Hi Frothblower, not sure these were negatives, the stage at The Hip could well have been the starting point for me becoming interested in girls.Looks like the Hippo was on it's downward slop
" Tit Bits of Variety" " Girls Dancing" " Posing" "Glamour Girls"
Hi Frothblower, I'm afraid evolution operates in all areas, live theatre was trying to survive as best it could against that new fangled invention, then, the cinema, which in turn fell victim to Bingo and television. Some of the cinemas were converted to 10 pin bowling, I remember the one on the corner of Chester Road and Gravelly Lane, Sutton Coldfield, the site ultimately became housing.I heard it was basically a strip joint at the end. Sad end for a brilliant theatre.
1955. I appeared in a show at the Aston Hipp. It was put on my my auntie, who was Madge Jenks. Madge ran a dancing and musical school on Gravelly Hill, and we performed our show there every year. This was the Walk-Down ( or as we called it, The Who Was Best....) Finale. That's Madge at the mic. View attachment 131423
I only remember it as a bingo hall but I do remember my mum telling me that she and my dad was playing bingo up in the gods which was called that because it was so steep upstairs where they were seated one night that the bingo was stopped because they announced that JFK was just assinated .
It was definitely a bingo hall in the late 60s as we lived round the corner in bracebridge st till 1972 and my mum and auntie were always in there ! Also the second photo that astoness sent down of the hippodrome if you expand the photo you see one of the billboards says super jackpot .Went there in the late 50's a man in a high wire act , fell straight on the stage , they ended the programme we had to go home , I didn't realise they played bingo there in those days , I lived up the road from it 1976-96 , when they converted it into a bingo hall . When they were stripping it out I had some of the wood to make a garden fence , I must say though , in The Barton Arms early one evening I overheard the privious nights goodies I don't think the prizes were all that good playing for bags of sugar etc
Brilliant! May I borrow this for my page please? GerryA programme from 1934. And look you could buy Bovril in the Circle Bar ! Must have been cold in the theatre. Viv.
View attachment 139610
No probs, I thought it was yours.Thanks anyway.It was for sale on eBay Gerry. So cant tell who has copyright. Viv.
Thank you Maurice for this information, certainly explains the adverts on the front covers of the Aston Hippodrome for the period 1946-59Interesting to see that Fred Butterworth was the M.D. for that period. Fred had his finger in many pies in Bournemouth and owned the Boscombe Chine Hotel amongst several other enterprises. By the time I played there for a few months in the late 1960s / early 1970s, his son John had taken over. Fred owned a total of 18 theatres throught out the UK, including the local Boscombe Hippodrome, which was more recently being run as a club. Fred died in 1992.
Maurice