Everyone-i’ve started a marathon info exercise for everyone on the Odeon (New St) Birmingham page, which spills over into details about the Gaumont and-shortly-the Scala Superama/Odeon Queensway/Compton nudie movie emporium.
David Slack/anyone: The Alan Eyles 1996 book “Gaumont British Cinemas has extensive photos of the Gaumont Colmore Circus in.
Myself am collecting all the ads from the Birmingham Post from those years with the Cinerama logo on for Roland to put on his site in due course. Its when one gets to actual photos the copyright law gets a bit scary however. The “West End” cinema was the third widescreen cinema in those days-equipped for 70mm I think as well as the ABC Coleshill Street-the latter now demolished for the super-duper extension in 1969 to Aston University.
The West End took all the overload from the Gaumont Cinerama and ABC Bristol Road in those days when Julie Andrews was humping herself(did i say that?LOL)all over the Austrian alps in the 3-year Sound of Music marathon at the Gaumont, and Julie(again) in Star in Todd-Ao at the ABC Bristol Road for a six-month period.The West End featured on the “Suffolk Street” page of DJNorton’s website-maybe we should e-mail the guy and tell him what a dream his pictures are to us?
djmarkoneuk: Are you a Manchester resident? Maybe you could sweet talk the Manchester Evening News into letting us know if they have any archive photos also. I’m eager to get hold of newspaper ads from the 1960’s with the Cinerama logo on.
Full frontal here for you Ken! http//www.blackcountryhistory.org You can’t get a direct link on here since in the search box you have to surround the name of the subject in “inverted commas” when you get on there(They don’t tell you that on the site which leaves hundreds of punters lost completely) Don’t be too ambitious and type in Odeon,Wolverhampton. Just put in “Odeon” and you’ll get there. Click on View Record and not the photo until you get the View Image instruction but then don’t click on the instruction but the image itself. Are you all still with me?
The Black Country of the West Midlands is my home area(see previous comment) Click on Images also to get the correct database or
otherwise all you might get is Public Works entries from Victorian Times of when they emptied the dustbins.Believe me! We’re all Martians here!! LOL
http//www.manchester.gov.uk/localimages Try not to be misled if you get directed to the Manchester city Council Libraries homepage you will find it a dead end.
Alcazar: “RichOmond” eh? LOL During the next few weeks i’ll try and dig up some stuff on my local Itinerama (when it was in 1967) here in Walsall in the West Midlands. Watch this space.
David Slack: Roland’s site is a belter innit? He has my own copies of newspaper adverts from the London Casino on there. More to follow when we can get copyright clearance from the Birmingham Post for their vault photos of the 1960’s ABC Cinerama Bristol Road and Gaumont Cinerama Colmore Circus. In the meantime check out http://www.photobydjnorton.com for pre-Cinerama days pics of both cinemas. They are on the “Inner Ring Road” and “Bristol Road” pages.
Much of my information about Itinerama comes from www.cinerama.topcities.com Check out the “Cinerama Theatres” page and then “UK+Richmond” (Think that’s the Richmond in Yorkshire?) Am collecting local bits of news about it as we speak, but need to get time off early next month to spend more time on that as well as more of a “direct hit” on the “Fastest Guitar Alive” info regarding the exact Birmingham showing places.
Plenty of interior pictures of the building on the Manchester local archives website-but from around the Edwardian theatre period however.One external photo on there from around 1950-Mario Lanza movie being shown there. Cinerama.topcities.com has a photo from 1965 if you look on the “Cinerama Theatres” page.
OOps. Minor typo in my earlier message. “Fastest Guitar Alive” was released in 1968(UK) February 25 to be exact. No West End release(will finitely ascertain later this week)unless you count the ABC’s Edgware Road and Fulham Road that is. Have got an advert if anyone wants one e-mailing. Maybe the ABC Coleshill St Birmingham did get a showing since that was equipped by then for 70mm. But then the movie wasn’t in anything but ordinary scope.
p.s. The Gaumont Snow Hill was booked up continually from April 20, 1965 to July 7, 1968 with Julie Andrews in “Sound of Music”. Then came “Dr.Dolittle” (the original Rex Harrison musical) followed by “Oliver” which went on for a further year.
Terry, I think you’ve got a few dates mixed up there. It would be the ABC New St. which played “Fastest Guitar Alive” which came out in 1966. The Gaumont (Colmore Circus, it is) only played one MGM release in those years, being Seven Brides for 7 Brothers since that was in 70mm. The Gaumont was converted to Cinerama on October 14, 1963: its first showcase being “Cinerama Holiday” followed by “It’s a Mad,Mad,Mad World” which played for six months from December 26th that year. The Cinerama “Big Top” thingy was called Itinerama which was based in Walsall(of all places) from 1964 until its demise in April 1967. There were other Itinerama Big Tops in Britain such as in Plymouth and Brighton.
Hello everyone!I’m a local history community worker specialising in cinema, TV and theatre. Cover Wolverhampton and the Black Country of the West Midlands including Birmingham.If anyone is interested in coming to Wolverhampton and/or Birmingham anytime I’ll take you round the archives of the various local authorities which have bumper collections of cinema building photos-apart from the ones I’ll be linking to their web-pages-which for copyright reasons cannot be transmitted(except at a bumper fee, unfortunately).All you have to do is buty the beers LOL. I’m in the process of doing a bibliography of cinema building pictures from film annuals etc for parking on here if possible,which will cover the whole country.
Back to the Odeon,Wolverhampton:Put my head round the door Friday last (11th January). Maintenance people were in. The 1980’s bingo fabric is still in there-how long it remains depending on how quickly it deteriorates(very fast if anything to do with Wolverhampton!). A number of listed buildings in this one-horse town have mysteriously caught fire or got demolished by accident during the past few decades……
Looks like a “brannie” (brand-newie) of a photo here: http://sephsgallery.fotopic.net/p47184171.html More on that photographer’s page of other defunct cinemas in England.
Ok thanks. Will do. in the meantime there is an article you may be interested in View link
No pictures,however.
Everyone-i’ve started a marathon info exercise for everyone on the Odeon (New St) Birmingham page, which spills over into details about the Gaumont and-shortly-the Scala Superama/Odeon Queensway/Compton nudie movie emporium.
David Slack/anyone: The Alan Eyles 1996 book “Gaumont British Cinemas has extensive photos of the Gaumont Colmore Circus in.
Myself am collecting all the ads from the Birmingham Post from those years with the Cinerama logo on for Roland to put on his site in due course. Its when one gets to actual photos the copyright law gets a bit scary however. The “West End” cinema was the third widescreen cinema in those days-equipped for 70mm I think as well as the ABC Coleshill Street-the latter now demolished for the super-duper extension in 1969 to Aston University.
The West End took all the overload from the Gaumont Cinerama and ABC Bristol Road in those days when Julie Andrews was humping herself(did i say that?LOL)all over the Austrian alps in the 3-year Sound of Music marathon at the Gaumont, and Julie(again) in Star in Todd-Ao at the ABC Bristol Road for a six-month period.The West End featured on the “Suffolk Street” page of DJNorton’s website-maybe we should e-mail the guy and tell him what a dream his pictures are to us?
djmarkoneuk: Are you a Manchester resident? Maybe you could sweet talk the Manchester Evening News into letting us know if they have any archive photos also. I’m eager to get hold of newspaper ads from the 1960’s with the Cinerama logo on.
Woody. Where are the “subrubs” of Nottingham eh? LOL Remember this a respectable information site LOLOL
Full frontal here for you Ken! http//www.blackcountryhistory.org You can’t get a direct link on here since in the search box you have to surround the name of the subject in “inverted commas” when you get on there(They don’t tell you that on the site which leaves hundreds of punters lost completely) Don’t be too ambitious and type in Odeon,Wolverhampton. Just put in “Odeon” and you’ll get there. Click on View Record and not the photo until you get the View Image instruction but then don’t click on the instruction but the image itself. Are you all still with me?
The Black Country of the West Midlands is my home area(see previous comment) Click on Images also to get the correct database or
otherwise all you might get is Public Works entries from Victorian Times of when they emptied the dustbins.Believe me! We’re all Martians here!! LOL
http//www.manchester.gov.uk/localimages Try not to be misled if you get directed to the Manchester city Council Libraries homepage you will find it a dead end.
Alcazar: “RichOmond” eh? LOL During the next few weeks i’ll try and dig up some stuff on my local Itinerama (when it was in 1967) here in Walsall in the West Midlands. Watch this space.
David Slack: Roland’s site is a belter innit? He has my own copies of newspaper adverts from the London Casino on there. More to follow when we can get copyright clearance from the Birmingham Post for their vault photos of the 1960’s ABC Cinerama Bristol Road and Gaumont Cinerama Colmore Circus. In the meantime check out http://www.photobydjnorton.com for pre-Cinerama days pics of both cinemas. They are on the “Inner Ring Road” and “Bristol Road” pages.
Much of my information about Itinerama comes from www.cinerama.topcities.com Check out the “Cinerama Theatres” page and then “UK+Richmond” (Think that’s the Richmond in Yorkshire?) Am collecting local bits of news about it as we speak, but need to get time off early next month to spend more time on that as well as more of a “direct hit” on the “Fastest Guitar Alive” info regarding the exact Birmingham showing places.
Plenty of interior pictures of the building on the Manchester local archives website-but from around the Edwardian theatre period however.One external photo on there from around 1950-Mario Lanza movie being shown there. Cinerama.topcities.com has a photo from 1965 if you look on the “Cinerama Theatres” page.
OOps. Minor typo in my earlier message. “Fastest Guitar Alive” was released in 1968(UK) February 25 to be exact. No West End release(will finitely ascertain later this week)unless you count the ABC’s Edgware Road and Fulham Road that is. Have got an advert if anyone wants one e-mailing. Maybe the ABC Coleshill St Birmingham did get a showing since that was equipped by then for 70mm. But then the movie wasn’t in anything but ordinary scope.
p.s. The Gaumont Snow Hill was booked up continually from April 20, 1965 to July 7, 1968 with Julie Andrews in “Sound of Music”. Then came “Dr.Dolittle” (the original Rex Harrison musical) followed by “Oliver” which went on for a further year.
Terry, I think you’ve got a few dates mixed up there. It would be the ABC New St. which played “Fastest Guitar Alive” which came out in 1966. The Gaumont (Colmore Circus, it is) only played one MGM release in those years, being Seven Brides for 7 Brothers since that was in 70mm. The Gaumont was converted to Cinerama on October 14, 1963: its first showcase being “Cinerama Holiday” followed by “It’s a Mad,Mad,Mad World” which played for six months from December 26th that year. The Cinerama “Big Top” thingy was called Itinerama which was based in Walsall(of all places) from 1964 until its demise in April 1967. There were other Itinerama Big Tops in Britain such as in Plymouth and Brighton.
Article spotted on “Cinerama.topcities”. Go to “Cinerama want to be” on Home Page, then Click on “Dimension 150” then Odeon, Marble Arch.
Number of my own pressbook cuttings are on this site, mainly on the “In Cinerama?” page.
Hello everyone!I’m a local history community worker specialising in cinema, TV and theatre. Cover Wolverhampton and the Black Country of the West Midlands including Birmingham.If anyone is interested in coming to Wolverhampton and/or Birmingham anytime I’ll take you round the archives of the various local authorities which have bumper collections of cinema building photos-apart from the ones I’ll be linking to their web-pages-which for copyright reasons cannot be transmitted(except at a bumper fee, unfortunately).All you have to do is buty the beers LOL. I’m in the process of doing a bibliography of cinema building pictures from film annuals etc for parking on here if possible,which will cover the whole country.
Back to the Odeon,Wolverhampton:Put my head round the door Friday last (11th January). Maintenance people were in. The 1980’s bingo fabric is still in there-how long it remains depending on how quickly it deteriorates(very fast if anything to do with Wolverhampton!). A number of listed buildings in this one-horse town have mysteriously caught fire or got demolished by accident during the past few decades……