"New Names - Old Cinemas"

Harold Brown in the Heanor 'Empire' projection box; yet more changes ahead! ‘Big Changes Ahead’ Over the years there were many people who worked at ‘The Cosy’ in either a full or part time capacity in the Projection Room, or as Usherettes. I remember Charles Plumb, (the brother of John Plumb the last manager of cinema days), and other operators named Burton, Jim Bamford, and another junior named David Provins. Usherettes Pauline Stocks, Maureen Newton, and Mrs. Wheeldon, who assisted Ted Beer on the stalls area, while the job of Cashier was ably done be Mrs. Edna Severn (Hart). As the closure of the cinema came, and the building turned over to bingo, under the ownership of The Star group of Companies of Leeds, it ended like many similar places under the ‘Silverline’ banner. Some of the employees were offered new jobs with the new venture, like the cleaners Mrs. Nora Hunt, and Mrs. Middleton, her daughter Joyce becoming the Bingo Caller, with the position of Manageress being held by Mrs. Eva Stone. John Plumb was re-employed further down the road in Red Lion Square, for now The Star Group had taken over ‘The Empire’, and he took with him Ted Beer as Handyman, but the decline in audience attendances were already beginning to show. First of all they showed films for six days, with bingo on the Sunday evening, which was quite successful as the other hall in town now stood unused. They increased their presence in the area, purchasing the Alfreton ‘Empire’, the Belper ‘Ritz’, and the Ripley ‘Hippodrome’, re-opening them as ‘twins’, with bingo in the stalls area, and extending the circle area to turn into a cinema. In the case of the Belper ‘Ritz’, two cinemas were installed, one with 16m/m, and the other with 35m/m equipment, as it was hoped that local businesses would hire the smaller cinema for private use. However until private bookings came along, major feature films would be shown in 16m/m. This lasted for just over a year, when the idea was scrapped following many complaints that the presentation was more like home movies than real cinema! The larger cinema was equipped with ‘cake-stand’ projection equipment, watched over by Projectionist Mr. Len Lee, who had been employed at this cinema for a number of years. The Alfreton ‘Empire’ was equipped with ‘Mirror Projection’ which worked on the periscope principal, to lift the projector beam to the required 39 ‘New Names - Old Cinemas’: All these cinemas were run under the Star Group logos of Studio 1 or Studio 1 & 2 depending on screen numbers. The only cinema in the group to escape this twinning was the Heanor ‘Empire’, which remained a single screen cinema right up to its closure in 1983. It did however, benefit from much needed extensive modernisation. The cast iron canopy over the front doors was removed; these canopies were popular in cinemas that had been previously owned by Midland Empire Theatres. The area over the front doors was cladded with white timber painted boards on a black background, and the front of house painted in a mid – grey colour. The Interior was fitted with new gold coloured ‘Fibreglass’ curtains, with aisle carpets in red and black, and the foyer was fitted with an open style cash and sales desk with multi-coloured lighting. It had been decided not to attempt to twin this building due to low beams in the stalls and circle areas. Due to the booking policy of the ‘Star Group’ there were times when all the cinemas in the area were showing the same programmes, which didn’t please the true cinemagoers. Repetitious bookings of the ‘Carry on’ films, and the ‘James Bond’ films, was somewhat successful, as was the Sunday night horror programmes, which alternated with the saucy titillating sex shows which catered for the adult audiences. As all the films had censorship certificates, the audience came hoping to see what we knew we could not show them by law. However there was some opposition from the local senior school, who persistently complained about what the cinema, was advertising, but no one would agree to view a programme to see the contents….that’s life! During my time at the ‘Empire’ there was only one time when we had problems in obtaining a certificate for a film, and that was for ‘The Killing of Sister George’ when first it was released. The problem was because of a scene between two actresses, Beryl Reid, and Susan George, who were in a lesbian relationship, and they kissed on screen. Three councilors and a Justice of the Peace came to view the film at a special showing we put on for them. Afterwards local councillor Stan Hammond came to tell me what they would be recommending to the committee, and we waited patiently as he said in a broad Derbyshire accent: ‘This has been a waste of time for us this morning; I can’t see what all the fuss is about, but to be on the safe side, we’ll recommend an ‘X’ certificate’. This then meant that wherever the film was shown in Derbyshire the same certificate would apply. 40 Please go to the next web page...........