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Asia~cinemas, in highgate..

christy

master brummie
Hi Forum..is there any info,on who owned the picture houses, in highgate." the Triangle in [Gooch st]..the Alhambra..[Moseley rd]..& the Luxor..on balsall~heath rd] they were taken over by Asia Owners..in the mid 70s..regards..christy..ps..is there any film footage..of the Cinemas..fr years gone by..*..*
 
Hi Christy..... Just a thought Who Owned.. and who operated These theatres are not always the same... Eg. The TRiangle Freehold site is still owned by the Gooch Estate (Trust). They never sell Freeholds. The Head Lease most of its Life was ABC Cinema and Sub let.. to the Asian operator.. Alhambra was owned by ABC and let to an Operator.. As was Picture House Aston Cross.. I Think The Luxor was a Man named Amid.. He did a nice Refurb. when it closed the Satchwell & Roberts designed Plasterwork went to a Museum in Warwichshire The Last English Operator was the Victoria Playhouse Group..

Sorry I am so full of Useless knowledge
 
HI MIKE
CAN YOU TELL US WHEN DID THE ALUMROCK PICTURE HOUSE ALUM ROCK RD ALUM ROCK CLOSED DOWN
I BELEIVE THERE WAS TWO AT ONE TIME ON THE ROCK ; ONE BY SALTLEY GATE WHICH LATER AFTER CLSEING DOWN BECAME THE JIG SAW NIGHT CLUB AND THE NEW ONE FURTHER UP THE RD FROM IT I ONLY WENT TO THAT ONE TWICE IN MY LIFE
BUT THE OLD JIG SAW I WAS THERE EVERY WEEK END ROCKING AND JIGGING AROUND THE BEER WAS AWLFUL AND THE BAR WAS ABOUT SIX FEET HIGH SO YOU COULD NOT SE WHAT YOU WAS GETTING FROM THE WHITE ENAMUEL BUCKET THEY POURED OUT OFF [ THATS IF YOU DID NOT KNOW ;]
BEST WISHES Astonian;;;;
 
Hi Astonian. Lets see. From The Gate Saltley . There was the Carlton. (Which got bombed by Adolf) The Palace Saltley (The Jig-Saw) The Rock Cinema (A Clifton Cinema). which became Gala Bingo and knocked down.. The Grand Saltey Which still stands was a petrol Station -Car Sales and repairs... Regards Mike :eek:) The rubbish I know...
 
hi mike ;
yes you are bang on target can you recall what year the rock picture house became a bingo hall and was it not that the nuts sewing machine specialst was the first shop where they was selling there machines and the batch of shops was demolished and built that terrible indoor market it so sad to se how the rock road as deteriated
when you think back to the fiftys and the tre lined roads around it my old friends from the slums moved to the top of the rock by the the traffic lights
and in those days the raffic lights was never there but sweeneys tv was on the corner my old friends was the craddocks moved into that rd a beatiful rd all tree lined
most certainly not like lichfield rd where we came from [ mind you the craddocks was a middle class family different from the rest of us familys living in cromwell terrace on the lichfield rd next to thompsons the butchers very rare i would ever go to the rock picture house i lived just yards from the aston cross picture houseon the lichfield rd
it was on the oppersite side to our house in those days but i always went to the aldeph along from there regular i even got knocked down out side there in 1953
my aunt used to run the box office so i did not have to pay ;but i also went to the threnny crush morning mattinee at the victoria ; victoria rd and a tanner on the night viewings ; one sturday morning in 1953 i went to the saturday morning crush matnee to see my old favorite roy rogers ; when i came out at lunch time i dashed down the the aldelphy at the cross to see another roy rogers film but when i came out i got knocked down by a car and it was a coincidence the doctor fromthe general seen me get knocked down and wittnessed it and he was from the old general hospital whom i later became under him and it was touch and go whether i was going to live
they operated on me all night ; and got the blood transfusion ; but they had to give me another one afterwards as i was going to die i was there for 3months
and i had to have a plate in my leg as the bone was completely cruched could not repair the bone so i ha to have a plate put in to bridge the gap;
and even in those days there was bad drivers i was another caseof hit and run it took them months to trace the driver but the police tracked him down could not claim a peny as the old man said there aint no legal aid in those days i do not know hat the drver got ; i surpose it was a fine all i can recall that one day my mther was reading the paper and said oh lok alan they have found the driver of the car that knocked you down but as a kid i really never obsorbed as to what she said and she said its a pitty you cannot claim ; as your dad said there aint no legal to help and we could not pay our selves to take it to court ;
any way mike thanks for your quick replie best wishes Astonian;;
 
The Rock Cinema opened on 15th January 1934 with Gracie Fields in “This Week of Grace”, and a Laurel & Hardy short.Designed by architectural firm Satchwell and Roberts, with Roland Satchwell acting as supervising architect. The builder was C. Bryant & Sons, and it was owned by Regalia Cinema Company (Birmingham) Ltd, who’s principle directors were Leon Salberg and Sydney Clift. An interesting note regarding the projection equipment is that Western Electric was installed, and not the usual BTH which Clifton Cinemas installed.
The Rock Cinema shares majority later came under the control of C. Bryant of the Coronet Group of cinemas. It seems also that Clifton booked the films for the Rock Cinema only, with all other services required to run the cinema being done at the Coronet Cinema. On the death of Clift the Coronet Group did their own booking. The Rock Cinema later become majority owned by the C. Bryant & Son. The last manager was Leslie Gibbons, who went on to close the Atlas Cinema, the Sheldon Cinema, the Beaufort Cinema and the Kingsway Cinema.
The Rock Cinema was closed on Sunday 16th January 1972 with Kent Taylor in “Phantom from 10,000 Leagues”. The building was sold to Whitehouse and Kendrick for conversion into a bingo club, later passing to Ladbrokes Bingo and then to Gala Bingo.
 
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