Empire Cinema

Located in what was once Crumlin, Monmouthshire, England, it is now in Gwent, Wales. Long forgotten by many, the Crumlin Empire Cinema was a popular venue that offered big screen entertainment together with live shows and hugely popular bingo nights that helped the local community’s cricket club build its own grounds.

Initially built in 1912 as a vaudeville/music hall venue with seating for 600 in stalls and balcony, the Empire Theatre was adapted for cinema use shortly after completion. Although the main entrance to the auditorium was narrow, no wider than the other shop units that made up the rest of the buildings on the block, once inside the foyer you began to realise that the auditorium was vast, much bigger than you would expect any venue with a seating capacity of 600 on two levels. With a 22ft wide proscenium and a functional 18ft deep stage and two dressing rooms, which allowed local theatrical productions alongside travelling theatre groups and the annual local pantomime, a hugely popular festive attraction for the children and adults in the area.

An independent cinema initially owned by Mr. Headly Roberts, until his death when the estate was passed on to his wife, who left this valuable asset to the Catholic nuns of nearby Blackwood. E. Ruddick managed the day to day operations from 1936 with locals affectionately calling the Empire Cinema ‘Dicks picture house’ rather than its true name of Empire Cinema. The cinema was equipped with two 35mm Kalee projectors. A British Acoustic(BA) sound system was added during the mid-1930’s.

By 1940 the venue was in the hands of a popular local character, Mr. Albert Victor Whitaker. Albert, with the help of his wife and family operated the venue for much of its life, organising and booking live shows and films. It is understood that Mrs. Whitaker was the main booker of films for the hall and had a knack of booking films she thought would be popular in the community. Following the death of Mrs. Whitaker, Albert started booking the films, Albert didn’t have the booking skills demonstrated by his wife and in later years he agreed that bookings would be handled by the Jackson Withers Circuit, with prints coming from their nearby Blackwood Maxime Cinema.

CinemaScope was installed at the Empire Cinema in 1954, following its installation at cinemas in nearby Abertillery and Blackwood. The first ‘scope film was “There’s No Business Like Show Business” which ran for a 6 day engagement, followed by a similar engagement for the hugely popular “The Robe”.

Sadly, CinemaScope wasn’t a big enough puller and by the late-‘1950s the Empire Cinema introduced bingo which had initially been offered once a week, slowly bingo was offered on additional days before becoming the main attraction with films ceasing to be screened from around 1965.

Bingo was very popular and already being played in every town and village throughout the South Wales valleys, many of the surrounding venues with much bigger seating capacities and impressive cash jackpots could have been competition for the Empire bingo nights but against the odds the Empire was successful in attracting players, mostly because of a local cause. Captain Harry Hatherell was Crumlin cricket club secretary and son in law of Albert Whitaker who also played cricket. It was decided that bingo would raise funds for the local cricket club. These funds enabled the cricket club to purchase their own grounds at Rhiw Farm.

Albert Victor Whitaker successfully ran the Empire through to the end, with the help and support of his wife. Betty and family with a small team of staff that included projectionist and all round handyman Billy Durrant, and Stella Woosencroft and Nina Shepherd.

The whole block, including the Empire with the snooker hall and private flats and shop units was demolished in the late-1990’s as part of the road widening scheme, something that ripped the heart out of the once busy community of Crumlin.

Thank you to Pop Whitakers Granddaughter, Heather Powel and Phillip Walkley for additional info and images.

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