I think I can shed some light on this, as my father was the manager-owner of the Picture House from 1976 to its closure in 1987.
The original post has made a couple of understandable factual errors. The Picture House was, indeed, “a really beautifully designed building. It had a 40 feet wide proscenium, a 17 feet deep stage and four dressing rooms”.
However, it was built in 1936. There was an earlier Picture House in Bude (built in 1919 or so) but that was a completely different and seperate building, just off the town’s High Street. (Our Picture House clung insanely to the cliffs by the beach).
Our Picture House was never a bingo hall – that may well have been the other, earlier, Picture House. Rather, our Picture House was remodelled from a one-screen house to a two-screen house in, I guess, 1981, in response to the VCR-inspired ticket sales slump. An ice rink and roller rink were also added. It was at this point that it became the Bude Leisure Centre.
The last film I can remember seeing in the single-screen version was “The Empire Strikes Back” and the first I can remember in the dual-screen version was “ET” in one screen and “The Thing” in the other (oh the joy of having two screens in the early 80s – pick your favourite flavour of alien!).
The Picture House continued screening films in both houses until economic pressures led to its sale and demolition in 1987. It was not converted, rather razed to the ground and a new building erected.
In case anyone is interested, here are a few bits of memory and trivia…
The worst performing film ever at the Picture House was a tied contest between “Brazil” and “Dune”. Both played for one week with one audience member – me, and I didn’t even have to pay.
The film most hated by the staff in the 70s was “Jaws”, as the usherettes had to regularly mop up vomit after showings (we were, after all, just by the beach!).
The doors into the auditorium all had small windows built into them. During the run of “Carrie” every single member of staff would gather at the windows to watch the audience “jump up” at the final scene.
In June the whole staff would come together for a ritual, tongue-in-cheek, “prayer for rain” – that being the best and only way to get the tourists off the beach and into the cinema.
No Disney films were shown at the Picture House in the early 80s, after a slight (ahem) misunderstanding with the local Disney rep that left him with his fingers stuck in the lid of the boot of his car…
We broke (as I am sure did many other regional cinemas) the embargo on the national release of “The Empire Strikes Back”. It started an hour before Leicester Square.
Even after the conversion to a two-screen house, the cutting room behind the projection booth continued to be a library of rentals that, for whatever reason, were never returned – mostly bad prints of 1970s B-features. The Picture House motto for a midnight screening was “bang on a double bill of "Damnation Alley” and “Giant Spider Invasion”.
The Picture House was said to be haunted by the ghost of a projectionist called Fred. As it is impossible to be scared of a ghost called Fred, all odd occurances were met, by every staff member, with a weary “Fred, stop it”.
Because (I guess) the electricity supply in Cornwall in the 30s wasn’t reliable, the building retained a “generator room”, three floors below ground, until its demolition. The generator room still contained all the electrical switching gear for the building and I often visited it with my dad. I ascribe my total non-fear of rats to the casual way we would regard the bloated, near-albino rodents that absolutely thronged in legion below the building.
I will be going through my the photos in my parent’s loft by the end of the year and will post whatever I can on here.
I think I can shed some light on this, as my father was the manager-owner of the Picture House from 1976 to its closure in 1987.
The original post has made a couple of understandable factual errors. The Picture House was, indeed, “a really beautifully designed building. It had a 40 feet wide proscenium, a 17 feet deep stage and four dressing rooms”.
However, it was built in 1936. There was an earlier Picture House in Bude (built in 1919 or so) but that was a completely different and seperate building, just off the town’s High Street. (Our Picture House clung insanely to the cliffs by the beach).
Our Picture House was never a bingo hall – that may well have been the other, earlier, Picture House. Rather, our Picture House was remodelled from a one-screen house to a two-screen house in, I guess, 1981, in response to the VCR-inspired ticket sales slump. An ice rink and roller rink were also added. It was at this point that it became the Bude Leisure Centre.
The last film I can remember seeing in the single-screen version was “The Empire Strikes Back” and the first I can remember in the dual-screen version was “ET” in one screen and “The Thing” in the other (oh the joy of having two screens in the early 80s – pick your favourite flavour of alien!).
The Picture House continued screening films in both houses until economic pressures led to its sale and demolition in 1987. It was not converted, rather razed to the ground and a new building erected.
In case anyone is interested, here are a few bits of memory and trivia…
The worst performing film ever at the Picture House was a tied contest between “Brazil” and “Dune”. Both played for one week with one audience member – me, and I didn’t even have to pay.
The film most hated by the staff in the 70s was “Jaws”, as the usherettes had to regularly mop up vomit after showings (we were, after all, just by the beach!).
The doors into the auditorium all had small windows built into them. During the run of “Carrie” every single member of staff would gather at the windows to watch the audience “jump up” at the final scene.
In June the whole staff would come together for a ritual, tongue-in-cheek, “prayer for rain” – that being the best and only way to get the tourists off the beach and into the cinema.
No Disney films were shown at the Picture House in the early 80s, after a slight (ahem) misunderstanding with the local Disney rep that left him with his fingers stuck in the lid of the boot of his car…
We broke (as I am sure did many other regional cinemas) the embargo on the national release of “The Empire Strikes Back”. It started an hour before Leicester Square.
Even after the conversion to a two-screen house, the cutting room behind the projection booth continued to be a library of rentals that, for whatever reason, were never returned – mostly bad prints of 1970s B-features. The Picture House motto for a midnight screening was “bang on a double bill of "Damnation Alley” and “Giant Spider Invasion”.
The Picture House was said to be haunted by the ghost of a projectionist called Fred. As it is impossible to be scared of a ghost called Fred, all odd occurances were met, by every staff member, with a weary “Fred, stop it”.
Because (I guess) the electricity supply in Cornwall in the 30s wasn’t reliable, the building retained a “generator room”, three floors below ground, until its demolition. The generator room still contained all the electrical switching gear for the building and I often visited it with my dad. I ascribe my total non-fear of rats to the casual way we would regard the bloated, near-albino rodents that absolutely thronged in legion below the building.
I hope this is of some interest!