This is a very sad photo. The end of an era. Gone and with it all the joy, laughter, tears and kisses on the back row. There is something very powerful and evocative about old cinemas.
There is an amazing movie called Cinema Paradiso. This film says everything that I can’t find the words to say about cinema. Please watch it if you get the chance x
I added this recently and later noticed that the manageress listed on the program is a one E downs. This is undoubtedly the daughter of the original owners. She is listed in the 1940 local registry as cinema employee, That is twenty six years previously. That would mean that the same family ran the cinema for 45 years at the very least. Since this program is dated 1966 and the cinema closed in 1973 there is a strong possibility that the same family owned it and ran it right up to its closure.
In the early 1980s this cinema was used for gigs. Notable bands that played were: the Boom Town Rats, The Damned, Lords of the New Church, Twisted Sister and The Exploited.
Just to correct a couple of things from above. The Cinema finished life as a bingo hall and the fire that destroyed it was September 1961 and not 1963. Also an old people home was built on the site and not housing.
This photo was taken in 1932. One of the children (still alive in 2018) posted this online saying it was taken outside the Empire Cinema, also in Mossley. Immediately people knew that she had got mixed up and presented us with a very rare insight into the Royal Pavilion cinema. You can see the word ‘ROYAL’ above the door. Look closely at the shape of the door and compare it to another photo here which shows the cinema prior to it 1949 renovation and overhaul.
This cinema was operated for a time by the Co-op.I copied and pasted the following;
The Mossley Society had a cinema, the Royal Pavilion at Brookbottom, which for several years during the silent period ran as a departmental venture. However, the society, unable to meet the cost of re-equipping for sound, leased it to a company which operated three other cinemas and which intended to convert it to sound.“ Thereafter, it was treated by the Society simply as an income bearing asset, the educational and cultural benefits of a co-operative cinema remaining unrecognized.
This a post 1949 aerial view of the Royal Pavilion Cinema.Renovations were made around this time and If you look at the other aerial view you will see that the building does not look like the same one. This was not a purpose built cinema and made use of an old bobbin shed that was formerly part of a nearby cotton mill. It ran from 1910 to September 1963.
Cinema story
On Sunday 25 March 1928
a huge crowd had gathered on a hill in Stalybridge. The attraction was the promise of an aeroplane landing in a field above the town to deliver a can of film containing the First World War comedy drama “What Price Glory?” (a silent movie, but one which received notoriety after lip readers pointed out the foul language the actors were using!)
It was a publicity stunt organised by the manager of the New Princes Cinema, Milton W Parker. Parker found a field for the plane to land, announced it to the world and 20,000 people turned up for the event,
The plane circled the field a few times. The conditions were not good. It was foggy and the surging crowd of people were oblivious to the danger an aircraft might pose. This limited space on an already tight landing. The pilot made a few attempts at landing, but pulled up quickly each time because of the crowd. A landing finally took place but the plane was sliding on the grass and heading towards the crowd. It was not going to stop in time. The pilot decided to abandon the landing and hit the gas. The crowd thought it was all part of the show and cheered throwing their hats in the air. Alas the cheering was short lived as the plane ran out of runway and careered into several children sat on a wall. A seven year old boy was killed. The publicity stunt was just that as the can of film turned out to be empty; Milton Parker later admitting the plan had always been for the movie to be delivered by road, old film being too flammable to risk carrying by aircraft.
This cinema is now demolished. The buildings to the right are still there. The shop front is now the Battered Friar fish and chip shop and the furthest right is the Wharf Tavern pub. If you look in the photos there is a very interesting and tragic story from a publicity stunt that went wrong.
There was a brutal murder at this cinema. The details are below.
Terence O’Brien’s marriage was unhappy right from the start, and his 20-year-old wife left him on July 2nd, 1939, to live with her mother at Mossley, near Oldham.
Fifteen days later, on JULY 17th, O’Brien had just taken his seat in a local cinema when his wife passed him and sat in the row in front of him. He promptly moved to join her, intimating that he wanted to speak to her. Because he was deaf, they left the cinema to talk in an adjacent alley.
Shortly afterwards the cinema’s cashier saw a woman lying in the alley, with O’Brien kneeling beside her. The cashier fetched the manager, who arrived to meet O’Brien coming out of the alley. “Will you call the police?” O’Brien asked him. “I have killed my wife.”
She had been strangled, and at his trial for her murder O’Brien, a 28-year-old former soldier, was said to have a good record both as a serviceman and as a civilian employee. The court heard that his meeting with his wife had been by chance, and there was little evidence of premeditation as their encounter had lasted only two minutes. Because of this, Terence O’Brien’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released eight years later.
The Empire cinema opened circa 1912/13. Charles and Ada Wilkinson were the owners, Charles had made his fortune as a musical hall act: “Zellini” the Human Chimney - he did tricks with cigarette smoke. He was still performing as “Zellini” at the Empire in the 1920’s. Charles and Ada’s daughter Edith Wilkinson, was born in 1910, and she married Benjamin Downs in 1931, at St Chads, Uppermill. In the 1939 Register, Charles, Ada, and Benjamin are all Cinema Proprietors, and Edith is a Cinema Cashier, of the Royal Pavilion and the Empire cinema’s both of which were in Mossley. In 1939 all four were living together on Abney Road in Mossley. This is on the same street as the cinema and about a minute walk to Mossley Town Hall which was handy for Benjamin Downs who went on to become the Mayor of Mossley.
After it was closed it was used as a bingo hall and a practice space for the local amateur dramatic society.
I have unearthed a bit more.Stalybridge Hippodrome was one of the first cinemas to open in the area, but it was originally called The Grand Theatre and in 1912 changed to The Grand Theatre and Hippodrome as films were shown on three days of the week.
Jack Judge who wrote the song ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ performed at The Grand Theatre in January 1912. He was challenged to write and perform a song in twenty-four hours which he succeeded in doing. A blue plaque and statue commemorate the man in the town.
During the 1930’s The Hippodrome was leased by the H. D. Moorhouse Circuit and in 1938 the live shows ceased, the stage which was reputed to be the largest in the North was left intact. The cinema closed halfway through a film ‘The Candlelight Murder’ on 22nd March 1954, when bosses from the Moorhouse Circuit went into the projection office and told them to stop the film and play the National Anthem. Everyone was completely shocked, and they were all moved to the Alhambera in Openshaw, it appeared the lease had not been renewed and never reopened.
This is the facade of the Grand Theatre, later the Hippodrome as it is today. The first performance of the song, its a long way to tiperary took place here. The cinema closed abruptly in 1954 when the expired lease was served halfway through a film and that was all folks.
This is a very sad photo. The end of an era. Gone and with it all the joy, laughter, tears and kisses on the back row. There is something very powerful and evocative about old cinemas. There is an amazing movie called Cinema Paradiso. This film says everything that I can’t find the words to say about cinema. Please watch it if you get the chance x
I added this recently and later noticed that the manageress listed on the program is a one E downs. This is undoubtedly the daughter of the original owners. She is listed in the 1940 local registry as cinema employee, That is twenty six years previously. That would mean that the same family ran the cinema for 45 years at the very least. Since this program is dated 1966 and the cinema closed in 1973 there is a strong possibility that the same family owned it and ran it right up to its closure.
In the early 1980s this cinema was used for gigs. Notable bands that played were: the Boom Town Rats, The Damned, Lords of the New Church, Twisted Sister and The Exploited.
My mum worked at this Cinema as an usher/ice cream lady. That was in the 1970s when the Cinema was known as the Odeon. This photo is from the 1920s
Just to correct a couple of things from above. The Cinema finished life as a bingo hall and the fire that destroyed it was September 1961 and not 1963. Also an old people home was built on the site and not housing.
This photo was taken in 1932. One of the children (still alive in 2018) posted this online saying it was taken outside the Empire Cinema, also in Mossley. Immediately people knew that she had got mixed up and presented us with a very rare insight into the Royal Pavilion cinema. You can see the word ‘ROYAL’ above the door. Look closely at the shape of the door and compare it to another photo here which shows the cinema prior to it 1949 renovation and overhaul.
This cinema was operated for a time by the Co-op.I copied and pasted the following; The Mossley Society had a cinema, the Royal Pavilion at Brookbottom, which for several years during the silent period ran as a departmental venture. However, the society, unable to meet the cost of re-equipping for sound, leased it to a company which operated three other cinemas and which intended to convert it to sound.“ Thereafter, it was treated by the Society simply as an income bearing asset, the educational and cultural benefits of a co-operative cinema remaining unrecognized.
This a post 1949 aerial view of the Royal Pavilion Cinema.Renovations were made around this time and If you look at the other aerial view you will see that the building does not look like the same one. This was not a purpose built cinema and made use of an old bobbin shed that was formerly part of a nearby cotton mill. It ran from 1910 to September 1963.
Cinema story On Sunday 25 March 1928 a huge crowd had gathered on a hill in Stalybridge. The attraction was the promise of an aeroplane landing in a field above the town to deliver a can of film containing the First World War comedy drama “What Price Glory?” (a silent movie, but one which received notoriety after lip readers pointed out the foul language the actors were using!) It was a publicity stunt organised by the manager of the New Princes Cinema, Milton W Parker. Parker found a field for the plane to land, announced it to the world and 20,000 people turned up for the event,
The plane circled the field a few times. The conditions were not good. It was foggy and the surging crowd of people were oblivious to the danger an aircraft might pose. This limited space on an already tight landing. The pilot made a few attempts at landing, but pulled up quickly each time because of the crowd. A landing finally took place but the plane was sliding on the grass and heading towards the crowd. It was not going to stop in time. The pilot decided to abandon the landing and hit the gas. The crowd thought it was all part of the show and cheered throwing their hats in the air. Alas the cheering was short lived as the plane ran out of runway and careered into several children sat on a wall. A seven year old boy was killed. The publicity stunt was just that as the can of film turned out to be empty; Milton Parker later admitting the plan had always been for the movie to be delivered by road, old film being too flammable to risk carrying by aircraft.
This cinema is now demolished. The buildings to the right are still there. The shop front is now the Battered Friar fish and chip shop and the furthest right is the Wharf Tavern pub. If you look in the photos there is a very interesting and tragic story from a publicity stunt that went wrong.
There was a brutal murder at this cinema. The details are below.
Terence O’Brien’s marriage was unhappy right from the start, and his 20-year-old wife left him on July 2nd, 1939, to live with her mother at Mossley, near Oldham.
Fifteen days later, on JULY 17th, O’Brien had just taken his seat in a local cinema when his wife passed him and sat in the row in front of him. He promptly moved to join her, intimating that he wanted to speak to her. Because he was deaf, they left the cinema to talk in an adjacent alley.
Shortly afterwards the cinema’s cashier saw a woman lying in the alley, with O’Brien kneeling beside her. The cashier fetched the manager, who arrived to meet O’Brien coming out of the alley. “Will you call the police?” O’Brien asked him. “I have killed my wife.”
She had been strangled, and at his trial for her murder O’Brien, a 28-year-old former soldier, was said to have a good record both as a serviceman and as a civilian employee. The court heard that his meeting with his wife had been by chance, and there was little evidence of premeditation as their encounter had lasted only two minutes. Because of this, Terence O’Brien’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released eight years later.
The Empire cinema opened circa 1912/13. Charles and Ada Wilkinson were the owners, Charles had made his fortune as a musical hall act: “Zellini” the Human Chimney - he did tricks with cigarette smoke. He was still performing as “Zellini” at the Empire in the 1920’s. Charles and Ada’s daughter Edith Wilkinson, was born in 1910, and she married Benjamin Downs in 1931, at St Chads, Uppermill. In the 1939 Register, Charles, Ada, and Benjamin are all Cinema Proprietors, and Edith is a Cinema Cashier, of the Royal Pavilion and the Empire cinema’s both of which were in Mossley. In 1939 all four were living together on Abney Road in Mossley. This is on the same street as the cinema and about a minute walk to Mossley Town Hall which was handy for Benjamin Downs who went on to become the Mayor of Mossley.
After it was closed it was used as a bingo hall and a practice space for the local amateur dramatic society.
Here is an old trolley bus with the Odeon Cinema in the background. The building is now used as a church.
I have unearthed a bit more.Stalybridge Hippodrome was one of the first cinemas to open in the area, but it was originally called The Grand Theatre and in 1912 changed to The Grand Theatre and Hippodrome as films were shown on three days of the week. Jack Judge who wrote the song ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ performed at The Grand Theatre in January 1912. He was challenged to write and perform a song in twenty-four hours which he succeeded in doing. A blue plaque and statue commemorate the man in the town. During the 1930’s The Hippodrome was leased by the H. D. Moorhouse Circuit and in 1938 the live shows ceased, the stage which was reputed to be the largest in the North was left intact. The cinema closed halfway through a film ‘The Candlelight Murder’ on 22nd March 1954, when bosses from the Moorhouse Circuit went into the projection office and told them to stop the film and play the National Anthem. Everyone was completely shocked, and they were all moved to the Alhambera in Openshaw, it appeared the lease had not been renewed and never reopened.
This is the facade of the Grand Theatre, later the Hippodrome as it is today. The first performance of the song, its a long way to tiperary took place here. The cinema closed abruptly in 1954 when the expired lease was served halfway through a film and that was all folks.