Magic Lantern Cinema

When I visited, on Thursday 21st June 2018, for a matinee of “Solo: A Star Wars Story”, I was given a very warm welcome by Liz Hutchinson who, in addition to managing the cinema, runs her own company, Hutchfolk Media, and is very passionate about film! The Magic Lantern is a splendidly quirky cinema, with a wonderful set of murals down the auditorium sides and a pleasant cafe/bar in the foyer (into which the auditorium originally extended). It was lovely to see tabs being used, and it’s not often I get the choice of stalls or circle! A thoroughly enjoyable visit.

The Welsh Cinema pioneers Arthur Cheetham and William Haggar are known to have put on shows here in the first decade of the twentieth century. The Cinema was known as the Towyn Cinema from at least 1951 (Kinematograph Yearbook)and had a British Thomson-Houston sound system. The propreitor in 1966 was H.T. Parks of Prestatyn. Cinema scope was fitted in 1955 on a 31 foot 6 inches screen when the cinema held 400 seated patrons, and admission was 2/– to 3/–.
There were three4 changes of programme per week with shows continuous from 6.30pm Monday to Friday and from 6.00pm on Saturdays. No shows at that time on Sundays.