Picture House
Maxwelltown,
DG2
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On Thursday 11th March 1920, according to a cutting from ‘Kine Weekly’ held in the Cinema Theatre Association Archives, “the work of preparing the Picture House, Maxwelltown [has been almost completed] and the formal opening is expected to take place about the middle of next week”. This was despite “many [unspecified] delays in the work”.
Maxwelltown was then the largest town in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire.
The cutting went on to say that the general manager, John Darlison, was “arranging an attractive programme” and that the town’s chief magistrate, Provost Arnott, had been invited to perform the opening ceremony. The cinema’s manager was James Adair.
No further cuttings are held, but it is assumed that, as the arrangements were, apparently, so far advanced, that the opening did, indeed, take place during week commencing Monday 15th March 1920.
I do not have access to Kinematograph Year Books for 1921 or 1922, but the Picture House is listed in the 1923 edition. The proprietor was given as Dumfries Theatre Company Ltd., with the resident joint managers being John W. Ramsey and John E. Mitchell. There was one show nightly (three on Saturday) and two changes of programme each week. Admission ranged from 5d to 1s 7d.
Sadly, the Picture House does not appear to have survived very long, with the entry in the 1927 Kinematograph Year Book, the next one I have access to, already showing it as “Closed”. So perhaps the Picture House was unviable, even without the advent of the talkies and the expense that the new equipment would entail.
The address of the Picture House is not known, nor is the building’s fate after closure as a cinema, but it is assumed it has been demolished at some time.
And, to complete the story, in 1929 Maxwelltown was merged with its larger neighbour Dumfries. They are now part of the district of Dumfries and Galloway.
Contributed by
David Simpson
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