Playhouse Portrush
47 Main Street,
Portrush,
BT56 6FF
47 Main Street,
Portrush,
BT56 6FF
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 4 comments
When the Majestic opened in 1939 there was an agency office for the Ulster Bank on one side of the entrance and a café on the other side. The café was run by Mr. A. Forte, who also had concessions inside the cinema for ice cream, confectionery and cigarettes. The first film shown was ‘Pygmalion’ starring Leslie Howard. Shows were continuous from 2.30 with prices starting at 6d.
One former cinemagoer recalls a Mr. McKeown (he had a Scottish accent), who managed the Majestic during the Sixties. This commentator, while working in the town in 1966, remembers the Majestic’s manager but not his name or accent. This gentleman also managed Rank’s Avenue cinema in Belfast and had been seconded to the Majestic for the summer season.
An oddity was found in the Kine Year Books (1939 and 1940). There was no sign as yet of the Majestic (opened 1939) but there was a new entry for the Ritz, Portrush - proprietor W. James (no other details). The 1941 edition was not seen but in the 1942 edition an entry for the Majestic was in place; there was no sign of the Ritz. Could it be that W. James was in fact William James, a director of Portrush Majestic Cinema Ltd (see previous comment) and the Ritz was the intended name for the cinema which became the Majestic?
When the Majestic Cinema opened in 1939 the owner was Portrush Majestic Cinema Ltd. The directors were William L. James, Mrs. Bridget L. James and James Curran (head of Curran Theatres). Mr. J. McLeod was the secretary and manager while the architect was James Sheriff Kennedy of Coleraine and Portstewart. By 1946 James Curran has taken a controlling interest in the Majestic and by the end of 1948 it had been taken over by Curran Theatres (who had grown to become one of the largest cinema chains in Northern Ireland). In 1956 the Majestic was included in the sale of the Curran chain to Rank.
Rank closed the Majestic in 1970, according to the Overview on Cinema Treasures. This is slightly at odds with the article on discoverportrush.com which says it closed in 1974. The Belfast Telegraph (5th July 1977) reported that James Moran had turned the former Majestic Cinema, which he had bought 3 years earlier, into a complex. Spread over 4-stories, it included not only the cinema but a bingo hall, leisure complex and restaurant. Moran also changed its name to the Playhouse and appointed a new manager, Ken Gibbons. Despite of all these changes, by 1980 (or 1982?) the Playhouse had closed.
In 1987 the Playhouse was leased to George Rowan and Michael McAdam (his first cinema venture) but their length of stay seems only to have lasted until 1990 (Sunday Life, 15th April 2007). In 1990 Michael McAdam opened the first of his Movie House Cinemas chain (at Glengormley – see separate Cinema Treasures entry).
According to the Overview, the Playhouse reopened in 1993 and in the summer of 1997 a second screen was added. These developments were a result of Ken Gibbons, the Playhouse’s former manager (in the later 1970s) having taken it over. Ken Gibbons ran it until his death in 2004 after which his son Alan took over until it closed in 2006. In 2007 Michael McAdam returned to the Playhouse again, when he opened it for Easter, before taking a 10-week lease for the summer season.
the playhouse in the 70s
i hope movie house have'nt taken over the playhouse.sadly it will be ‘modernised’ just like the rest of it’s fleet of souless cinema’s.this chain has no real interest in cinema,just raking the cash in sadly.