Evening Telegraph from Derby, Derbyshire, England • 16

JQ DERBY EVENING TELEGRAPH Friday May 7 196i CYRIL LORD CARPETS DERBY 43 8 93 it Enkalon 100 Nylon Pile Carpet Which is next to go 1 50-YEAR CINEMA BOOM FADES OUT with built-in Foam Rubber Underlay 489 per yard (27in wide) WEEKLY Delivered direct from the factory at FACTORY PRICES DERBY 43893 Local Showroom Agent 8 HAYMARKET Wardwick'Strand DERBY Telephone 43893 Terms -3 years to pay eatasetj (J maintenance WE insurance And the complete Rentaset service goes with it Including free maintenance and insurance Ail for this low reducing rental See both these magnificent low-rental models at your rentaset showroom Or have a demonstration in your own home Call write 'phone We are at your service Always store the Cosmo is now a social club the Popular stands derelict the Coliseum was bought by Derby Corporation to make way for the Inner Ring Road the Cavendish and the Majestic are both supermarkets the Broadway was closed for redevelopment the Odeon la to be a department store SAD MOMENTS To the managers losing a cinema must be like losing an old friend It's a sad moment when a building has to close So tonight while you are watching that drama drinking at the local getting a at the bowling alley shaking at the dance hall or calling spare a thought for those of the past Barbara Jones Save that extra cost of your next Road Fund Licence by buying your next two tyres from us LARGE DISCOUNTS on NEW TYRES REMOULD TYRES ENGINE OILS SPARK PLUGS CAR BATTERIES MOTOR INSURANCE Phone or call for a quotation without obligation HILL TYRE CO (Derby) Limited 105 RUTLAND ST TELEPHONE 21760 WEEKLY REDUCING YEARLY hstalM paynaat if me Moth's reotaL Immediate delivery Statutory initial payment £580d Nothing more to pay for 3 months Minimum rental period 12 months Outdoor aerials from weekly mOMSTi: TELEPHONE wnswrr ino machine records tubscr net s' caltsf or service night or dui after business hours Elitiuirics concern-Mo the Rentaset Service mn also be recorded Telephone: Derby 1930 after being a theatre since 1914 This was the year when someone said that the craze had lost Its novelty But still more cinemas were springing up and causing a lot of controversy the London Road Congregational Church had new It became the Coliseum Cinema in 1934 A JUDOfXfflt A lot of people in town thought that would come to those who went to the new cinema Someone who remembered the opening told me: was thought that the roof would fall in or a similar fate would befall the In the same year the Gau-mont Palace opened This was by far the most modern cinema in the town at that time More money was being devoted to the cinemas The Cavendish was built at a cost of £30000 and designed so that television apparatus could be installed The Majestic was built In 1938 costing £35000 and taking only 18 weeks to build NEW AMENITY In towns the Regal (now the ABC put up In the same year was described as most modern building In cinema con and the Gloria (now Essoldo) at Chaddesden was charming building adding to the amenities of the social life of The Alvaston was renamed the Rex and became cinema to the Allenton which had opened earlier and which changed its name to the Broadway Then came the war When peace was restored there was a for a while and then slowly cinema MtteRfgps began to drop Television glued people to their homes and in came the when many of the young people in town used their cinemas as social meeting places WRESTLING TOO People were restless again and some cinemas tried to restore their dropping attendances by featuring other forms of entertainment like wrestling The inevitable came and the once crowded buildings started closing The Hippodrome went back to theatre and the Popular had to close because of "crippling entertainments The became the Troca-dero Ballroom Another form of entertainment was being sought The youngsters had their music but mums and dads had only the Then something happened: BINGO! The Cosmo became a bingo club The Hippodrome was bought by Mecca and converted into a bingo hall The bingo bug bit a lot of people and hit the cinemas hard The Trocadero Ballroom also became a bingo hall WHICH ONE NEXT? They were closing right left and centre In fact it became a guessing game: Which cinema was going to close next? We are left with two cinemas in the town centre the Gau-mont and the ABC the Odeon has just closed and two on the outskirts the Rex and the Essoldo Where have all the others gone? The Ritz is a supermarket the Black Prince vanished to make way for Duckworth Square the Nomuuiton was bipcuftfipTi Cameo became a department IT was July 1910 A 1 new era of entertainment in Derby was about to start an entertainment which was drastically to change the face of the town and which was to dwindle away sadly some 50 years later The Midland Electric Theatre was ready to open showing those silent films which were all the rage but which Derby people had only previously read about You can imagine the stir and excitement this must have caused It stood in Babington Lane decorated in blue and white with blue velvet cushioned seats expensive though for those days with admission prices between 3d and 6d It was advertised as showing "animated pictures in the hues and tint3 of SPOT NEXT The Midland Electric Theatre later called the Picture House the Scala and the Ritz was the start of the film business boom which caused new buildings to be rapidly erected in and outside the town The Spot Cinema was the next in London Road It was described as "comfortable and elegant Later the same year the Victoria Wee trie Theatre (later the Empire then the Black Prince) opened Its doors This was "elaborate and "An indication of the prevailing taste of the public In the way of entertainment' Admission was more expensive though with prices at 3d 6d and Is Perhaps some people decried these as they were known but the idea of films gradually caught on in the town Two more cinemas opened three years later OUT OF TOWN The Nor man ton was the first open out of town Then in London Road came the Cosy which changed its name twice during its lifetime to the Forum and finally to the Cameo The following year the White Hall (later the Odeon) opened on to bustling St Street A skating rink became the Alexandra Cinema (popularly known as the The 1914-18 War came and it was not until 1923 that another building went up This was the Cosmo in Upper Boundary Road followed the next year by the Alvaston Five years later the Popular was opened but a wave of change was apparent The neiv rage of had begun The question was which was going to be the first cinema in Derby to take a chance with the new craze The Cosmo won the race So popular did the become that the other cinemas decided to go to the expense of installing the special equipment But although it meant entertainment for most people for some it was hard times OUT OF WORK With the coming of sound scores of musicians found themselves out of work Many of them were ex-Servicemen The new wave continued and one of the town's music halls went over to the Hippodrome which I became a "super ta limited For Enquiries and Service Telephone Derby 45918 24 SADLER GATE DERBY Telephono 45918 1 1 aWESTGATE MANSFIELD Telephone 6783 Favourite TV Hire Service with over 300 Branches 1 fiEI 1865 ASTON MARTIN DB5 finished in ming blue with white gold upholstery fitted chrome wire wheels radio electric aerial 1000 miles only £414 (March FORD Galaxie Convertible finished in red with red interior automatic transmission power steering and power hood fitted radio 1000 miles only £2286 ALFA ROMEO Giulia Spider finished in dark grey with red trim fitted radio £1096 1884 ROVER 3-litre automatic finished in buitundy with beige interior fitted power steering £1446 MERCEDES-BENZ 220 BE Coupe finished in white with dark blue trim fitted radio £3186 1884 PRINCESS Vanden Plan finished in coffee beige 15 000 miles only £1846 1863 FIAT 1500 finished in dark grey with red trim 19000 miles £646 1883 HUMBER Sceptre in pippin redwhite 16000 miles £726 1883 Series 1100 red with grey £676 1883 MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SE Saloon in green with tan upholstery fitted radio 21000 miles £2496 1883 MERCEDES-BENZ 220 8 finished in graphite grey white with red interior fitted radio 20000 miles only £1698 1882 PRINCESS Vanden Plas finished In greenblack £886 REMO Court shoe in soft brown calf with saddle stitching 8 gnu JOHN PLANT 10 IRONGATE DERBY Tel 44084 vr) 393 HUMBERSTONE ROAD LEICESTER Tel 6630456.