Comments from lukemckernan

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lukemckernan
lukemckernan commented about Ben Hur Cinema on Dec 30, 2006 at 7:38 pm

I’ve been researching London cinemas pre-WWI (there’s a database available at http://londonfilm.bbk.ac.uk)) I found records of the Palaceadium in film trade books covering 1914, one of which gives the owner as Palaceadium Ltd, the other as Ben Hur, which indicates he was running the cinema pre-WWI. There’s a memoir of going to the cinema at this time in Ben Thomas, Ben’s Limehouse: Recollections by Ben Thomas (London: Ragged School Books, 1987), p. 43. I’d heard tale that he got his name after success exhibiting the 1907 film Ben Hur. Is this true, and what was his real name? Luke