Monico Cinema

Cardiff is not ( and never has been) in West Glamorgan.

A half-page article and advertisement in the local press on the Saturday before opening states that the Monico was a Splott Cinema from the start, (though a later licence was granted under the "Luxury Cinema Co" name, just as the Avenue and County were built by the "Rumely Cinema Co", owned by the Splott Company.)
The architect was the Splott Company's usual choice, William S Wort, the builder was J.E.Evans & Co.

Among the innovations were Western Electic Mirrophonic Sound, the first local installation.

However, the opening programme was "Theodora Goes Wild"(Irene Dunne & Melvyn Douglas) and "Bengal Tiger" (Barton Maclaine & June Travis), showing Monday to Wednesday.

The Management had to apologise via Tuesday's paper, for a breakdown on Opening night.

At the beginning of the Bingo era, the game was played at the Monico on Sundays only.

Here is a photo of the Monico demolition in August of 2003.

The Monico cinema was popular with the Jackson Withers chain's projectionists because of it's very spacious and well ventilated box. The cinema was also famous for its long serving chief projectionist named Jack Yates. He was a qualified electrician who kept the cinema electric systems in perfect order. The Jackson Withers circuit owned the two houses adjacent to the Monico. Jack Yates lived in one of these houses. The other was occupied by Dai John who was the manager of the Plaza in North Road.

In the 1960s the cinema box contained two Peerless Magna Arcs connected to Westar projection heads and Kalee sound heads. The arcs were fed from a mercury arc rectifier which was one of a pair located in a separate room.Each week an alternating rectifier was used. There was also a slide lantern and a very complicated set of lighting controls that gave a large range of screen/drape colours. Normal practice was to use green/blue shades in the summer to give an air of coolness and red in the winter to suggest warmth. The drapes were operated from the box but the masking had to be adjusted manually from behind the screen.

The box also possessed magnetic film track capabilities but I can never recall it being used. Owing to the size of the box and the masking adjustment problem, the box was normally operated by two projectionists. Each one taking responsibility for a machine. Jack Yates was a perfectionist when it came to presentation and every thing had to be spot on.
The manager of the cinema, in the 1960s, was Ian Evans who always looked resplendent in his well tailored dinner suit as he greeted patrons. The matinee children always called him "Uncle Ian."

There has always been much speculation as to how the Monico got its name.
Some time around 1964 I was given a late night lift home from another Withers cinema by a Mr.Ponkin who was a Jackson Withers manager.
I took the chance to ask him about the name Monico. He told me that one of the pre war circuit managers had visited Greece and come across the word there. Apparently it was the ancient Greek word for a theatre or some such similar place of entertainment.

Thank you, your stories are fascinating.

When first acquired by Circle Cinemas there were a few advertised showings of films with magnetic sound.(Some time in the library will be required to confirm the details !)
The lighting panel made by Furse is now in the collection of a local group hoping to establish a cinema museum.

One of the joys of a relief session at the Monico was the opportunity to experiment with the lighting panel. By carefully manipulating the three main levers one could place a vast range of colours both on the drapes and the screen. The top of the board , if I remember correctly ,consisted of a number of levers connected to a drive bar and a wheel.This enabled the operator to dim all of the house lights at the same time as the colours were being faded down over the mono BB Film Censor Certificate.

The box at the Monico ran almost the full width of the cinema. It consisted of an entrance to the left of the balcony that went up to a passage, beside the rectifier room, to the box proper. At the left hand side of the box was the rewind room. From the rewind room there was a door that led out onto an extensive balcony area that gave great views of Whitchurch and Rhiwbina. On the left hand side of the balcony was an iron ladder, going down to the car park, that dated from the inflammable film days. Its function was to provide an escape route for projectionists if the box caught fire.
I have just looked at some photographs taken after the hall's twinning and note that the ladder had been removed by that time.