Re Tez contribution. During my time at the Majestic during the run of Sound of Music which was still running at capacity houses at every performance I cannot recall there being Saturday mornings kids shows because we just wouldn’t be able to do so alongside The Sound of Music. Indeed it was very early into the extended run that the box office accountancy was in serious trouble and in consequence inevitable serious deficits. Apart from myself,the other assistant and Lee Prescott the General Manager no one else had a working knowledge of road show advance ticketing which was then quite complex, each and every book of ticket stubs including sold, unsold and half price had to be counted daily and I would guess we were taking advance bookings at least a month ahead of performance dates so chaos was inevitable. The only aid to accountancy we had was an Olivetti hand crank operated adding machine which we bought from the theatre’s 12/6d pw sales deficit allowance. Always drawn but never dipped into because kiosk and ice cream sales were tightly controlled and instead spent in the nearby pub). A pretty useless bit of kit because it was quicker and more accurate to do our sums mentally. No help whatsoever was ever forthcoming from the hierarchy of course, the corporate expression of the day being “The ball’s in your court”, in other words, your problem you sort it.
Referring back to the kids matinées, there couldn’t have been live performances by pop groups simply because there were no stage facilities whatsoever, The huge deeply curved Todd-A-O screen was immediately behind the screen tabs and the stalls balustrade, probably a meter at most, with no room whatsoever for even a raised dais.
Not withstanding my recall of the period which I believe is accurate any relevant comment will be appreciated of course.
I’ve always loved the cinema experience, not just to see films but to absorb the atmosphere and decor. Still a teenager, my first experience of big screen presentations was South Pacific in the fifties at the Majestic which “flicked my switch”. A few years later I got a job with Rank as trainee assistant manager and subsequently deputised for managers rest days at various cinemas in Yorkshire and Lancashire. My last base was at the Majestic Leeds at the start of record run of Sound of Music. Lee Prescott was the General Manager and the staff were a friendly hard working brigade.Every morning arriving for work with queues already formed at the Advance booking office on Wellington Street. I took every opportunity to stand at the back of the stalls under the projection booth to take in the opening sequence as the camera panned down onto Julie Andrews and the accompanying enveloping sound system. So sad to see the venue close and absolutely horrifying to see the gross vandalism of the massive dome as can be seen on Flickr. Still all is not lost, the restorers have done a magnificent job and are to be congratulated wholeheartedly and I look forward to the venue’s renaisance.
bikerpeter here again.
Re Tez contribution. During my time at the Majestic during the run of Sound of Music which was still running at capacity houses at every performance I cannot recall there being Saturday mornings kids shows because we just wouldn’t be able to do so alongside The Sound of Music. Indeed it was very early into the extended run that the box office accountancy was in serious trouble and in consequence inevitable serious deficits. Apart from myself,the other assistant and Lee Prescott the General Manager no one else had a working knowledge of road show advance ticketing which was then quite complex, each and every book of ticket stubs including sold, unsold and half price had to be counted daily and I would guess we were taking advance bookings at least a month ahead of performance dates so chaos was inevitable. The only aid to accountancy we had was an Olivetti hand crank operated adding machine which we bought from the theatre’s 12/6d pw sales deficit allowance. Always drawn but never dipped into because kiosk and ice cream sales were tightly controlled and instead spent in the nearby pub). A pretty useless bit of kit because it was quicker and more accurate to do our sums mentally. No help whatsoever was ever forthcoming from the hierarchy of course, the corporate expression of the day being “The ball’s in your court”, in other words, your problem you sort it. Referring back to the kids matinées, there couldn’t have been live performances by pop groups simply because there were no stage facilities whatsoever, The huge deeply curved Todd-A-O screen was immediately behind the screen tabs and the stalls balustrade, probably a meter at most, with no room whatsoever for even a raised dais. Not withstanding my recall of the period which I believe is accurate any relevant comment will be appreciated of course.
I’ve always loved the cinema experience, not just to see films but to absorb the atmosphere and decor. Still a teenager, my first experience of big screen presentations was South Pacific in the fifties at the Majestic which “flicked my switch”. A few years later I got a job with Rank as trainee assistant manager and subsequently deputised for managers rest days at various cinemas in Yorkshire and Lancashire. My last base was at the Majestic Leeds at the start of record run of Sound of Music. Lee Prescott was the General Manager and the staff were a friendly hard working brigade.Every morning arriving for work with queues already formed at the Advance booking office on Wellington Street. I took every opportunity to stand at the back of the stalls under the projection booth to take in the opening sequence as the camera panned down onto Julie Andrews and the accompanying enveloping sound system. So sad to see the venue close and absolutely horrifying to see the gross vandalism of the massive dome as can be seen on Flickr. Still all is not lost, the restorers have done a magnificent job and are to be congratulated wholeheartedly and I look forward to the venue’s renaisance.