Victory Cinema

Situated on the busy Walton Road, at its junction with a side road, Luton Grove, in the Kirkdale district of Liverpool, the Victory Cinema opened at 2pm on Wednesday 4th October 1922 with the D. W. Griffith epic “The Birth of a Nation” on the screen and Martinique and His Orchestra.

There were frontages to both roads, with front stalls access from Luton Grove. The imposing building was of red brick, with stonework decorating the many large windows. There were 1,130 seats, with 800 in the stalls and 330 in the circle. Unusually, the proscenium was situated to the left of centre, with a much longer splayed wall on the right hand side, where the circle curved round further than on the left.

Silent films were supplemented by the Victory Orchestra, but this was dispensed with when Western Electric(WE) sound was installed. The Grand Opening of the talkies was on Monday 3rd February 1930, with “The Broadway Melody”, starring Charles King & Anita Page, showing at 2.30pm, 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

Soon afterwards, the company that operated the Victory Cinema provided its own competition when, from 21st July 1930, it opened the Astoria Cinema on the opposite side of the road, which took the more attractive releases. (See separate Cinema Treasures entry.)

In September 1935 the Victory Cinema and the Astoria Cinema were acquired by Associated British Cinemas(ABC).

In 1955 a wider screen, the best that could be fitted within the 30ft wide proscenium, was installed. With reduced height, this was used for CinemaScope presentations from 3rd October 1955, with a late run of the 1954 musical “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”. By this time, the total seating capacity had been reduced, but only slightly, to 1,113.

The subsequent closure of all the neighbouring cinemas, aside from the Astoria Cinema, increased the availability of the more recent releases, but the Victory Cinema continued its decline, and it closed on 29th July 1961. The final films were “Rip Van Winkle”, starring Jamie Uys, and Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie in “Son of Ali Baba”.

The building was demolished, and whole area has since been redeveloped with shops and houses.

(Note: Sources vary as to whether the Victory Cinema was in the Walton or Kirkdale districts. However, an ABC-published programme cover, reproduced in ‘Picture Palaces of Liverpool’, shows it as being on Walton Road, Kirkdale, as does the Cinema Theatre Association’s ABC circuit history.)

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