Cannon Hull

Attaching a picture of the Opening Brochure,which also had a separate programme of the film, private life of Henry VIII. The cover of the programme shows an intended auditorium design which was to be used on the splay walls, between these black columns the recesses were to have hand painted scenes,however, gold decorative grills were used instead. Mollo & Egan who did the interior decoration used this idea many times especially for the Shipman & King circuit. Eugene Mollo also hand painted the Fire Safety Curtain.

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Sad to say, none of the four manual, twenty-two rank Conacher organs survived. Bits do appear on the second-hand market from time to time.

A British Pathé Newsreel about the construction of this theatre can be seen here.

My mum and dad met when they worked at the “Regal” in the 1930s. Mum was an ice-cream girl and stood in the spotlight which was operated by my dad. Mum is now 88 but still remembers the film stars who visited and has photos of the staff.

How very, very sad – but thank you for the pictures, nontheless. I suddenly feel rather old [well, almost 60] and a long, long way from the 16 year old Management Trainee of 1965. John Fisher was the Manager and David Riby his Assistant.

What a sentimental old fool I have become.

I was contract administrator for the demolition contract for this building and had access to it for several years previously. The interior was in a fairly poor condition, particularly adjacent to the back wall where blocked drainage had resulted in a lot of water penetration. The place was about six inches deep in pigeon droppings too, not visible in the photo linked above as it had to be cleared before demolition for health and safety reasons! There was a lot of asbestos to clear too, which held up the contract.

The cinema closed in 1989, one of the last films was ‘The Living Daylights’ (I found a rather battered poster in the foyer).

I have copies of the original architects floor plans, produced by Robert Cromie of Baker Street, London.

There are a few photos at http://news.webshots.com/album/84198863QEZwxQ

I was second projectionist at the Tivoli and we shared the same news with the Regal/ABC which sometimes was quite a rush if both film programmes clashed. I also remember projectionists Charlie Abrahams and Clive Leeman. Charlie was killed when he fell from the top of the stage as he leant accross the top of the screen to mend the bobbins on the screen curtains. Later I was based at the Regal and was relief projectionist working the other three ABC cinemas, Rex, Royalty and Regis. ABC sold their Rialto Cinema on Beverly Road to Hull Cinemas when the National was bombed in 1941. The Rialto then became the National until it finally bit the dust in the late fifties. ABC had closed the Rialto when war broke out and it remained disused until Hull Cinemas took it over. BARRIE WILSON
(AKA) STEVE KING .uk

How very sad. My late, Great Uncle Harold Cundall was a Director of the company that built the Theatre. It opened with Korda’s ‘Henry VIII’ with, of course, Charles Laughton [almost a local boy] and Merle Oberon attended the event [Laughton did not].

My very first job was as a Trainee Manager, in 1965/6 [My Fair Lady was playing]and I remember many pop shows – indeed, I recall queuing all night to purchase tickets for the Beatles concerts in ‘63 or '64.

I also vividly recall all of those 2553 seats being sold out, with queues around the block, for popular films such as ‘The Family Way’ – as well as most of them being left empty for ‘Stop the World….’!

Visiting Hull on 7th June 2004 I was surprised to see the Cannon is still standing – the demolition crew are working but little progress seems to have been made on the cinema. – the adjoining shops however have gone giving a side view of the cinema never before seen.

As predicted the site has now been cleared (during December / January 2003/4. There will be a new theatre constructed as part of the Ferensway Development which will become the home of Hull Truck Theatre.

I had the opportunity to tour the building before demolition and very surprisingly the poor state of the brickwork as viewed from the outside did not seem to have resulted in ANY interior damage to the auditorium which had been left fully seated and looked almost ready for a screening! The stage was also intact with its full height flytower.