Walpole Cinema

Grand opening ad posted.

They had been replaced by Kalee’s – possibly 20’s – by 1968.

What a find. By the time I was involved with the place in 1970, the whole of the inside was painted black. If my memory serves me well, the picture was taken from a point in front of the steeply raked rear stalls. The cinema was actually quite large inside, the projection throw being around 100 feet. The ‘scope picture was like a postage stamp from the back, due to being the same width as the 1.33:1

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=72614

Although the film this link connects to concerns the building of the Forum cinema around the corner, the exterior of the Walpole features quite prominently in it.

the frontage as it currently stands
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/223142844/

Looking at the two pictures re-posted on Jan 5th, it’s not obvious from the front that the auditorium was actually quite a distance from the road/entrance, and was reached via a lengthy corridor. This entered the cinema at the base of the raked seats.

When I worked there for a short while, as a projection assistant, I seem to remember being told the throw was around 100 feet. The screen was quite narrow, and was not widened when ‘scope came along – presumably to be able to leave the two marble pillars that flanked it intact. This meant that, rather than the VERTICAL masking moving in and out to change to 'scope, the HORIZONTAL masking moved up and down instead. Another bi-product of this, was that a longer focal length standard lens was required when the anamorph was swung in front than was used for 'flat’ ratio films. The ads and trailers were always ‘flat’, so were assembled on a reel by themselves. As soon as the ‘scope feature started, the lenses and gates would be swapped over, ready for the first changeover. During the last reel, the lenses and gate had to be swapped again, ready for the next – continuous in those days – showing. The carbon rods also had to be checked, and changed every couple of reels per projector, so MAJOR problems ensued if the first or last reel of the feature was a bit short. For obvious reasons, focus could be a bit 'iffy’ at the first changeover after the lenses had been changed, but a bit of judicious marking of the lens mount, and a lot of practise, kept this to a minimum.

I now have photos of the Walpole under construction – as a roller rink and being converted to a cinema!

Brian

I helped out here for a while in 1970, and I learnt how to do changeovers properly at the Walpole! The box wasn’t actually attached to the theatre, so, when it rained, the projectionist had to wipe the spots off the glasses between them. The girls who worked in the dance studio next door used to make tea for the staff. I went back there when it was a carpet store. It was amazing to see that they’d cleaned up the screen surround to reveal two beautiful marble pillars, which were not evident before – we thought they were black!

A recent photograph of the Walpole Cinema facade, relocated to its new site on the side of a building here:
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