ABC Stourbridge
158 Lower High Street,
Stourbridge,
DY8 1TS
158 Lower High Street,
Stourbridge,
DY8 1TS
2 people
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Have Loaded a picture of the Sales Kiosk.. The Scala before ABC. was part of the B.T. Davis Group of Birmingham…
The above photo of the old time commissionaire reminds me of the classic British picture “The Smallest Show On Earth” with the remarkable Bernard Miles standing outside the Bijou… a film I shall never tire of watching, especially as Peter Sellers is the drunk projectionist and Margaret Rutherford as the dotty old cashier.
In the early days The Theatre did Cine-Variety, When I did reliefs (Management) there I did a lot of exploring of the building. Behind the Pros that was built for Cinemascope. There was the original Theatre one intact complete with dressing rooms… Full of Junk… The Manager at the time had been told for years and years that it would be given a refurbishment. When it finally came.. He had a heart attack and died… Hmmm.. We always thought it was shock…
Joseph Lawden was my grandfather, though I never met him as he died suddenly of pneumonia in 1933 aged 45. He was apparently a kind father and a talented architect. In the depression he suffered financially when houses that he had built became unsaleable and he sadly took to drink. As a Methodist he would not have approved of his cinema becoming a lap dancing club.
This cinema was tatty and rather sad in its last years. However, for a local lad of 14, it had the major advantage of very lax standards and it was very easy to therefore waltz into X certificates. Strangely, it generally always seemed rather busy (at least in the evenings) therefore it’s closure seemed odd at the time.
The ABC photographed playing the ABC release in April 1968:
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