Article submitted by
Roger Mellor
British movie theatres
This is not entirely unrelated to PnP, as these were the buildings where
their films were first shown ....
There is a magic about these old cinemas (viz Grauman's Chinese Theatre
in LA), which is completely lacking in the multiplexes of today, which to
my mind look more like branches of Safeways or Tescos ....... And I do miss
the Cinema organists (like Dennis Price in ACT) of yesteryear, who used
to rise up on an elevator, as they were playing, in the intermission between
the B film and the A film .....
Those were the days!
I hope these articles are of interest to at least some members of the list
.....
Roger Mellor
From: History Today March, 2000
Efforts to save historic British movie theatres
Author: Allen Eyles
English Heritage's Generic Survey of surviving cinema buildings last year
resulted in a proposal to list thirty more examples as being of special
architectural or historic interest and to invite the public to submit further
cases for consideration. Now the selection goes to Chris Smith, the Secretary
of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to make the final decision on whether
they should be added to the 124 cinema buildings already listed.
Yet is the whole exercise happening far too late? Of the thirty, buildings
chosen, only seven are still operating as cinemas. They range in style from
the Gate, Notting Hill, with its auditorium of fruity Edwardian plasterwork,
to the streamlined, colourful Art Deco of the Regent in Lyme Regis (1937).
There is also the Phoenix in East Finchley which opened in 1910 but was
extensively rebuilt in 1938. The Tyneside in Newcastle (1937) was the News
Theatre when it opened, and showed newsreels and shorts only.
In addition to the new listing, it is proposed to upgrade eight of the cinema
buildings already listed. Only two of them still show films: the Electric
Palace in Harwich (1911), and the ABC (formerly Granada) in Walthamstow
(1930). The Granada, Tooting (1931), now a Gala bingo hall, and generally
recognised as the most spectacular cinema built in Britain, is being put
forward for the highest status of all, Grade I.
Where listed cinemas still show films, it is possible to gain some sense
of the traditional experience of "going to the pictures" in which the surroundings
were part of the attraction. Of course, much has changed in recent decades.
No longer are we guided to seats by usherettes, entering at any time during
continuous performances. No longer do shows last three hours or more with
two features and a newsreel. The projection beam cutting through the cigarette
smoke of a crowded cinema is also a memory.
In addition, it is now almost impossible to see a film in a really large
auditorium. With the advent of extended runs and the wide choice at the
modern multiplex, the large single screen cinema is an anomaly. The unlisted
Odeon Leicester Square with its 1,974 seats, now partially restored to its
1937 glory, is the exception, but its viability is helped by the addition
of five mini-cinemas alongside. Yet in the heyday of picture-going there
were more than 200 cinemas in Britain that seated over 2,000 people. The
large cinema buildings that survive are now mostly bingo halls -- including
the biggest picture palace built in England, the 4,004-seat Gaumont State
in Kilburn (1937), now a Mecca bingo club. Some are live theatres, like
the Gaumont Palace, Hammersmith (1932) and, London's New Victoria (1930),
both of which are Apollo theatres. Many cinemas had already been adapted
for bingo or other uses when they were listed, but often consent has been
given for extensive "reversible" alterations. In bingo halls, the stalls
floor has usually been levelled or stepped, the orchestra pit floored over,
the stage opened up as an extension of the main floor, the walls redecorated
in bright colours and the level of lighting raised.
It is the smaller cinemas seating under 1,000 that have survived in greater
numbers. Three of those proposed for listing -- the Gate, Phoenix and Tyneside
cinemas -- are run as "art houses" where the period features are appreciated
by their more sophisticated audiences.
Many larger cinemas have not escaped from the dire reputation they gained
during the decline of the cinema in the 1960s and 1970s when brash modernisation
schemes and awkward conversions to multi-screen operation resulted in high
prices, botched decor and often poor sightlines. It took the launch of the
multiplex from 1985 onwards to give cinema-going a fresh start, to appeal
to the 15-35-year-olds that form the core audience. A new multiplex is usually
the kiss of death to an old cinema in the same area, no matter how well
maintained, and recent planning guidelines have made matters worse by forcing
most new multiplex schemes into city centres near existing cinemas rather
than siting them in out-of-town retail parks. This problem affects two of
the cinemas proposed for recent listing: a scheme has already been agreed
to replace the Odeon Newcastle with a multiplex a short distance away, and
two rival multiplexes due to open this spring in Wood Green, north London,
threaten the profitability, of the nearby three-screen Odeon Muswell Hill,
the most spectacular Art Deco cinema in London, on which any further investment
has been halted until the extent of the damage has been established.
Odeon has failed to consider whether its Muswell Hill outlet, and others
like it, would fare better if restored to their original glory and marketed
as an alternative to the multiplex. Independent exhibitors have found that
audiences enjoy old-fashioned cinemas -- at the beautifully restored 1911
Ritzy in Brixton, managing director Claire Binns reports that there are
exclamations of delight when people first walk into the auditorium.
Does cinema listing work? It certainly helps to keep many functioning cinemas
open. Where buildings are in other uses, it preserves the essential decorative
features of an interior as they were at the time of listing, but it has
not usually been able to protect the cinema ambience, dependent on subtle
lighting schemes and subdued colours. What seems most regrettable is that
listing has often failed to prevent the removal of the cinema screen and
projection equipment. Few if any listed cinemas are likely to return to
showing films as their principal activity, but many large US movie palaces,
including the Fox, Atlanta, and Paramount, Oakland, have been painstakingly
restored for varied arts and community use and have found occasional special
film presentations to be well attended.
It may happen in Britain if current plans to restore the large Plaza Stockport
are successful. And there are signs that the National Trust might be prepared
to add an outstanding cinema or two to its list of historic properties.
Last summer, a Sunday afternoon bingo session at the former Gaumont State,
Kilburn, was replaced by a film show as part of the Camden Arts Festival
with the Wurlitzer organ accompanying a silent feature, and over 1,000 people
attended. The Cinema Theatre Association, the national society for devotees
of the cinema building, is exploring ways of re-introducing films at other
venues where they have not been seen for decades.
History Today
Feb, 1998
Return of the super cinema in the United Kingdom
Author: Barry Doyle
The revival of the cinema-going habit in Britain continues to gather momentum.
Despite a minor blip in 1995, audience figures have been on a steady upward
curve since their 1984 record low of 54 million and all indicators suggest
1997 could register the highest number of admissions since the early 1970s.
Though this recovery is the result of a number of inter-related factors
-- pricing, product, the impact of video -- most commentators are agreed
that much of the credit must go to the importation of American multiplex
cinemas, purpose built cinemas with five or more screens, the first of which
-- the ten-screen Point in Milton Keynes -- opened its doors in 1985. Britain
now has around a hundred multiplexes -- usually situated in out-of-town
sites, surrounded by shops and other leisure facilities -- commanding over
half of all admissions. The overall improvement in the cinema infrastructure
which has accompanied their appearance bears fruitful comparison with the
1930s, a similar era in cinema building and expanding attendance. In the
late 1920s two factors -- the arrival of sound and the imposition, following
the collapse of the British film industry in the face of US competition,
of a state-regulated minimum quota for the screening of British-made films
-- set in train a massive upgrading of the cinema stock, heralding the age
of the "super cinema".
Epitomised by the Odeons of Oscar Deutsch (a Birmingham scrap metal dealer
and entrepreneur who hit on the idea of branding his cinemas by building
each one in a similar recognisable style),
[It was often said that "Odeon" stood for "Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our
Nation]
hundreds of new cinemas were built between 1930 and 1940, either upgrading
existing facilities or as wholly new ventures. Some of these new buildings,
like the Astorias in various parts of working-class London, were exotic
extravaganzas reflecting the dream world projected on the screens, whilst
others, especially the Odeons with their Art Deco styling, celebrated the
modernity of film. The super cinemas, with their greatly enhanced seating
capacity, facilitated rapid growth in the audience for film, with admissions
rising from 900 million in 1934 -- the first year of reliable statistics
-- to an all-time peak of 1,635 million in 1946, making the British, on
average, the most avid cinema-goers ever. But then decline set in, with
audience figures plummeting to 501 million in 1960, 200 million in 1970
and 100 million by 1980. As admissions fell, so did the number of cinemas,
from around 4,500 in 1955 to 1,500 in 1970 when many of the remaining city-centre
super cinemas were either closed down or split up into two-, three- or four-screen
venues. By the time the nadir of cinema attendance was reached in 1984,
Britain could boast only 1,200 screens in 660 sites -- a quarter of the
early 1950s' peak. Historians of film have identified a number of factors
germane to this decline.
Central to the phenomenon was the availability of alternative leisure pursuits,
especially television from the mid-1950s. Slum clearance and the suburbanisation
of the post-war population aggravated the effects of television and encouraged
site closures, while the decline in public transport, fear of crime and
the problems of taking a car into town at night all served to discourage
use of the remaining city-centre cinemas. The fall in demand led producers,
distributors and exhibitors to concentrate on maximising profits by focusing
on the adult (especially male), lower middle-class market. In the late 1960s
and throughout the 1970s, seat prices rose faster than inflation and became
more uniform, while the number of films available for children and families
decreased substantially. It was thus in a very depressed climate that the
American company AMC (now UCI) launched its bid to revolutionise the UK
cinema exhibition market with the opening of the Milton Keynes multiplex.
But what are the similarities and differences between the 1990s multiplex
and the 1930s super cinema? There certainly are considerable similarities.
Both resulted in extensive new investment in the exhibition industry, designed
to attract new audiences by relocating cinemas to areas which would command
the largest possible attendance. Deutsch's Odeons were constructed on main
roads close to bus and tram stops, or in the new middle-class suburbs and
were aimed at a more affluent and respectable audience who would not consider
patronising the "fleapits" which served working-class neighbourhoods.
The modern multiplex had a similar goal of opening up the post-war suburban
hinterland by providing extensive, safe car-parking and ease of access to
the mobile middle classes who had stopped using the traditional cinema.
Both the super cinema and the multiplex aimed to improve the film-going
experience by providing a cleaner, more comfortable environment, improved
levels of service and a range of ancillary products. In the latter case,
the 1930s cinemas offered smart cafes where film-goers could meet before
or after the performance, as well as concessions to provide ice-cream, sweets
and cigarettes which not only improved the service, but were also highly
lucrative to the exhibitor.
The multiplex has revived many of these facilities, with fast food outlets,
cafes and bars, whilst the Virgin cinema chain has added film shops where
movie goers can purchase a variety of film-related products. The revolution
in exhibition infrastructure was in part stimulated by a change in the product.
The 1930s saw both the triumph of the talkies and a revival in British film
production under the auspices of the quota and the entrepreneurship of men
like the émigré film producer Alexander Korda; whose successes
included the Oscar winning Private Life of Henry VIII. Meanwhile, the last
fifteen years have seen the re-emergence of the "family" film and a more
vigorous courting of the teenage market. Sex and violence have been toned
down -- even action and adventure films aimed at the over fifteens carrying
PG or 12 certificates -- whilst the return of the "family" film has allowed
the multiplexes to copy another innovation of the super cinemas -- audience
building through special programmes for children.
The rapid success of both the multiplex and the super cinema gave them a
privileged position with the key distributors and allowed both to dominate
the "first run". circuit. Yet they also provided a new outlet for films
marginalised by the existing exhibitors. Though Hollywood has always dominated
the British market, with wordy, middle-brow British films rarely appealing
to the mass audience, the audience profile of the super cinemas and the
flexibility of the multiplex encouraged both to show British films. Films
such as Victoria the Great in the 1930s and Much Ado about Nothing in the
1990s certainly would not have reached such a wide audience in the fleapits
of the 1920s or the mainstream cinemas of the 1970s and 1980s. in part,
this reflects the ability of both venues to attract anew film audience --
older, middle class, better educated and with a more equal gender balance
-- though in the case of the multiplex this has proved an unexpected bonus.
Another common link between the two forms of cinema is that both created
largely unfounded fears of redundancy for the traditional cinema sector.
When Simon Rowson, statistician and President of the British Kinematograph
Society, conducted the first serious statistical study of the exhibition
industry in 1934, he viewed the appearance of the super cinema as a distinct
threat to the existing neighbourhood exhibitor. Yet it was almost twenty
years before his fears came to fruition, the number of cinemas in operation
in 1952 being greater than in 1934. Similarly, modern commentators have
claimed that the multiplex would force the old city centre cinemas out of
business, yet this does not appear to have happened to any great extent.
Certainly some traditional cinemas have gone out of business, but at a slower
rate than before 1985, and often without multiplex competition, whilst there
is evidence that new city centre cinemas are opening -- though increasingly
these are targeting specialised markets such as "art house" and the Asian
community.
The most obvious difference between super cinema and multiplex is architectural.
Whereas the Astorias and Odeons were a statement -- the physical embodiment
of cinema's potential for fantasy and modernity -- most multiplexes copy
the retail park "rustic" of the surrounding superstores, while inside they
are more akin to an airport terminal than a Doge's Palace. Yet their unpretentious
architecture provides an important link with the other cinema market of
the 1930s and 1940s -- the small, cheap fleapits of the working-class neighbourhoods.
For, though the super cinemas have grabbed the historical limelight, sites
with over 1,000 seats accounted for only a third of the 4,500 cinemas in
the country and were disproportionately concentrated in London and the south-east.
By boosting the number of screens to 2,100 the highest figure since the
1960s, whilst restricting the number of seats per screen to around 250,
the multiplex has recaptured the intimacy and profitability of the neighbourhood
cinemas which dominated the working-class towns of mid-century Britain.
They have also revived another important element of these sites by introducing
a flexible pricing policy. The super cinemas traded on their respectability
to increase prices, while their close links with the major circuits such
as ABC and Odeon led to the standardisation of pricing policy across the
day, the week and the country.
The modern multiplex has reversed this trend, setting prices which reflect
local conditions -- such as age profile and levels of unemployment -- and
grading prices according to time of performance and location within the
cinema. Furthermore, an element of flexibility has been restored to programming.
In the early 1950s, the Board of Trade statisticians H. E. Browning and
A. A. Sorrell found that many of the small neighbourhood cinemas continued
to show only one film per performance, but changed the programme two or
even three times a week. However, one of the major contributions of the
super cinema was the standardisation of the double feature, six-day programme,
a system which became even more rigid in the 1960s and 1970s as distributors
enforced longer runs on mainstream exhibitors. The increased number of screens
in multiplexes allows them both to show more films, and move films around
depending on popularity, while the competition they provide to the traditional
sector has forced the Government to restrict the power of the distributors
to demand long runs.
The result is more films on show at any one time -- even if these films
are drawn from a fairly narrow range of Hollywood mainstream pictures. Offering
a large number of films within easy reach of each other has thus helped
to recreate the "habit" of cinema-going which was always more closely linked
to the neighbourhood cinema than the super-cinemas which served the middle
classes and "special occasion" market. The state of the market and the key
players in the building boom are also markedly different now from sixty
years ago. When the super cinemas began to appear in the early 1930s cinema
was already established as a boom industry, selling around 70 million tickets
per month: when the Point opened in 1985 the annual total was 54 million.
Furthermore, the super cinemas were largely the work of British entrepreneurs
like Oscar Deutsch, who raised the initial capital for each new cinema in
the locality. The lion's share of the investment in multiplexes, however,
has come from America. It is only in the last three years, with the take-over
of MGM by Virgin and the launch of Cine-UK, that British business has entered
the multiplex market with any enthusiasm.
The success of the multiplex lies in its ability to recapture the best features
of the 1930s cinema experience -- combining the choice, flexibility and
cheapness of the fleapit with the service, comfort and convenience of the
super cinemas. Though they will not recapture the audience figures of the
1940s, or necessarily assist the revival of the British film industry, they
have restored some of the sense of event which typified "the age of the
dream palace".
Barry Doyle is lecturer in Modem British History at the University of Teesside
and is currently writing a social history of twentieth-century Britain for
Longman.
