 week premiere run in Studio One ending on April 21st).
Recent perusal of the Evening Standard archive shows that the name change to ABC Edgware Road took place from Sunday March 21st 1965. Until this point the listing was “ABC (Regal) Harrow Road”. The Use of this theatre and the ABC Fulham Road as pre-release theatres dates from Sunday December 30th 1962.
Recent perusal of the Evening Standard archive indicates that the name change to ABC Barkingside took place on Sunday October 11th 1964.
The Healey International Car Centre was opened on July 3rd 1963 according to a report in Autocar magazine of July 12th. The opening ceremony was carried out by Alec Issigonis, designer of the Mini.
According to the Evening Telegraph newspaper the change of name to Odeon appears to have happened on Sunday March 16th 1959 rather than May.
To clear up any misunderstandings, there were no pop concerts at the ABC in the 1960’s, or any other stage presentations. When the cinema was converted for Todd-AO in February 1959 the new 70mm screen was erected in front of the original proscenium and as it was not moveable the stage was rendered unusable from this time on.
Aerial photographs on the Historic England website show views of the Super in 1946 with the bulk of the auditorium roof intact (with some damage on the Ley Street side). A June 1947 view shows the auditorium roof having been removed. This is the state I remember from visits to my grandma who lived in the first surviving house at the top end of Ley Street (number 13, numbers 7, 9 and 11 having been destroyed in the V2 blast).
I see that the overview has been amended, but with the wrong closure date. The Royal closed in 1966, not 1956. From mid 1954 to 1958 the Royal was the Halifax home of 20th Century Fox CinemaScope films and the only cinema in town with 4 track mag. stereo sound. The last film advertised in stereo was a revival of Mary Poppins from Dec 26th 1965, but the early February 1966 revival of The King and I was probably the last film in stereo.
The Royal (as it was advertised in its last decade or so) closed on Saturday February 26th 1966 after a seven day run of the revival double bill Ivanhoe and Tarzan and the Mermaids. The cafe appears to been open to the end.