I did relief work at this cinema several times circa 1962. It was a well designed cinema with a very comfortable operating box.Unlike many of the older Withers halls it was possible to continuously operate with all the viewing and screening ports open as the positioning of the box meant that the interior box lighting did not shine down on the patrons below. In many halls this was not possible and once a changeover had been achieved only the viewing port of the running machine was left open or more often 50% shut.The alternative being to switch most of the box lighting off leaving only a dim pilot light on between reels.
I would agree with a possible date of mid June 1959 for the Rialto closure.I was lodging in Old Church Road in 1960 and am certain it was not operating at that time.Being a cinema mad young lady,my day job was clerking at the Warner Pathe office/print vaults in the Cardiff Dominions Arcade.My tasks included compiling print issue sheets and print despatch cards for cinemas all over South and West Wales. The FTS (Film Transport Services)scheduling lists contained collection and delivery details for every operational cinema in South and West Wales.I can clearly recall that the Rialto was never on the FTS schedules.
The situation of the Splott Cinema was slightly different. It was a vast hall that had a very poor patronage in a low income area containing a high population. Staff had been warned around 1960 that the future of the cinema was in doubt. At that time it was being operated by Withers relief list projectionists most of who came from other local halls that had three box staff.
Bingo was tried out as a last stand operation and left everyone very surprised when it turned out to be an instant success. Had the bingo not succeeded then the Splott would have closed within months.
In Jackson Withers eyes Sunday bingo was a means of dipping a foot in the water. If the Sunday bingo experiment was successful then four day bingo was introduced pretty quickly. If that too was a runner then the cinema went forward to seven day bingo. The Gaiety was a typical example of this progression. The Monico was the opposite situation. It ran Sunday bingo for about a year but attendances were not that good. The inevitable consequence was that the hall stayed with films.
Staffing the halls was very easy. Front of house staff were always happy to have an extra day’s work on a Sunday and the projectionists (all Jackson Withers houses had at least two projectionists) were always equally happy to descend from the box and act as extra checkers. Payment for house staff at the Gaiety was £2 a night.The Washington (not a Withers house) paid staff £1/10 for a Wednesday afternoon and £2 for a Sunday. Additional profits came from the sale of the usual soft drinks and ice-cream. The Gaiety and the Coliseum also sold tea and coffee. If the bingo machine was not in the way of the screen it was common to dim lights and run the trailers for the next week’s showings.
Bingo was an easy option to set up. All that was needed was a number board, a ball bag ( usually later replaced by a machine if the hall was successful)and a microphone for the caller. Normally the microphone was hitched into the cinema sound system. House lights and footies gave adequate illumination in most halls. The choice of caller was very important. A caller with a good charisma could often fill a hall simply on the strength of his personality. Jack Williams at the Gaiety, Ken Wardle at the Coliseum and Alan Watts (manager)at the Washington were good examples of this phenomena.
I would agree that was probably the most likely case at the Rialto. Rex Willis and his son never missed a chance to squeeze every penny they could out of their ramshackle halls.
The Jackson Withers attitude to Bingo was that it offered a stream of extra income from those houses on three day cycles. Sunday bingo was outside of the cinema bye-laws and could therefore operate free of time constraints and with out the cost of renting a film for one day and paying FTS for film transport.
The latest equipment from Kalee is rumoured to have been the much vaunted Projectomatic system. As far as I’m aware it was the only cinema in South Wales that was fitted with this operating device.
Five years ago my husband took me on a memory lane trip around South Wales. We went to Briton Ferry and looked at where I thought the Public Hall was. I managed to locate what I believed was the location of the cinema but it had since been turned into a garage.
I am confused by the above as I did a few days of relief in a cinema called the Public Hall at Briton Ferry some time around 1960. The feature that week was “Two Way Stretch”. I cannot remember much about the cinema except that it was a Kalee equipped medium sized house with a fairly wide stage that was sometimes used for live shows. I also recall seeing that that some of the inner doors had “Palace” etched on the glass.
Was this a case of the Palace Cinema later using the name “Public Hall?”
The gear driven BTH Supers were the worst of all machines to switch from flat screen to scope projection. Nearly of of them had been scrapped by 1960 and were often replaced by older Kalee machines from closed houses. Many cinemas retained the robust BTH stands and mounted Peerless Arcs and Westar heads on them.The Monico in Rhiwbina was a good example of this practice.
Scope brought a lot of headaches for projectionists. Especially when a hall was showing two wide screen presentations with a scope trailer in between. Projectionists had to work at an extremely fast rate to effect the format changes if they wanted a slick presentation.
Most of the projection heads in the small south Wales halls were of Kalee,BTH Super, Westar or in extreme cases antique devices of RCA origin. None of these were originally designed for Scope although all of them were easily adapted to to the new format.Adapting meant changing the aperture plate and primary lens, then swinging the anopticon scope lens in front of the replaced primary lens. Kalee plates were robust affairs that slid in from the top of the head. Westar plates were small fiddly brass affairs that were slid into a slot at the side of the head.Projectionists often used pliers for this change as the plates would get very hot and were difficult to grip.
No. All projection heads contained some type of plate that would govern the area of screen that received the image. For example a cinemascope plate would be rectangular as would the smaller wide screen plate. Flat screen plates would be almost square. These plates were changed over depending on the film being shown. The location of the plates being always immediately before the primary lens. Every projector had a set of plates that were individually created to match that projector’s position in that particular box. The plates were cut in such a way that the screened image was of the correct proportion and identically positioned to the image projected by the other projector.
The Grand was the flagship theatre of the Willis Circuit and was certainly owned and operated by that company up until at least the mid 1960s. I can remember visiting the theatre some time in the early 1960s,when a stage show was taking place,and being shown the operating box. It was in an untidy condition and clearly had not been used for projecting purposes for some time.
I can recall spending a few days of doing relief at this cinema some time around the early 1960s.The equipment was extremely ropey and badly maintained with the sound system having been rehoused in an old tin traveller’s trunk. The film we projected was also weird, a rough print possessing the title “Mondo Carne”. Basically a documentary with no plot whatsoever which was shown to an almost non existent audience.Thinking retrospectively,with films of that quality, it must have been a miracle that the Gala stayed in the film business as long as it did.
In the early 1960s the Odeon possessed two Kalee 21 projectors. These powerful machines were the first to be coloured orange / yellow (all previous Kalee models had black crackle paint) and were considered easy machines to operate. The carbon feed being adjusted by a left and right controls in front of the machines.
Earlier Kalee arc equipment was adjusted by means of one control at the rear with the two adjustment wheels on the one shaft.It was difficult to make this adjustment and view the screen at the same time.
Prior to the Kalee equipment being installed, the Castle arcs were Ross Streamlights powered by a single rectifier located in a room at the back of the box. This single rectifier was removed from the cinema when the Kalee arcs were installed as each came with their own individual rectifier sited immediately behind the projector.
The Ross arcs were extremely unreliable and expensive to operate, spares were unobtainable. The two Ross arcs remained at the Castle for some years as junk after they went out of use. Eventually they were scrapped circa 1962. However,the mirrors and gear trains were saved and were sold to the Embassy Cinema at Brigend.
As a cinema mad child in Cardiff in the early 1950s, I was taken to the Queen’s Cinema many times by members of my family. It was a warm comfortable cinema that mainly specialised in second run family orientated features.It had the lowest prices in Queen Street which made it attractive to families that were not too well off. After the Coronation in June 1953, the Queens ran a full length film of the Coronation event for several months. I saw the film many times and remember the long queues waiting to gain admission. After closure it was quickly converted into a Wyman’s newspaper and book shop.
I can recall that this cinema had a box that was designed with four projection ports. The two centre ports were used for the projection system whilst the two outer ports were intended to be used by spot lights on dance nights. In the early 1960s only the left outer port had a spotlight . The right outer port being useful as an observation point when using the extensive Strand dimmer system.
I can confirm that the Rialto was closed to films by 1960. I lived close to the premises, passing it every day on my way to work. I cannot recall it being used for bingo and believe it may have shut before the South Wales bingo boom of 1961.
I did get a sight of the box circa 1963 and remember that it was very small. All of the equipment had gone by then as the building was being converted for other uses. From the base marks and bolts on the box floor, I remember assuming that it must have had Kalee projectors.
The Plaza had a close relationship with a number of shops nearby. As well as running Pearl, Dean and Younger advertisments, it also showed a number of professionally produced (and inhouse made) slides promoting the neighbouring shops.
The Plaza always played very up to date music during its breaks. These were supplied by Cadennes record shop next door. The deal was one free record a week in exchange for showing two slide adverts per day.Woe betide the relief projectionist who forgot the Cadenne’s slide.
Whilst the box was considered difficult to operate by projectionists, at least it was well ventilated. The box having access to a balcony high above the main entrance.
Originally the Plaza’s external advertising were two multi quad panels let into the front wall either side of the entrance. Dai John was not happy about this so he had two new wood and steel panels constructed forwards at right angle to the entrance that could more easily be seen by passing motorists. These attractive white bordered panels had trellis type edges.
During the 1960s the Plaza Cinema in North Road, Cardiff was managed by Dai John. He was considered to be the best manager on the Jackson Withers circuit and the Plaza was the flagship cinema. He later became the Cardiff area supervisor.
As built the Plaza had a very narrow projection box that made working difficult. Its equipment consisted of a mixture of Peerless Magna Arcs and Westar heads. The sound system was maintained by Western Electric , their engineer Charlie Crane visited monthly to make adjustments.
I visited the Coliseum several times in the 1960s specifically to view the projection equipment. I can confirm that the cinema was totally incapable of showing films by 1964 owing to the removal of equipment including arcs and sound heads.
I did relief work at this cinema several times circa 1962. It was a well designed cinema with a very comfortable operating box.Unlike many of the older Withers halls it was possible to continuously operate with all the viewing and screening ports open as the positioning of the box meant that the interior box lighting did not shine down on the patrons below. In many halls this was not possible and once a changeover had been achieved only the viewing port of the running machine was left open or more often 50% shut.The alternative being to switch most of the box lighting off leaving only a dim pilot light on between reels.
I would agree with a possible date of mid June 1959 for the Rialto closure.I was lodging in Old Church Road in 1960 and am certain it was not operating at that time.Being a cinema mad young lady,my day job was clerking at the Warner Pathe office/print vaults in the Cardiff Dominions Arcade.My tasks included compiling print issue sheets and print despatch cards for cinemas all over South and West Wales. The FTS (Film Transport Services)scheduling lists contained collection and delivery details for every operational cinema in South and West Wales.I can clearly recall that the Rialto was never on the FTS schedules.
The situation of the Splott Cinema was slightly different. It was a vast hall that had a very poor patronage in a low income area containing a high population. Staff had been warned around 1960 that the future of the cinema was in doubt. At that time it was being operated by Withers relief list projectionists most of who came from other local halls that had three box staff.
Bingo was tried out as a last stand operation and left everyone very surprised when it turned out to be an instant success. Had the bingo not succeeded then the Splott would have closed within months.
In Jackson Withers eyes Sunday bingo was a means of dipping a foot in the water. If the Sunday bingo experiment was successful then four day bingo was introduced pretty quickly. If that too was a runner then the cinema went forward to seven day bingo. The Gaiety was a typical example of this progression. The Monico was the opposite situation. It ran Sunday bingo for about a year but attendances were not that good. The inevitable consequence was that the hall stayed with films.
Staffing the halls was very easy. Front of house staff were always happy to have an extra day’s work on a Sunday and the projectionists (all Jackson Withers houses had at least two projectionists) were always equally happy to descend from the box and act as extra checkers. Payment for house staff at the Gaiety was £2 a night.The Washington (not a Withers house) paid staff £1/10 for a Wednesday afternoon and £2 for a Sunday. Additional profits came from the sale of the usual soft drinks and ice-cream. The Gaiety and the Coliseum also sold tea and coffee. If the bingo machine was not in the way of the screen it was common to dim lights and run the trailers for the next week’s showings.
Bingo was an easy option to set up. All that was needed was a number board, a ball bag ( usually later replaced by a machine if the hall was successful)and a microphone for the caller. Normally the microphone was hitched into the cinema sound system. House lights and footies gave adequate illumination in most halls. The choice of caller was very important. A caller with a good charisma could often fill a hall simply on the strength of his personality. Jack Williams at the Gaiety, Ken Wardle at the Coliseum and Alan Watts (manager)at the Washington were good examples of this phenomena.
I would agree that was probably the most likely case at the Rialto. Rex Willis and his son never missed a chance to squeeze every penny they could out of their ramshackle halls.
The Jackson Withers attitude to Bingo was that it offered a stream of extra income from those houses on three day cycles. Sunday bingo was outside of the cinema bye-laws and could therefore operate free of time constraints and with out the cost of renting a film for one day and paying FTS for film transport.
The latest equipment from Kalee is rumoured to have been the much vaunted Projectomatic system. As far as I’m aware it was the only cinema in South Wales that was fitted with this operating device.
Five years ago my husband took me on a memory lane trip around South Wales. We went to Briton Ferry and looked at where I thought the Public Hall was. I managed to locate what I believed was the location of the cinema but it had since been turned into a garage.
I am confused by the above as I did a few days of relief in a cinema called the Public Hall at Briton Ferry some time around 1960. The feature that week was “Two Way Stretch”. I cannot remember much about the cinema except that it was a Kalee equipped medium sized house with a fairly wide stage that was sometimes used for live shows. I also recall seeing that that some of the inner doors had “Palace” etched on the glass.
Was this a case of the Palace Cinema later using the name “Public Hall?”
The gear driven BTH Supers were the worst of all machines to switch from flat screen to scope projection. Nearly of of them had been scrapped by 1960 and were often replaced by older Kalee machines from closed houses. Many cinemas retained the robust BTH stands and mounted Peerless Arcs and Westar heads on them.The Monico in Rhiwbina was a good example of this practice.
Scope brought a lot of headaches for projectionists. Especially when a hall was showing two wide screen presentations with a scope trailer in between. Projectionists had to work at an extremely fast rate to effect the format changes if they wanted a slick presentation.
Most of the projection heads in the small south Wales halls were of Kalee,BTH Super, Westar or in extreme cases antique devices of RCA origin. None of these were originally designed for Scope although all of them were easily adapted to to the new format.Adapting meant changing the aperture plate and primary lens, then swinging the anopticon scope lens in front of the replaced primary lens. Kalee plates were robust affairs that slid in from the top of the head. Westar plates were small fiddly brass affairs that were slid into a slot at the side of the head.Projectionists often used pliers for this change as the plates would get very hot and were difficult to grip.
No. All projection heads contained some type of plate that would govern the area of screen that received the image. For example a cinemascope plate would be rectangular as would the smaller wide screen plate. Flat screen plates would be almost square. These plates were changed over depending on the film being shown. The location of the plates being always immediately before the primary lens. Every projector had a set of plates that were individually created to match that projector’s position in that particular box. The plates were cut in such a way that the screened image was of the correct proportion and identically positioned to the image projected by the other projector.
The Grand was the flagship theatre of the Willis Circuit and was certainly owned and operated by that company up until at least the mid 1960s. I can remember visiting the theatre some time in the early 1960s,when a stage show was taking place,and being shown the operating box. It was in an untidy condition and clearly had not been used for projecting purposes for some time.
I can recall spending a few days of doing relief at this cinema some time around the early 1960s.The equipment was extremely ropey and badly maintained with the sound system having been rehoused in an old tin traveller’s trunk. The film we projected was also weird, a rough print possessing the title “Mondo Carne”. Basically a documentary with no plot whatsoever which was shown to an almost non existent audience.Thinking retrospectively,with films of that quality, it must have been a miracle that the Gala stayed in the film business as long as it did.
In the early 1960s the Odeon possessed two Kalee 21 projectors. These powerful machines were the first to be coloured orange / yellow (all previous Kalee models had black crackle paint) and were considered easy machines to operate. The carbon feed being adjusted by a left and right controls in front of the machines.
Earlier Kalee arc equipment was adjusted by means of one control at the rear with the two adjustment wheels on the one shaft.It was difficult to make this adjustment and view the screen at the same time.
Prior to the Kalee equipment being installed, the Castle arcs were Ross Streamlights powered by a single rectifier located in a room at the back of the box. This single rectifier was removed from the cinema when the Kalee arcs were installed as each came with their own individual rectifier sited immediately behind the projector.
The Ross arcs were extremely unreliable and expensive to operate, spares were unobtainable. The two Ross arcs remained at the Castle for some years as junk after they went out of use. Eventually they were scrapped circa 1962. However,the mirrors and gear trains were saved and were sold to the Embassy Cinema at Brigend.
As a cinema mad child in Cardiff in the early 1950s, I was taken to the Queen’s Cinema many times by members of my family. It was a warm comfortable cinema that mainly specialised in second run family orientated features.It had the lowest prices in Queen Street which made it attractive to families that were not too well off. After the Coronation in June 1953, the Queens ran a full length film of the Coronation event for several months. I saw the film many times and remember the long queues waiting to gain admission. After closure it was quickly converted into a Wyman’s newspaper and book shop.
I can recall that this cinema had a box that was designed with four projection ports. The two centre ports were used for the projection system whilst the two outer ports were intended to be used by spot lights on dance nights. In the early 1960s only the left outer port had a spotlight . The right outer port being useful as an observation point when using the extensive Strand dimmer system.
I can confirm that the Rialto was closed to films by 1960. I lived close to the premises, passing it every day on my way to work. I cannot recall it being used for bingo and believe it may have shut before the South Wales bingo boom of 1961.
I did get a sight of the box circa 1963 and remember that it was very small. All of the equipment had gone by then as the building was being converted for other uses. From the base marks and bolts on the box floor, I remember assuming that it must have had Kalee projectors.
The Plaza had a close relationship with a number of shops nearby. As well as running Pearl, Dean and Younger advertisments, it also showed a number of professionally produced (and inhouse made) slides promoting the neighbouring shops.
The Plaza always played very up to date music during its breaks. These were supplied by Cadennes record shop next door. The deal was one free record a week in exchange for showing two slide adverts per day.Woe betide the relief projectionist who forgot the Cadenne’s slide.
Whilst the box was considered difficult to operate by projectionists, at least it was well ventilated. The box having access to a balcony high above the main entrance.
Originally the Plaza’s external advertising were two multi quad panels let into the front wall either side of the entrance. Dai John was not happy about this so he had two new wood and steel panels constructed forwards at right angle to the entrance that could more easily be seen by passing motorists. These attractive white bordered panels had trellis type edges.
During the 1960s the Plaza Cinema in North Road, Cardiff was managed by Dai John. He was considered to be the best manager on the Jackson Withers circuit and the Plaza was the flagship cinema. He later became the Cardiff area supervisor.
As built the Plaza had a very narrow projection box that made working difficult. Its equipment consisted of a mixture of Peerless Magna Arcs and Westar heads. The sound system was maintained by Western Electric , their engineer Charlie Crane visited monthly to make adjustments.
Adjusting the angle of the projector and the screen to get a square or rectangular image in front of the audience.
I visited the Coliseum several times in the 1960s specifically to view the projection equipment. I can confirm that the cinema was totally incapable of showing films by 1964 owing to the removal of equipment including arcs and sound heads.