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Birmingham Cinemas

Nice story so far Chris. I remember going to the Sheldon Cinema a couple of times as I had friends who lived in the area. I bet you wished you had some of those posters now. A lot of them are worth serious money. Looking for to Part 2.
 
Pics of the SHELDON CINEMA

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Odeon

Hi The other thought about the name of ODEON was yes OD was the initials of Oscar Deutch and that EON meant glittering lights in greek, just A thought.

Chris B
 
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ChrisB....

Unfortunately it's not normally possible to edit one's posts on this forum. This is frustrating but the forum owners have good reasons for the restriction. If there is something particularly disastrous that you just HAVE to get changed, I'm sure an appeal to Rod or John would do the trick but that would be the absolute last resort and in the normal course of events one just has to live with the error. A subsequent amending post is another possibility.

You probably draft your contribution first as another document before submitting, as I have usually done, but however many read-throughs one does, I have always found that something slips through. (There's a certain Law which describes this phenomenon). But it's still the best way to minimise the need for future amendment.

Please don't let this discourage you - your contributions to date are being greatly appreciated!

Chris
 
Hi
you were nearly right, it was FU MANCHU, and at the end of each film after being defeated by Commissioner Nayland Smith, he uttered these immortal words -: "THE WORLD WILL HEAR FROM ME AGAIN" and for a good while we did, at least during the time that the films were made.
A bit of info attached :-
Feature films

Promotional poster for 1965 film The Face of Fu Manchu


In 1929 Fu made his American film debut in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu starring Warner Oland, best known for his portrayal of Charlie Chan. Oland repeated the role in 1930's The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu and 1931's Daughter of the Dragon. Oland appeared in character in the 1931 musical, Paramount on Parade where the Devil Doctor was seen to murder both Philo Vance and Sherlock Holmes.
However, the most famous early incarnation of the character was The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy. The racist tone of the film was far more offensive than the original books, but only added to its cult status alongside its campy humor and Grand Guignol sets and torture sequences. The film was suppressed for many years, but has since received critical re-evaluation and been released on DVD uncut.
Other than an obscure, unauthorized 1946 Spanish film El Otro Fu Manchu, Fu was absent from the big sceen for about twenty five years, until Towers of Londons began a series starring Christopher Lee in 1965. Towers and Lee would make one Fu Manchu film per year through the end of the decade: The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), and finally The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)
His last authorized film appearance was The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, a 1980spoof starring Peter Sellers as both Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith. The film, taking place in contemporary times bore little connection to any prior film or the original books. However Peter Sellers' characterisation of Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith were aged as the characters of the Harry Alan Towers films set in the late 1920's would have been, and seems to fit in with the Towers series.
Jess Franco, who had directed Harry Alan Towers' films, The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu, also directed the second of three Towers films based on Rohmer's Sumuru character, The Girl From Rio and an unauthorized 1986 Spanish film about Fu Manchu's daughter, Esclavas del Crimen.

Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu in Werewolf Women of the SS


Nicolas Cage plays a small but notable role as Fu Manchu in Rob Zombie's fauxtrailer Werewolf Women of the SS, which is part of the 2007 film Grindhouse.
Harry Alan Towers has announced several unsuccessful plans to revive the character since the early 1970s. The most recent was announced at Cannes in 2007
Regards Chris B


Pomgolian said:
:DI know my brother used to clout me for saying Marble Man instead of Marvel Man... Or was it the other way around :lol: :lol: :lol: . And was there a Fu Man Chow, or something :?:

Chris
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Hi,
The Electric Cinema was a news theatre for some years, showing cartoons and news reels and it was patronised by people who were "in transit" waiting for trains etc, then it was the Jacey and now the Electric which is possibly the first name it was opened under.
Regards Chris.


mazbeth said:
As well as the Saturday mornings with my younger brother, at the Aston cinema, the first film I remember seeing at a cinema was Bambi and it was at what's now called The Electric Cinema on Station St. city centre (would that have been called ABC in the past?).
EDIT: I've just Googled...it may have been called The Jacey then, and it appears it is the oldest working cinema in the country, according to this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/features/2004/03/electric_cinema.shtml

I can even remember that mom bought Poppets.‚.. :)

Second film I remember seeing (was taken to by friend and her mom), was Tom Thumb at the Perry Barr one (this is still the 60's).
Or was it the Birchfield one? Do I gather there were two, that they weren't the same?

Then, as I got older, and worked at Stockland Green too, saw lots of films at the Stockland.

In '73 (when 14 :-[) I remember queueing round the block to be admitted to see The Exorcist at The Futurist? New Street...I'm really glad that by the time we had nearly reached the front of the queue they announced they were full...and we didn't bother to try again. I'm glad I haven't seen it.

Saw 'A Star Is Born' (with Barbra Streisand) at the Bristol Road cinema, which is now McDonalds, in '76.

Used to go to the Gaumont a lot with my friends before it was knocked down...think we saw the 'rock opera' 'Tommy' there.

In about '73/'74 used to go with my friend Bridgette and her mom (who was a member) to The Forget-Me-Not social club (ex-servicemens?) on Tyburn Road Pype Hayes...and on Saturday nights they would show major films.
Saw Shaft there.
I'll never forget seeing 'Tales From The Crypt' there...
No light at all, and it was coming to a really tense, spooky bit... it was quiet...all of a sudden two blokes behind me and Bridgette brought their hands down on our shoulders, making scary noises...
course we jumped out of our skins...
good job there was a bar there to get drinks to calm us down ;D
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re cinama

jacey.was that the one op,peacocks in dale end?and the tatler.i went to both as a kid with my dad.why did them orange ice lollys taste so good.yum yum. the the the thats all folks. pete
 
Hi Chris:

I am very much enjoying reading about your escapades especially at the cinema and the characters that you encountered over time. Those days were certainly different times and I would imagine that anyone reading these
stories who went to the cinema often in those days, didn't at some point turn around and look up to the projection rooms to see what was going on or more likely wondering what was going on.You had to look through a smoke filled haze a lot of the time. Most people wouldn't have had a clue unless they knew someone who worked in a cinema in those days.
 
Alf said:
This will be nice for you Aston.

I have a record of the match when we played Autospares 8th Jan 1964

I always played No 3 for my team, No 3 was called Anchor Man. that night your Brother was their No 3, I beat him 2-1 by just 42 pins and we won the match by 25pins. Autospares were our great rivals at Villa Park.

I'll scan you a copy of that match later Aston. Wonder if your Brother remembered me
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Aston have you looked a your PMs lately:armycigar:
 
PETER. The one in Dale End I only knew as the " News Theatre " and the other which was the other side of New Street Station was the Tatler. Both showed the same kind of cartoons and newsreels, I think the performance was about an hour long.
 
Thank you Chris B. As I read the memories come flooding back, as Jennyann said the smoke that rose and surrounded the beam of light from the projection room. The boo's and hiss's when either the film 'broke' or there was a gap between the reels, and the claps when the Cowboys beat the Indians. Also if the 'Big' film was popular the queues in all weathers. The manager of the Odeon Perry Barr would let the queue curl round the inside of the building by the cash desk if it was cold or wet. :)
 
chris, thank you for these pics of the sheldon, living in the area all of my life i find they bring back so many happy memories, i used to frequent the sheldon every sunday evening in the early 70's regardless of the film that was showing, and then a couple of pints in the horse shoes, happy days.

arthur.
 
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Hi Mazbeth,
Do You mean the PLAZA at Stockland Green, the manager was Frank Rieago he worked for many many years in fact well past retirement age into his 70s I think.
Regards Chris Bryan



Chris B said:
Hi,
The Electric Cinema was a news theatre for some years, showing cartoons and news reels and it was patronised by people who were "in transit" waiting for trains etc, then it was the Jacey and now the Electric which is possibly the first name it was opened under.
Regards Chris.
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Hi Chris B: Mr. Frank Riago was indeed the Manager of the Plaza at Stockland Green and he lived very close to me just off Marsh Hill in Ransom Road. He owned several Alsatian dogs and had a special full size enclosure built for them in his back garden. Marsh Hill Junior School was just across Woolmore Road from his house and when I first started school there Mr. Riago used to
walk his dogs every morning at the bottom of the gulley where I took a short cut to school. He was always very nice to me but I was terrified of his dogs.
He had at least four I think.

He drove a Rover car for years and I often saw the car parked outside the Plaza. Of course, the Plaza building is still there but I think it is a Bingo Hall now after being a supermarket for a few years.
 
Plaza, Frank Riego

Incredible to see Frank Riego (I am pretty sure it has an 'e' and not an 'a') mentioned. He was a big man in Alsatians. This breed went on to a progressive name change; Alsatian (German Shepherd Dog) - German Shephard Dog (Alsatian) and is now simply German Shepherd Dog. The change interestingly showing the growing acceptability of things German.
I actually never knowingly met Frank, but the man was talked about by the man who started me off in serious dog training, although I think did not do competitive dog training but was a dog show man.
 
Hi Silver Fox. Yes you are right and I have always known Mr. Riego's name was spelled with an e but pronounced as an a. What I didn't know until this evening were his connections with the German Shepherd Dog Association of which he was President for 32 years and also the founder. I ran his name through Google and there he is with a photo and all about his meetings, etc. Here in Canada that breed of dog have always been known as German Shepherds. I suppose my parents must have known about Frank's connections within dog owners circles in Birmingham. I don't think anyone who was associated in some way at the level Mr. Riego was would have a huge enclosure of wire built over his garden to keep his four rather large German Shepherds if he wasn't showing them at championship
events.

It's a great story and a bit of Birmingham History.

Here are the two web sites where he is mentioned.

https://www.bagsd.net/Bagsd1933-2005.htm
https://www.birminghamcitydogshow.co.uk/info.asp?page=info3
 
Lets Hear It For George Formby & Old Mother Reilly

We haven't heard much aout these two greats on the Forum, do you have any fond memories of this pair:)
 
Alf said:
We haven't heard much aout these two greats on the Forum, do you have any fond memories of this pair:)
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Hi Alf,
funnily enough we were whatching some George Formby films the other week, No Limit, and Let George Do it, Spare A Copper, plus 1 or 2 others, had a good laugh, you can see where Norman Wisdom followed on where George Formby left off.

Bit of info' about George below

George Formby:-
George was born at 3 Westminster Street, Wigan Lancashire as George Hoy Booth, the eldest of seven surviving children (four girls and three boys). His father (James Booth) was George Formby, Sr. (1875-1921) one of the great music hall comedians of his day, fully the equal of his son's later success. His father, not wishing him even to watch his performances, moved the family to Atherton Road in Hindley (near Wigan) and it was from there that George was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven and rode his first professional race at ten when he weighed under four stone (56 pounds, 25.4 kg).
On the death of his father in 1921, Formby abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music hall career using his father's material. He originally called himself George Hoy (George Hoy was also his maternal grandfather's name, who originally came from Newmarket, Suffolk, a famous horseracing town & whose family were involved in racehorse training). In 1924 he married dancerBeryl Ingham, who managed his career (and it is said his personal life to an intolerable degree - see biographies below) until her death in 1960. He allegedly took up the ukulele, for which he was later famous, as a hobby and first played it on stage for a bet.
George Formby endeared himself to his audiences with his cheeky Lancashire humour and folksy north of England persona. In film and on stage, he generally adopted the character of an honest, good-hearted but accident-prone innocent who used the phrases: "It's turned out nice again!" as an opening line and "Ooh, mother!" when escaping from trouble.
What made him stand out, however, was his unique and often mimicked musical style. He sang comic songs, full of double entendre, to his own accompaniment on the banjolele, for which he developed a catchy musical syncopated style which became his trademark. Some of his best-known songs were written by Noel Gay. Some of his songs were considered too rude for broadcasting. His 1937 song, "With my little stick of Blackpool Rock" was banned by the BBC because of the lyrics.
He made his first successful record (he had been making records as early as 1926) in 1932 with the Jack Hylton Band, and his first sound film Boots! Boots! in 1934 (Formby had appeared in a sole silent film in 1915). The film was successful and he signed a contract to make a further 11 with Associated Talking Pictures, earned him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 per year. A subsequent contract with Columbia Pictures earned him a further £500,000.
Between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top box-office attraction in British cinema. He appeared in the 1937Royal Variety Show, and entertained troops with ENSA in Europe and North Africa during World War II. He received an OBE in 1946. He had received a Stalin Prize in 1944, prompted by the popularity of his films in the USSR. His most popular film, and still regarded as probably his best, is the espionage comedy Let George Do It, in which he is a member of a concert party, takes the wrong ship by mistake during a blackout, and finds himself in Norway (mistaking Bergen for Blackpool) as a secret agent. A dream sequence in which he punches Hitler on the nose and addresses him as a "windbag" is one of the most enduring moments in film comedy.
Formby suffered his first heart attack in 1952. His wife Beryl died of leukaemia on 24 December1960 and he planned to marry Pat Howson, a 36-year-old schoolteacher, in the spring of 1961. However he had a second heart attack before then and died in hospital on 6 March1961. His funeral was held in St. Charles' Church in Aigburth, Liverpool and an estimated 100,000 mourners lined the route as his coffin was driven to Warrington Cemetery, where he was buried in the Booth family grave.
On 15 September2007 a bronze statue of Formby was unveiled in his home town of Wigan, Lancashire, in the town's Grand Arcade Shopping Centre.

Beryl Ingham: wife and manager of George Formby

Beryl Ingham was born in 1901 in Haslingden, Lancashire. She was a champion clogdancer and actress, winning the All England Step Dancing Title at the age of 11. Later she formed a dancing act with her sister, May, which they called themselves "The Two Violets". It was in 1923 while they were appearing in music hall in Yorkshire that she met George Formby. They married in George's home town of Wigan, Lancashire the following year.
The couple worked together as a variety act until 1932 when she became his full time manager and mentor, though she did in fact appear in two of his films for which George was paid up to £35,000 per performance. It was Beryl's business savvy that guided Formby to be the UK's highest paid entertainer (at a time of high taxation he was paying 97.5% of his earnings as revenues).
In 1946 Beryl and George toured South Africa, where he played to black audiences despite threats from the National Party leader Daniel François Malan. Beryl embraced a 3 year-old black girl who had presented her with a box of chocolates.
When Malan started shouting at the Formbys, threatening to throw the couple out of the country, Beryl, with a typical northern response, replied "Why don't you piss off you horrible little man?" Beryl continued to manage George's career until she contracted leukemia. She died on Christmas Eve, 1960 in Blackpool, Lancashire. He also had a dog called Willie Waterbucket.

Regards Chris B

 
Old Mother Riley / George Formby

Some info' on Old Mother Riley

Old Mother Riley
was a music hall act which ran from about 1934 to 1954.
The part of the Irish washerwoman Old Mother Riley was played by Arthur Lucan, and his wife Kitty McShane played Old Mother Riley's daughter, Kitty. It was essentially a drag act but also a double act. They were hugely successful at the time, playing music halls, theatres, radio and films. They also gave Jimmy Clitheroe his big break in 1939 in an Old Mother Riley pantomime called The Old Woman who Lives in a Shoe, and then the following year a part in their film, Old Mother Riley in Society.
Arthur Lucan was born Arthur Towle, in Sibsey, Lincolnshire in 1885, but his family shortly afterwards moved to nearby Boston. After leaving school he left home to pursue a career in music hall. He obtained a job with a family troupe called The Musical Cliftons, and later as sidekick to a comedian called Will Pepper.
He toured Ireland, where he met and subsequently married Kathleen "Kitty" McShane. Together they developed a double act - Old Mother Riley and her daughter Kitty. They achieved some success with a sketch called 'Bridget's Night Out'. For this he first wore drag, and began to develop the character of Old Mother Riley. Whilst in Dublin he changed his name to Lucan, and they continued to perform as 'Lucan and McShane'. The act was so successful, they played it to the 1934 Royal Comman Performance at the London Palladium, the most prestigious engagement of its time.
After the Royal Command Performance followed there followed a successful and highly lucrative film career, a radio series and even a strip cartoon in the Radio Times. In all, Arthur Lucan made 17 films, 16 as Old Mother Riley.
He performed up to literally his dying breath, collapsing and dying in the wings of the now demolished Tivoli Theatre in Hull in 1954. The site now houses a bakery and cafe, where there is a memorial bust of Arthur Lucan, together with various memorabilia from his career. He is buried in Hull's Eastern Cemetery.

Regards Chris B
 
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Sound of Music at the Gaumont

Anyone know just how long the Sound of Music played? Its one of the few cinemas I never went to. Always had the same film on!
 
cromwell said:
Were was the Saltley Picture house ?
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Continuing past THE ROCK CINEMA going towards the Gate At Saltley (Townwards) it was on the same side as the Rock in the middle of the row of shops, it was only a narrow entrance but opened up at the rear, only a silent cinema, Didn't last long after The Rock opened, went onto wrestling then some years later I think it went onto Indian films for a short period.
Regards Chris B
 
Robert, "over two million people saw The Sound of Music at the Gaumont during its 168 week run starting in 1965 finishing in July 1968." quote from The Picture Palaces of Birmingham & Solihull by Chris & Rosemary Clegg.

Colin
 
My parents attended South Pacific at the Gaumont one afternoon and were presented with flowers and chocolates as they left. I am not sure what milestone figure they were rewarded for being. Later on I went to see the film with my Mother when I was on holiday in Brum. It must have been 1968:)
 
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