Thanks for correction; I always imagined that it was American. In fact I visited their showroom in London decades ago and saw their 16mm Ampro and other machines. Perhaps the sound head was American.
I’d like to show a snap of Mother and myself in 1938 but it was deleted.The point was that it showed the OTC uniform worn by me for the early December 1939 stage tableau at the Paramount mentioned in an earlier comment, and it was taken by my father, Arthur Raymond.
I accidentally deleted a former comment; from upper left: projectionist and equipment taken by Box Brownie camera about November 1944 for “The Great Mr Handel”: first UK feature in colour. (Available on DVD) About 1 minute exposure @ f11 (the biggest available then). Upper Right Gene Autry with Sid Lewis 15 August 1939:Box camera 1/25 @ f11. Lower Right: Leslie Gregory on right with unnamed staffer, taken by Arthur Raymond. Lower Left Usherettes with front doorman, taken by Arthur Raymond on his German Wirgin camera.
In the large group photo with Holderness, I feel sure that Chris Cassidy, the Assistant Manager, is at the extreme right, looking forward, behind the usherettes' second row.
I must correct an error. Gene Autry is shaking hands with Sid Lewis (from my diary) and not Mr Smith.
If anyone wishes to see the army uniform worn by me as a temporary employee on the stage in a Christmas ‘39
tableau, I can still post it. Note the puttees: obsolete these days.
SA
I begin the recognize it now. My mother and I had a complimentary one October Sunday evening in 1939 to see “Show Boat” with Alan Jones,Paul Robeson and Irene Dunne. Much better than the remake with Howard Keel and Ava Gardner.
I recall the Manager’s name: Revvis.
As Arthur Raymond’s family we were allowed in most Birmingham cinemas, ideally on slack nights: Thursdays and Sundays.
Regards. S.A. There was a different attitude then.
P.S. Jackson, the projectionist in the early days, personally told me that sound quality was so good that it reached a 12000 Hertz frequency, compared with the shellac record which hit only 8000 Hz (or cps)The projection room was a mass of gear, amplifier racks, slide lanterns and much more.
SA
They used flammable nitrate film with two projectors which would each take only 2000 feet of film at ninety feet per minute, guarded by heavy steel spool boxes.
The projectionist had to wait at the end of each spool for a spot in the upper right hand corner of the screen, start the second projector and at the second spot switch off the first, and switch on the second projector simultaneously.The discarded film spool then was taken to a side room and manually rewound. you can sometimes see the indicator spots in some 35mm film that has been converted to DVD or VHS.
Now I gather that film is acetate and non flammable so that you can project the whole movie with one spool.
Regards, SA.
P.S.The shots of the usherettes was taken by Arthur Raymond, organist @ probably 1/25 sec on regular film f11,1 min, f11 on my Brownie Box camera, regular film by me, Gene Autry 1/25, regular film (Agfa?) @ f11; the others by my father probably on his German Wirgin camera @f11 @ 1/25. (That was an exposure in those days) SA
Hooray! Managed to transmit photos: Clockwise: upper left:projection room in November 1942 showing “The Great Mr Handel” (first British colour feature),Gene Autry with Sid Lewis of Loughborough Cinema group, August 17, ‘39.
A Commissionaire with a bevy of Usherettes, and finally Charlie Gregory, the stage manager. He is on the right of the two images. He used to go to the wings of the stage a turn a wheel which brought up all sorts of coloured lights at the beginning, or dim them at the end of the picture.
It was real showmanship in those days.
I’m trying to find Chris Cassidy, the Assistant Manager.He was about 23, and looked like a cross between Tyrone Power and Louis Hayward. always wore a dress suit and stiff shirt. His brother Sean and he drove us up from London one Yuletide and his mother stayed with us in Soho.(In a Morris 16, a nice quiet saloon car) Those were the days; all gone!
Thanks.
Another anecdote: An Associate of the Royal College of Organists criticized Raymond’s playing to Leslie Holderness.
My father entertained the visitor to tea
in the theatre cafe.Must ave been 1941 or so. Nevertheless he did not replace him.
In ‘38 the BBC wanted to wire the Paramount for organ broadcasts. However, like the artist he was, Arthur declined the offer until remuneration was offered. It wasn’t; so the broadcasts never aired.
Looks like Arthur Raymond (real name Cecil Austin)in the photo not shown here of Manager Holderness and the whole staff(about 1943-4) sitting on one side right in the front among the usherettes. He was only five feet tall.
Yes! I recognize it from the 1933 b/w photo.I saw the “Desert Song ” (1929) there, “Mr.Midshipman Easy”,
probably “When knights were bold” w. Jack Buchanan,
and a film with Diana Churchill in it. Can’t recall the title.
Nice, cosy, little cinema.
Now I think of it,there was a labour exchange on the corner next to the cinema.I remember the line of men
described as “being on the dole”, a sad picture in the
mid-thirties,
I saw a few films there; I remember it being called “The Scala” although when I saw “That’s a good girl” with J. Buchanan and Elsie Randolph it must have been “Regal” Nice little cinema. Saw “Blonde Bombshell” there.On the corner of Western and Montpelier Roads. I passed it every day on the bus to Brighton Grammar School
Thank you for info about George Formby. It seems that there was one scene where he had to circle on a motorbike a large vertical cylinder and emerge at the top like someone being shot from a cannon.
Other films and actors that I saw:
Ruggles of Red Gap
Cavalcade
The Crusades
Thirty-nine steps
Roberta
The General died at dawn
Will Hay
Tom Walls & Ralph Lynn
Sons of the Desert (Laurel & Hardy)
Annabella & Henry Fonda
Robert Donat (Blue Danube?)
Lloyds of London (Tyrone Power)
George Formby (film about motorcycling, another about
employee breaking a record in a gramophone disc works)
Arthur Tracy, the “Street Singer”
Evergreen—-Jessie Matthews
The Good Companions—Jessie Matthews
I apologize for taking up so many comments, but I get quite nostalgic for those old times and places.
Thanks for correction; I always imagined that it was American. In fact I visited their showroom in London decades ago and saw their 16mm Ampro and other machines. Perhaps the sound head was American.
I’d like to show a snap of Mother and myself in 1938 but it was deleted.The point was that it showed the OTC uniform worn by me for the early December 1939 stage tableau at the Paramount mentioned in an earlier comment, and it was taken by my father, Arthur Raymond.
I accidentally deleted a former comment; from upper left: projectionist and equipment taken by Box Brownie camera about November 1944 for “The Great Mr Handel”: first UK feature in colour. (Available on DVD) About 1 minute exposure @ f11 (the biggest available then). Upper Right Gene Autry with Sid Lewis 15 August 1939:Box camera 1/25 @ f11. Lower Right: Leslie Gregory on right with unnamed staffer, taken by Arthur Raymond. Lower Left Usherettes with front doorman, taken by Arthur Raymond on his German Wirgin camera.
In the large group photo with Holderness, I feel sure that Chris Cassidy, the Assistant Manager, is at the extreme right, looking forward, behind the usherettes' second row. I must correct an error. Gene Autry is shaking hands with Sid Lewis (from my diary) and not Mr Smith.
If anyone wishes to see the army uniform worn by me as a temporary employee on the stage in a Christmas ‘39 tableau, I can still post it. Note the puttees: obsolete these days. SA
I begin the recognize it now. My mother and I had a complimentary one October Sunday evening in 1939 to see “Show Boat” with Alan Jones,Paul Robeson and Irene Dunne. Much better than the remake with Howard Keel and Ava Gardner. I recall the Manager’s name: Revvis. As Arthur Raymond’s family we were allowed in most Birmingham cinemas, ideally on slack nights: Thursdays and Sundays.
Regards. S.A. There was a different attitude then.
P.S. Jackson, the projectionist in the early days, personally told me that sound quality was so good that it reached a 12000 Hertz frequency, compared with the shellac record which hit only 8000 Hz (or cps)The projection room was a mass of gear, amplifier racks, slide lanterns and much more. SA
They used flammable nitrate film with two projectors which would each take only 2000 feet of film at ninety feet per minute, guarded by heavy steel spool boxes. The projectionist had to wait at the end of each spool for a spot in the upper right hand corner of the screen, start the second projector and at the second spot switch off the first, and switch on the second projector simultaneously.The discarded film spool then was taken to a side room and manually rewound. you can sometimes see the indicator spots in some 35mm film that has been converted to DVD or VHS. Now I gather that film is acetate and non flammable so that you can project the whole movie with one spool. Regards, SA.
Probably of low interest but those are “Peerless” projectors made by J. Frank Brockliss, an American company, probably under licence in the UK.
P.S.The shots of the usherettes was taken by Arthur Raymond, organist @ probably 1/25 sec on regular film f11,1 min, f11 on my Brownie Box camera, regular film by me, Gene Autry 1/25, regular film (Agfa?) @ f11; the others by my father probably on his German Wirgin camera @f11 @ 1/25. (That was an exposure in those days) SA
Hooray! Managed to transmit photos: Clockwise: upper left:projection room in November 1942 showing “The Great Mr Handel” (first British colour feature),Gene Autry with Sid Lewis of Loughborough Cinema group, August 17, ‘39. A Commissionaire with a bevy of Usherettes, and finally Charlie Gregory, the stage manager. He is on the right of the two images. He used to go to the wings of the stage a turn a wheel which brought up all sorts of coloured lights at the beginning, or dim them at the end of the picture. It was real showmanship in those days.
I remember when this shot was taken.I was on holiday at the time.
Regards SA
They have grown since the 40’s when they took only 2000 feet per reel' in those days it was flammable but more flexible.
SA
BTW we always went in by the stage door,located at the end of a paved slope bordered by Littlewood’s dept.store
I’m trying to find Chris Cassidy, the Assistant Manager.He was about 23, and looked like a cross between Tyrone Power and Louis Hayward. always wore a dress suit and stiff shirt. His brother Sean and he drove us up from London one Yuletide and his mother stayed with us in Soho.(In a Morris 16, a nice quiet saloon car) Those were the days; all gone!
I think that is Arthur Raymond,organist,standing to the rear and between Leslie Holderness and the usherette whom he appears to be mentoring.
SA
Thanks. Another anecdote: An Associate of the Royal College of Organists criticized Raymond’s playing to Leslie Holderness. My father entertained the visitor to tea in the theatre cafe.Must ave been 1941 or so. Nevertheless he did not replace him. In ‘38 the BBC wanted to wire the Paramount for organ broadcasts. However, like the artist he was, Arthur declined the offer until remuneration was offered. It wasn’t; so the broadcasts never aired.
SA
Sorry, it was 1938. I’m sure it’s Raymond.
Looks like Arthur Raymond (real name Cecil Austin)in the photo not shown here of Manager Holderness and the whole staff(about 1943-4) sitting on one side right in the front among the usherettes. He was only five feet tall.
SA.
Yes! I recognize it from the 1933 b/w photo.I saw the “Desert Song ” (1929) there, “Mr.Midshipman Easy”, probably “When knights were bold” w. Jack Buchanan, and a film with Diana Churchill in it. Can’t recall the title. Nice, cosy, little cinema.
SA
Now I think of it,there was a labour exchange on the corner next to the cinema.I remember the line of men described as “being on the dole”, a sad picture in the mid-thirties,
I saw a few films there; I remember it being called “The Scala” although when I saw “That’s a good girl” with J. Buchanan and Elsie Randolph it must have been “Regal” Nice little cinema. Saw “Blonde Bombshell” there.On the corner of Western and Montpelier Roads. I passed it every day on the bus to Brighton Grammar School
Thank you for info about George Formby. It seems that there was one scene where he had to circle on a motorbike a large vertical cylinder and emerge at the top like someone being shot from a cannon.
S.A.
Oh, and the unforgettable Jean Harlow in “Blonde Bombshell” and “Dinner at eight”
So Long,
Other films and actors that I saw: Ruggles of Red Gap Cavalcade The Crusades Thirty-nine steps Roberta The General died at dawn Will Hay Tom Walls & Ralph Lynn Sons of the Desert (Laurel & Hardy) Annabella & Henry Fonda Robert Donat (Blue Danube?) Lloyds of London (Tyrone Power) George Formby (film about motorcycling, another about employee breaking a record in a gramophone disc works) Arthur Tracy, the “Street Singer” Evergreen—-Jessie Matthews The Good Companions—Jessie Matthews
and so on.