Dancehouse Theatre

I remember being at a meeting with an executive of AMC of America. When He told me that they had the first 2 screen cinema in the World… I had great pleasure in asking him. What was Regal Mancester doing in the early 1930’s… being a twin cinema in the UK.. :o) giving my best smile…

Very Nice,Cool Name too!

A couple more interior photo’s here:–

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Listed in the Kine Yearbook;1934 edition as the Twin Regal Kinemas with a seating capacity given as 1,600. The stage was 6 feet deep, there were 4 dressing rooms and a cafe attached. Maybe only one of the auditoriums had the stage and dressing room facilities?

By the time the 1954 edition of Kine Yearbook was published, all the above details remained the same (including the name Twin Regal Kinemas) but the seating capacity had been slightly reduced to 1,526.

As an American, rest assured that we’re far enough along nowadays that we know that term has multiple meanings, just as it probably does throughout the British Isles too these days.

i remember this cinema when i was a student and we used to miss lectures and watch movies for only 50p per ticket, the big screen was one of the complete original screens with allthe plasterwork and the original seats which were very hard and you had to move around a lot to find two next to each other that wernt broken, the proscenium dated from the 60’s and had multicoloured metal star lights around it, screen 2 was fairly big and had a 70’s ceiling and curtained walls, it had a crazy 60’s oil lamp projector on the screen inbetween shows which gave a real hippy feel to the place, sc 4 and 5 were tiny boxes with bright blue seats and the curtains had rotted away so there was only the metal tabs that swung into place if it was a scope film, the remaining screen was one i didnt visit (honest) it showed continuous soft porn and there were always lots of dirty old trouser fumblers hanging round the door having a fag (ahh the days of smoking cinemas)
it closed when then owners Cannon opened a new mulitplex across town at Salford Quays 9the second in the UK) which has since closed itself, victim of the many new megaplex’s that surround manchester
i really missed this place as it was right by the university and very handy, it sat vacant for years until it became the dancehouse and its now rather posh and in some ways lost its charm
NB the cafe next door has the same zingy art deco plasterwork on its ceiling