Empire Picture Palace
High Street,
Blaenau Ffestiniog,
LL41
High Street,
Blaenau Ffestiniog,
LL41
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing all 22 comments
Guys, Enough is enough of this personal squabble. The last 10 comments have nothing to do with the Empire Picture Palace, so please get back onto subject.
Then why do you seek to tell people your version as though it has to be believed as you are telling it? and if you are not on the site to throw insults why do you? I went out of my way to pleasantly tell you of your mistake over the projection box only to get insulted! And this by someone who had never been to the cinema!
We went to the archives in Caernarfon when we celebrated the cinema’s 75th aniversary in 1986, I was also there for the 50th in 1961. Why so hostile with words such as ‘pontifcating'I’m sure you will want to answer this again, so I’ll let you have the last word as I will not be carrying on with this matter.I’m not on this site to throw insults at people we’re all here to help each other,correcting contributor’s is fine but not through belittling people.It’s also supposed to be against the sites rules
You really should do more research before you pontificate! Try looking back at old issues of the Caernarfon & Denbigh Herald as I have done for the TRUE facts instead of imagining what you think you heard in the dim distant past! Also lots of cinemas only registered under the act long after they had opened.
Also one surely cannot class halls as being cinemas just because of the odd travelling film show,any hall could have held these,& as I stated before Pwllheli is celebrating it’s centenery as a fully registered cinema this year.
I Was not writing about any Neuadd Goffa, but Neuadd Dwyfor Pwllheli,which you yourself stated quite rightly on the appropriate page opened in 1902.I worked longer in this building than any person living or now dead, and please no quips that I must have been there in 1902 ! !.
Afraid you have your facts wrong! Neuadd Goffa opened in 1900 and played host to several travelling Fil shows prior to having permanent lessees, cinema wise.
Neuadd Goffa was the host to several travelling film shows prior to 1910, prior to it permanently hosting film shows!
Neuadd dwyfor did not start until 1911, It will be celebrating it’s centenary as a cinema this year.
The 1909 act dealt only with the need to isolate the box from the audience so that any fire could not spread from the inflammable film into the auditorium, it did not specify the size of the box. Because of the problem of building ‘new'boxes in existing venues owners took advantage of this. Remember that Neuadd Dwyfor preceeded that act as a cinema!
Being a projectionist I of course know all about the old fire regulations, which were still enforced for many years after the demise of the highly inflammable nitrate fims, and yet the present isolated box at Neuadd Dwyfor Pwllheli was not built until 1930, to accomodate the advent of sound equipment (2 projectors etc)
The strange thing is that the projection booth during the silent days was at the back of the stalls under the balcony, it looks no bigger than a telephone kiosk and certainly not as high as one. I’ve often wondered how this was legal.
The original projection box had nothing to do with the length of throw, but the 1909 cinematograph act that required the projection box to be seperated from the audience in case of fire! One of the Wrexham cinemas had a similar overhanging box, I can’t remember which offhand.
I wasn’t disputing Capelmawr’s comment’s, I was just explaining that I thought it could have been the projection booth, as I did not know the length of the building from the road to the back.
It would be nice if he could send the picture on to this site, although I’m myself am having difficulty inserting them since the Cinema Treasures changed it’s format.
If Mr Evans lets me have his e-mail address I will send him a copy of my photo with the box in place so he can see for himself!
Like I said I was only wondering, and from the picture the building looks long enough,It’s not possible to see the length from the road to the back without visiting the site, which Capelmawr has done.
There are cinemas with the main doors on the side of the buildng, such as the former Luxor Menai Bridge.
Mr Evans is mistaken, the overhanging projection box was , as stated at the front of the building “overhanging the street” not at the side of the building. If it was the latter it would be the only cinema where films were shown sideways to the audience.
I was just wondering what the overhanging extension on the google picture was,my statement was that it looks like it’s still there,why the sarcastic remark ?
I am surprised to hear that the overhanging projection box was still in situ. It had definately gone in 2009 asnd when I passed the former cinema a month ago! Has Mr Evans rebuilt it?
I’ve adjusted the google picture to the Empire’s location, looks like the overhanging projection room mentioned by capelmawr is still there. The former cinema in Llanidloes was the same,although the proj room was pulled down after closure, but the building still stands today.
It’s listed on the Cinema Treasures site.
Peter Moore had already installed projection and sound equipment at the Empire, for all I know they may well still be there,I think it was going to be a no frills set up as the screen was a painted wall.
I also remember an item on the Welsh News on tv that some local organisation (I do not think it was the council)were looking into the possibility of carrying through with the venture,but nothing came of it.Shame really I suppose funding was the main stumbling block.
The Empire was opened circa 1924, when the propreitor was listed as Captain Lewis Davies. This was probably incorrect as although he was still listed as propreitor in 1939, it is known that the owner was Captain Pritchard, who also owned cinemas in Criccieth, Pen y Groes and Caernarvon.
It ran on one show per ni8ght with three4 on Saturdays and changed programmes twice a week. Prices at opening were 5d to 1/3d. It could seat 400 patrons. By 1938 prices had changed to 6d to 1/–.
With the death of Captain Pritchard during WWII, the other cinemas were purchased by Paramount, but they declined the ‘Empire’ probably because of the amount of competition, and it was closed in 1945.
The talk of re-opening in 1995 was true. The former cinema was taken on lease(?) by Peter Moore, who owned the Empire, Holyhead, but was thwarted when he was arrested, tried and jailed for life for the murder of four homosexuals. This closed the Empire as well and left two other former cinemas he planned to re-open ‘in limbo’.
Last saw this former cinema last year when it was empty, having been recently used as the local Labour Party HQ.
When running as a cinema, it unusually had an outside projection box, to comply with the 1909 cinematograph act, which overhung the street. This was demolished long ago.