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Birmingham Cinemas

Flash Gordon brings back memories - I used to see the original at the Saturday matinee at the Villa Cross Picture house
Nigelhls
 
Nigelhls said:
Flash Gordon brings back memories - I used to see the original at the Saturday matinee at the Villa Cross Picture house
Nigelhls
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How I loved going to the Saturday pic's to see Flash Gordon. Couldn't wait to go back the following week to see how he get's out of the trap he was always in at the end. I used to go to the Lyric which was off Summer Hill.
 
Used to see Flash Gordon at the Globe High St.Aston,great stuff,especially when they threw us out for causing mayhem.:rolleyes:
 
Cinema when it was a main feature film, followed by the news and cartoons and a second feature, normally what is now called a film noire. Some of those second feature's were actually better than the main show. Well I enjoyed them more anyway.
 
fantastic queues at this cinema Odeon Queensway, on Easter holiday weekend 1978, the long and patient queues stretched down the nearby subway to some distance on the other side of the road, the film was Close Encounters of the Third Kind, other memorable Birmingham cinema crowds were Star Wars at the Gaumont, and Enter the Dragon at the Futurist.
 
I believe both the News Theatre (rear of New St station) and the Tatler (forget where that was) only showed cartoons and "shorts" about half a dozen at a time the programme not lasting much more than an hour and a quarter, used to go regular around late 40s and 50s, I presume they have both long since gone ?? Eric
 
Hi Cookie. My Dad used to take me to both the Tatler, which I remember as being in Station Street at the back of New Street Station (now the Electric I think), and the News Theatre which was in High Street where M&S is now. Both showed continuous programmes of cartoons and news. I am also talking about the 40's.

Judy
 
Hi All,

In the early 1950s the Gaiety used to have a midnight showing on Friday nights. The films were usually ones that had not long finished their normal runs. The shows were always well attended as I remember and were popular with courting couples.

Old Boy
 
I saw many "Horror" films at the Gaiety circa 1968/9, with the usual Stars, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Vincent Price etc. Len.
 
Len There was a cinema on the Cov rd, north towards Brum across from the old cop shop. Long gone I guess, Also in Acocks Green one we went to a lot, John Crump OldBrit in Parker.Co USA
 
George Wheeler said:
The first Odeon was the 5,000 seat model built in Athens about 2,400 years ago, I think Oscar just borrowed the name
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I remember as a teenager around 1971/2 staying at the home of Oscar Deutsch's widow. My mom's friend was housekeeper there and I stayed with her for company once when everyone was away. It was an amazing home, now I remember it, really it was probably like a movie magnates home back in the day. She was tiny his widow, and she had wardrobes full of furs and zillions of shoes. but the room I loved the most was the library, it had dozens of albums of film premiere photos, I didn't really know who the stars and faces were, but am sure they would have been priceless collections! The house was on one of the roads of the Calthorpe Estate and I think has been knocked down now to make way for new homes - it was lovely, huge georgian style home, large gardens, gorgeous - how the other half lived!
 
I think his address was 3 Augustus Road Edgbaston, and you are quite right the house and its grounds were redeveloped for many smaller high quality houses.
Regards Chris b
 
Further Pics of the Gaeity Coleshill Street. (Notice the ghostly disembodied form of the cleaner kneeling on the stairs)
 
Was there a cinema designed for somewhere in an arcade along New Street that never opened ? Or did I imagine that? Viv.
 
Just been having a mooch in my dad's old diary from 1929,one entry is...

The showing of the first talking film at the Astoria cinema Aston,was Monday 15th.July 1929,and my dad just told me it kept breaking down.:rolleyes:

Oh,the film showing was "In Old Arizona"
 
Originally called "The Bristol" when it opened brand-new on 16 May 1937 (1712 seats when originally constructed).
Became part of the ABC group in 1944 but not renamed as such until August 1959.
Re-designed in September1963 to accommodate big-screen Cinerama. What you have there is a photo of it on re-opening night.
Cinerama de-constructed July 1972 in order to make 3 smaller screens instead of the one super-large.
Ending up as the ABC Bristol Road closed down and demolished 1987. MacDonalds drive-in now on that site.

The MACE archive has several post-war mini-videos depicting the cinema on its website.

Richie.
 
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