Cinema de Luxe

In Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Sidney White had opened the Palace Cinema (see separate Cinema Treasures entry) in 1913, but had relinquished control as early as 1916.

He was not away from the town’s cinema scene for very long, however, as he returned in 1920. Taking a lease on the old Temperance Hall, and at considerable cost, he transformed the dilapidated building into what has been described, perhaps with a touch of hyperbole, as “a place of character and beauty”.

The Cinema de Luxe opened on Thursday 28th November 1920. Despite inviting the Mayor, Councillor Howard Keppel Palmer, Mr White conducted the opening ceremony himself, mentioning that it was noteworthy that the projectionist was a woman, Miss Knight. The opening feature was “Sunken Rocks”, starring Alma Taylor and Gerald Ames, supported by Pathe News and comedy shorts starring Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle.

With the arrival of the talkies, a Western Electric(WE) sound system had been installed by the end of November 1930.

However, this appears to have been in vain, as it is thought that the Cinema de Luxe closed down around the time the County Theatre opened, in February 1935 (see separate Cinema Treasures entry). Certainly, the Cinema de Luxe did not feature in the Kinematograph Year Books after the 1934 edition.

It is not known what uses the former Temperance Hall was put to over the years but, by 2018, the building was closed up and being offered for sale.

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