"Personalities" (B):

‘Personalities of the Cinema Page’ (B)

Jack Morgan and Wilfred Yeomans’
Studio 1. - Alfreton:

Like the previous personalities. These two names were synonymous with the cinema. Jack Morgan worked in the business for quite a while, but in his later years worked on bingo for the ‘Star Group’, and was finally employed by ‘Cinemex’. With the latter company, his son Michael was destined to become an Engineer, but this didn’t actually come about, as the cinema closed before he completed training.

Wilfred Yeomans came from the village of Codnor in Derbyshire, and worked for a time at different cinemas ending at Alfreton, once again with ‘Cinemex’. Here Olive Phillis was Manageress, and he was the Projectionist, operating machinery which was fixed to the front of the box wall, and running large spools which held the programme. Wilf’s family was locally famous for making and selling ice cream. Both of them gave excellent service to the cinema business.

The Show Must Go On:

Just before Christmas each year, it was the policy of ‘Cinemex’ to put on special concession shows for the schools in the area, and as Manager’s we were expected to distribute leaflets by mail to all the Head Teachers. We had a whole week of these shows both in the mornings and afternoons. Olive Phillis telephoned me one Wednesday to inquire if we were showing the same Disney programme as they were, and did we have a show on the morning of the next day, to which I replied ‘yes’ to the first part, and ‘no’ to the second part of the question, as I suspected something devious here.

Would I, she asked, be willing to lend them our copy of the film, to show the next morning? Rather curious I asked why they wanted it, when they already had their own! She told me that they had a little problem, and that earlier that morning they were showing the programme to about 200 children, when one of the operators decided to leave the box, which was quite normal practice.

Unexpectedly, the film had broken, jamming in the projector gate, and continued to chop to following 4,000 feet of film into lengths about a foot long.

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When the man returned some forty minutes later, there on the floor was a great pile of damaged film, and as she said, that was going to take them some time to rejoin back into a continuous programme again. I realised what a predicament they must be in, it was bad enough when that happened with just a small reel; but I replied that I would prefer not to do what she requested. The work involved I knew, would be left to me to complete; there would be running our copy off of the spools, carrying the film in cans all the way down to my car, transporting them all the way to Alfreton, and carrying them upstairs when I got there.

At that moment I could imagine them desperately sorting and joining all the different lengths together, the operator would not be a happy man, but I had to think of myself, and this time friendship didn’t come into it. Olive wasn’t very pleased when she put the telephone down, however they did get everything ready for the next day’s presentation.

I later learned that as the film went through the projector, there were so many joints, that it sounded more like a machine gun, than the noise it usually made!

Studio 1 Alfreton was renamed ‘The Empire’, by ‘Cinemex’, and there were was a petition when it closed from the ‘Star Group’ days, but like all the others, not even private ownership could make it profitable, when the slump came along. The most disappointing cinema in the area was, I believe, the former ‘Ritz’ at Belper. Whatever film was presented, the audience was limited to the same patrons, and the people of the town never supported it well. They preferred to travel to Derby, which gave them a better choice of first – run films.

For the time it was leased by ‘Cinemex’, Alan Thompson was the Operator and Manager; he moved down south to take over a site for a different company, and the building is still in use today for bingo.

There was a rumour that there was a ghost resident in this cinema, and a recorded description is published on the Internet; However having been there myself many times, I cannot say I have witnessed anything, although I am told, it was once used for a Police Station, and the basement rooms have bars to the windows because they were used as cells. On reflection maybe they were like this to keep people out, rather than in!

A Personalities of the Cinema Page

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