was not being used for other functions and entertainment.
In 1920 it
became the Scala Cinema: it had 2 entrances, at Ocean Road, the main
thoroughfare, and another at the side of the cinema itself in Mile End Road.Ron Drew's Theatre Page
Local Professional Theatre
The Early
years of theatre and cinema in the town
1
The Early Theatre
2 The rise of the Cinema
3 The cinema takes
off
4 The cinemas close
The Early Theatre and 'Turns'
During the 19th Century there was very little in the form of professional entertainment for the masses in South Shields save for that provided at the local Inns and pubs. In Coronation Street there was a small wooden building called the Alhambra that was presumably a local Inn which had entertainment of sorts, but little is known about it. It was Dick Thornton, the proprietor of a number of Inns in the town who was to change all that.
Thornton had long held an ambition to provide a building for the purpose of entertainment and he was able to do this by expanding the music room of one of his Inns, the Shakespeare Arms in Union Alley. This, together with several existing adjacent buildings. produced, in 1885, Thornton's Music Hall which flourished and later was to be known as "Thornton Varieties."
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It was an imposing building and continued to be popular until 1898 when it closed and in the following year, he moved 'next door' into a new building, the Empire Theatre - the "Empire Palace of Varieties" as he called it. It had its entrance in the then grand thoroughfare of King Street, South Shields with a bridge over Union Alley that took the patrons to the 1000-seater Empire. Sadly the theatre is no longer there, but in its time it attracted many of the country's best entertainers.
Thornton's Empire Palace thrived as an entertainment theatre. Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, George Formby as well as local acts like Frank E Franks had appeared there as also did many other famous acts from around the world. So it was from Thornton's beginning that, by the start of the 20th century, South Shields was lucky enough to have a number of theatres. The Empire however, remained the centre of Variety in South Shields until a new theatre, the Queens, was built in 1913, of which more later.
At the beginning of the 20th century the cinema began to be popular with the public. It is perhaps stretching a point but the first 'cinema show' could have been seen at Thornton's Music Hall in April 1896 when there was a short presentation of 'Cinematographe' during a performance at the theatre but the first show in South Shields comprising films only was to be seen in St Thomas's Church Hall (in Denmark Street, off Ocean Road,) later that year.
The legitimate theatre made many attempts to maintain a foothold. The Theatre Royal in King Street, South Shields had opened in the 1880's for the presentation of theatrical performances yet here too, in 1897 a Mr James Downey arranged for his 2 nephews to exhibit snippets of moving pictures between scenes in the theatre's pantomime "Aladdin". Mr Downey was a well respected photographer of the time and for some time was the Photographer to Queen Victoria: his snippets at the Theatre Royal included one of the Prince's horses winning the Derby.
The Theatre Royal was to close as a theatre in 1934 and ultimately the building became a small branch of Marks and Spencer. Today the only evidence, of its earlier glory can be seen if one looks up at the facade above the store
Another Variety Theatre for which there is little available evidence of its history was the Tivoli in Laygate Lane. It had opened in 1905 showing films and 'turns' [as the acts of the theatre artistes were locally referred to]. They ran this mixed programme until 1919 when a programme of 'Varieties' was advertised. They were granted a cinema licence again in 1922: however they were given a licence for stage plays in 1925. The Tivoli continued mainly with Variety until 1935 when it closed and was purchased by Allens who were to buy a further part of the building in 1948 and opened a well-patronised store on the site.
Another theatre, the Alexandra Theatre, started life as a church in Wallis Street, South Shields. It had been built in 1824 by the perseverance of 12 local citizens to be their first chapel after founding a Congregational Church in South Shields two years earlier. It was beset with problems during its building - in the autumn of 1824 the walls gave way when nearly completed, and ultimately the whole building had to be taken down. This caused a long delay and eventually was open for worship in 1825.The congregation soon increased in numbers over the years and a new, larger site had to be found and they moved to Ocean Road in 1884.
The Wallis Street chapel was sold to the Gospel Temperance Union. After many years they also had to move similarly because of increasing congregations; and their new larger building in Victoria Road meets their needs to this day.
The Gospel Temperance Hall was then used as a theatre, known as the King's Alexandra Theatre. A quote from Mark C Robson, the author of the Ocean Road Congregational Church's Centenary Celebrations Souvenir booklet states ".......The Temperance people used the building as their headquarters for many years, but, alas, it has gone the way of many such old buildings and is now used as a theatre for popular drama."
April 1906 saw the first of the King's Alexandra Theatre 'Tuesday night living pictures' and they later opened, in January 1909, as the King's Picture House, a full-time cinema. Soon the number of films available were so small that 'turns' were soon introduced between the programme of films. Doris Johnson, the local history librarian at the Central Library, to whom I'm indebted for many of the notes on this page, says in her book "The Cinemas of South Tyneside" that often the pictures were accompanied by a lecturer who would give a talk as the film proceeded. One such lecturer was Herbert H Cullum (popularly known as Fatty). An excerpt from an article in the Shields Gazette of 13th March 1959 written by Fatty's son gives some interesting facts about the King's Alexandra at that time:
" The stage was fourteen feet in depth and practically the width of the theatre [42 feet]. The screen was flat against the wall with a scarlet plush curtain. It had a balcony and the proscenium was in white plaster and gilded scroll work. The operating box or projection room had access by a vertical iron ladder bolted to the outside wall, and by clambering over the back of the balcony and crawling through a window onto an iron catwalk.
"Some of the 'turns' who appeared at the King's were Frank E Franks and Albert Burdon.
"They [the cinema] had separate box offices for downstairs and for the circle and it was a jam jar for down below but 4d or 6d [1½p or 2½p today] for the circle."
During its time as a theatre the Alexandra (as it later became known) was popular for its repertory company and their plays attracted many theatre goers. Theatre fans of that era will remember Robert Monteigle, a well-known South Shields actor and elocutionist, as one of the players at the Alexandra. It was closed because of the blackout during the last war which caused diminishing audiences; even the most loyal supporters staying at home.
Dick Thornton's Empire had continued its flirtation with films; and in 1905 the management decided to make films a regular feature with the music hall turns and this policy continued until 1918 when they reverted back to live performances only. This lasted only a few years when they then experimented by having one week all film and perhaps the next week a revue; in April 1928 George Formby was playing in a such a revue. Various mixes of revues and films were tried but the Theatre closed in 1933 with a revue "Piccadilly Nights" staring Sid Dooly.
2 years later it was taken over and largely rebuilt. Eddie McNamee writes in a note to Janis Blower's Cookson Country that the auditorium had 1,500 seats and the splendid stage had been rebuilt with a classical proscenium arch and scalloped gold curtains. He added that the original dressing rooms and the entrance from King Street were retained. This entrance contained memorabilia from the old liner Mauritania, it's reclaimed portholes adorning the bridge over Union Alley. It opened as Blacks Regal, a cinema with a mighty Compton Organ. According to Doris Johnson's 'Cinemas of South Tyneside',"..........one organist painted his hands with phosphorous so the audience could see the movements of his hands and feet "
I had the pleasure of playing this organ on a couple of occasions - without the phosphorous, I might add! It was during the war when, for a period, a children's cinema was held every Saturday morning. The regular organist was unable to attend and I was given the pleasure of entertaining the children in a sing-song. It was a great experience more so because of the thrill of rising out of the pit, seated at the organ, with the glass sections of its panelling being internally illuminated with changing coloured lights.
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Read The Story of The Queens |
Another favourite theatre was the Queen's Theatre, opened in 1913. It had introduced films into its programmes right from the start. However in 1933 they introduced a policy of having a short period of live shows followed by another period of films. This happy combination of stage productions and the cinema, was ended on the same night as the destruction of many other famous buildings in South Shields - during an air-raid on 9th April, 1941. On that night of the dramatic end of the Queens (by now it had lost the apostrophe in its billings!) it was playing host to Arthur Lucan and his wife, Kitty McShane. Their show, "Old Mother Riley and her Daughter Kitty", was hugely popular all over the country, particularly with children, and they were playing to a capacity crowd.
During the night that followed their show, South Shields was subjected to what a Gazette article called "........a savage attack on the North-East coast by Nazi moon raiders". The Queens was one of the victims [a fuller account can be read in 'The Story of the Queens']. Until then this theatre had continued the world of Music Hall and Variety of a very high standard and although there was some talk in 1946 of rebuilding the theatre, the Queens was never rebuilt. A multi story car park ultimately replaced it but was never used to its full capacity and in the end it was considered to be an unsafe structure. The site has remained a derelict, unsafe, unsightly multi-storey car-park for about 10 years; in 2004 the local council was still considering its future.
Dick Thornton's Empire had continued its flirtation with films; and in 1905 the management decided to make films a regular feature with the music hall turns and this policy continued until 1918 when they reverted back to live performances only. This lasted only a few years when they then experimented by having one week all film and perhaps the next week a revue: in April 1928 George Formby was playing in a such a revue. Various mixes of revues and films were tried but the Theatre closed in 1933 with a revue "Piccadilly Nights" staring Sid Dooly. 2 years later it was to open as Blacks Regal, a cinema with a mighty Compton Organ. According to Doris Johnson's 'Cinemas of South Tyneside',"..........one organist painted his hands with phosphorous so the audience could see the movements of his hands and feet "
I had the pleasure of playing this organ on a couple of occasions - without the phosphorous! It was during the war when, for a period, a children's cinema was held every Saturday morning. The regular organist was unable to attend and I was given the pleasure of entertaining the children in a sing-song. It was a great experience more so because of the thrill of rising out of the pit, seated at the organ, with the glass sections of its panelling being internally illuminated with changing coloured lights!
The days of the 'professional' theatre for drama and variety were soon to come to an end. As the number of cinemas in the town increased in popularity over the first half of the century, the resulting effect was seen in a number of theatres closing. The first to go were both the Alhambra and the Royal in 1934.
A year later the King Street Empire (Dick Thorntons's pride and joy where many world famous stars had appeared) also went by the wayside and became the Blacks Regal Cinema later to be called The Odeon. However in September 1955 it introduced live shows again, the first week featuring Jimmy James and in it's later years it did continue the occasional theatre but these were mainly local amateur productions. In 1962 it was to become a Bingo Hall and later used as a Hall for Snooker and Billiards. At the end of the 20th century it was pulled down and the upper architecture of the facade in King Street became the only evidence of its earlier glory.
As already recorded above, a number of different types of buildings were used to show films in the early years of cinema. Some had opened with 'turns' in the programme and others opened to principally show films but due to their scarcity in the cinema's infancy they ultimately had to pad out the programme with the turns.
A number of early cinemas were to open but unable to stay operating for long during the first half of the century. Early in 1910, The Old Durham Hall opened as a cinema complete with a Ladies Orchestra and had the usual turns between the films as well as special events such as a beauty competition. It was only to last until 1913. A year after the Durham Hall started as a cinema, the Coronation Picture Hall opened in Hudson Street but was only able to last 2 years. Perhaps it was the effect of having as its near neighbour, the Crown. Incidentally its name was to commemorate the coronation of King George V.,
There was a building in Baring Street which was used as a cinema for a while and called the Excelsior. According to Doris Richardson it was situated in the 'Tin Cathedral' or Baring Street Methodist Church - does any one remember it or have information about the cinema? if so please get in touch and advise me. Doris says that it was used as a church between 1883 to 1903. There is a mystery about it being a cinema: perhaps it was never granted a licence.
Although not a commercial cinema, mention must be made of the Saturday morning Children's Cinema. In 1940 Ron Drew, with his brother, Stan, started a Saturday Morning 'Children's Cinema Club ' using a 16mm film projector in the Congregational Church Hall. The audience of children who had not been evacuated to safer areas, enjoyed the shows and demonstrated their enthusiasm with their feet especially whenever the film snapped!. The programme was mainly made up with shorts - Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy etc. and 15 min. shorts of singers and entertainers. One singer who was frequently shown was Edmund Hockridge who is still performing today under the name of Ted Hockridge.
Eventually, despite the closure of many small cinemas, the number of cinemas operating in South Shields rapidly built up. In the 1950's there were a dozen cinemas operating in the town. As well as The Black's Regal Cinema there was The Scala, The Palace, Pavilion, Imperial (Farnham Road), the Crown in Hudson Street, the Palladium at the Nook, Plaza (Paragon), Savoy, Regent and the Picture House.
The first purpose built cinema to be erected in the town was the Grand Electric in Ocean Road but had a short life. It opened in 1910 with the innovation of using tip-up seats from the beginning: they were also the first cinema to make use of booking seats by telephone. Yet another innovation was the presentation of a coloured (hand tinted) drama film in June 1911. It continued to flourish until the outbreak of war in 1914 with a policy of using a mixed bill of films with turns. The Grand Electric opened again after the war and from then on mainly showed films only. Not only was it the first cinema to be built in town it was also the first to show 'talkies' - from June 1929; a year later it was to show the talking and colour film "Gold Diggers of Broadway"
It continued to show major full length films and became the Grand in 1931. The success was not to last long. A devastating fire in 1932 resulted in one less cinema in the town.
One of he town's first picture halls was the Cosy in Ocean Road. It was on the site of the German Cottage which was demolished to be replaced by large hall and was used, successively, as a Baptist Church, The Peoples Palace Art Gallery and promenade, a drill hall, and in 1880, a skating rink followed by a shooting gallery. The hall then opened in January 1907 as a Picture Hall which functioned with pictures and turns 'til the end of the year.
It reopened in 1910 as the Cosy with a mixture of films and turns but 2 years later had the policy of showing films only. In the summer of 1914 there was quite an innovation instituted when afternoon teas were served free in the stalls! This would be to the posh seats at the front of the one floor hall - there was no balcony above the 500 seat auditorium. It was later called The Picture House but was still known to the locals as the Cosy. This was famous for the back row of the stalls which sported double seats for courting couples. This was to become a feature in many cinemas in the town. The Picture House closed in 1960.
One of the earliest purpose built cinemas was the Westoe Picture House, known also as the Chi, which was opened by the proprietor of the Picture House in 1911 and in 1912 they were showing the Pathe Gazette one of the earliest newsreel (news and interest) short films, which became a features of most cinemas for many years. This usually preceded the main feature film, very often Westerns, at this cinema as at many other small cinemas. Another innovation by this proprietor at the Chi was the introduction of reduced prices for pensioners, the first cinema in the town to do so.
Unfortunately it failed to maintain a policy of modernisation for as Doris Johnson recalls that "..........[I and my nana] ......... always went upstairs to the same seats [but] as I discovered when the lights went up after one performance.... [I could see that].....the audience downstairs had to be content with wooden forms, and no carpet either". It is not surprising that the cinema closed in 1959.
The Scala
cinema
had
begun life
in the 1890's as The Royal
Assembly Hall, South Shields and intermittently showed films
when the Hall
was not being used for other functions and entertainment.
In 1920 it
became the Scala Cinema: it had 2 entrances, at Ocean Road, the main
thoroughfare, and another at the side of the cinema itself in Mile End Road.
The Royal Assembly Hall
A Tomorrows History picture from the NEMLAC
(North
East Museums Libraries and Archives Council)
web site
The entrance in Ocean Road had a most imposing facade above the entrance hall which contained an entrance lounge and cafe. There were two further cafes on the second floor, access to which was by a grand staircase. This also gave access to the bridge to the other side of the alley where the Scala Cinema was situated. However this entrance from Ocean Road was closed in 1960 and turned into a furniture store, Granthams. This was taken over later by Leveys (wallpapers etc) which remains there to this day. Next to the Scala entrance was a high-class piano and music shop called Wiggs a well loved store which later sold records, gramophones and then in 1953 started selling tv's. In the late 1980's they also closed and is now one of the Virgin Express record and CD chain of stores.
The cinema continued to flourish with changes in its name to include The Gaumont and Regal. Later the cinema itself closed for a short while before reopened as the Focus in 1980 in the guise of a mini 'multi-cinema' with 3 screens. The re-birth was short-lived: it closed finally in 1982.
It was mentioned earlier that the first building used to show a programme of films only was the St Thomas Church Sunday School Hall in Denmark Street around August 1896 when it showed 'Photography in colours and endowed with life' for five days only at 3.00pm, 7.30pm and 9.30pm. Admission was 6d (2½p today) with the front seats priced at 1/- (5p). One of the films in the programme was "The Coronation of the Czar". The Hall had a chequered existence for many years with various companies trying out different forms of presentation, including inserting turns into the programme: but each Saturday the church insisted that the forms were cleared away and be re-seated for the Sunday School held the following day.
The Plaza (The Paragon)
A Tomorrows History picture from the NEMLAC
(North
East Museums Libraries and Archives Council)
web site
In 1909 a firm opened the Hall as the Paragon and a more stable cinema was brought to life. It was complete with a lady pianist who accompanied the silent films with appropriate music for the action on the screen and an 'MC' would come on stage and announce the film: he was also responsible for putting in sound effects such as horses hooves.
Again referring to Doris Johnson's book of cinemas in South Shields "...........Another of his jobs was to ask mothers take their babies outside if they started crying" She added that "........a Mrs Coates remembers that the entrance fee for the children's matinee on Saturday morning was a jam jar; this was changed to a penny, but a stick of liquorice or a comic was also given to every child"
In 1931 the Paragon was refurbished and was opened as the Imperia. Again, in 1942, it changed its name again after another re-furbishment and became The Plaza: This cinema closed in 1958.
Unlike many cinemas in the town which had been, or perhaps still used, as a place of worship, The Palladium was custom built as a cinema and used as a church on Sundays whilst the Harton Methodist Church was built nearby.
It opened in August1930 with an all talking, all singing and dancing film called "Elstree Calling". The Palladium was a small cinema and from its early days it was known to be a friendly 'family-style' venue. In 1935 they entertained the children from the local charitable 'Cottage Homes' with a showing of "Tarzan and his Mate", with Johnny Weissmuller as the star of the film; a competition was held to determine the entrant 'whose Physique most closely resembled that of the Star.' The Palladium was to follow the lead given by other cinemas in the town and closed in 1960 with the film "The Blue Angel" starring Curt Jurgens.
The Palace, another purpose built cinema opened in High Shields in 1911. They tried many new features to attract the customers: 1912 saw them experimenting with a lecturer describing the drama on the screen and then they tried using actors ( the cast of the turns interspersed with the films) who gave dialogue to the films. This was continued well into the decade - as was displayed in a cinema advert of the time (1912) "Padden with Lecture"
The Palace finally closed in December 1960 with Cole Porter's "Can Can" providing half the performance, the rest being taken over by a bingo session which had become a feature in its later years. This feature was similar to the early Cine variety mentioned above. It had closed because Fine Faye supermarket made an offer they could not refuse
1913 saw the opening of the Pavilion in Adelaide Street in Laygate. It opened as the Kino with the first programme including "Dante's Inferno" and then continued with the usual mix of films and variety turns, but by 1917 they had changed the policy to a films only programme. They continued the run of the mill feature films until it closed in 1959
The Imperial Picture House in Farnham Road had opened in 1912 and in its lifetime was variously known as the Electric Theatre, The Lyric and the Tyne Dock Palace. The day before the official opening of the cinema a special performance was put on for miner's children as a treat, as their fathers were on strike at the time. For some unknown reason it had to close early in 1914 but opened again later that year and continued as a cinema until 1959.
Another cinema to last until the 50's was the Crown in Hudson Street. It had been opened in 1866 and used as an adult school before becoming the Crown Picture Hall in 1911. It was not to be an unbroken period until its closure in 1959 for it closed twice: fist was in 1922 when there was a short break in screening and then for just over 2 years in 1925 for the building's licence had been revoked because it was considered to be in a dangerous condition. It was quite a large Hall with a seating of about 680.
One of the latest cinemas to be built was the Regent in Dean Road near to the Westoe round-a-bout (or Westoe Fountain as it was known for many years in the last century). This 'luxuriously modern' cinema ran continuously from 1935 to 1966, only showing films. It had a full-sized stage which made it possible to accommodate stage performances.
The South Shields Amateur Operatic Society were delighted to take advantage of this facility for it was here that they re-started their public performances of theatrical shows after their war-time break. In November 1950 they started their annual musical shows with "Rose Marie".
To present these shows required great co-operation between the Regent staff and the volunteer stage staff of the SSAOS. After the final cinema performance of films on the preceding Saturday night the screen had to be dismantled and replaced by 'theatre' flies, lighting battens, backcloths and a myriad other pieces of equipment required for a theatrical production. All this had to be done overnight and the following morning in order to be ready for the society's dress rehearsal on the Sunday afternoon. This situation became more cumbersome when the cinema closed in 1966: becoming a Bingo Hall. This meant that the stage bingo equipment had to be removed and stored for a week; then all the stage staff had to go into reverse gear and restore it back to its previous condition.
The Amateurs continued performing there every year until 1980 when, because new bingo equipment had been installed, its complexity denied the possible conversion to a theatre stage. The Amateurs transferred to Sunderland Empire for their annual shows and the Regent Bingo Hall continues to this day (2004).
During the 1939-45 war the small garage and warehouse adjacent to the cinema was used as a centre of communication for the National Fire Service. In 1943 an incendiary raid on the town resulted in the the garage being destroyed and the Regent damaged, the Air Raid warning siren on the Regent's roof being put out of action.
The last cinema to be built in the mid century was erected next to the site of the old Grand Electric. This was the Savoy, later to change its name to the ABC: it was a large cinema seating 1,708. It opened in 1938 with a double bill, which by then had become the norm: the feature film was "Sing you Sinners" with Bing Crosby, the other film being Richard Goolden in "Meet Mr. Penny". An article in the Gazette of that time said " ............. The new cinema typifies the age of progress and science."
It was to close for a brief time in 1982 and up to that date was exclusively a cinema. However in January 1984 it re-opened with the pantomime "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" performed on the stage and continued with a mixture of films and live shows until it finally closed in December of the same year. The building was demolished in 1987
By the 60's TV had become more popular. Night Clubs had opened. The Working-men's Clubs started to lose its all male image and the adult family would go there to see up and coming comedians or local pop groups for a cheap night out.
The cinemas closed one by one and South Shields was left without a purpose designed theatre for either plays, variety or cinema for many years. However with the opening of The Customs House as an Arts and Entertainments Centre in 1994, South Shields had once more a professional purpose built theatre and cinema.