Late to this party. Founfd the site whilst doing some family history reseach looking at The Prince of Wales Cardiff.
Out of interest, my father (now long deceased) owned the Prince of Wales from the mid 1950s to about 1961. I was 9 then. We were Londoners and it would have been him that introduced the “art-house” period as he was French and spoke fluent Spanish and Italian too and had a film distribution business in London at the time.
He employed local manager(s) and we made regular visits. I went a number of times as a kid. 2 highlights. Most vivid for me was meeting a pretty 12-year old Jane Asher, playing a Panto Alice (Through the Looking glass I think) in 1958 and presenting her with a huge box of chocs backstage after the show. I was 6! That would have been one of the last times the screen was raised to revert it to a full theatre use.
In 1960 he put on The Alamo in the school holidays and that was a great success. I believe he sold his interest soon after that time. The cinema seems to have gone downhill after that, together with most of the old independents with the advent of TV and esp colour TV at the time.
Late to this party. Founfd the site whilst doing some family history reseach looking at The Prince of Wales Cardiff. Out of interest, my father (now long deceased) owned the Prince of Wales from the mid 1950s to about 1961. I was 9 then. We were Londoners and it would have been him that introduced the “art-house” period as he was French and spoke fluent Spanish and Italian too and had a film distribution business in London at the time. He employed local manager(s) and we made regular visits. I went a number of times as a kid. 2 highlights. Most vivid for me was meeting a pretty 12-year old Jane Asher, playing a Panto Alice (Through the Looking glass I think) in 1958 and presenting her with a huge box of chocs backstage after the show. I was 6! That would have been one of the last times the screen was raised to revert it to a full theatre use. In 1960 he put on The Alamo in the school holidays and that was a great success. I believe he sold his interest soon after that time. The cinema seems to have gone downhill after that, together with most of the old independents with the advent of TV and esp colour TV at the time.