Ultimate Picture Palace
53 Jeune Street,
Oxford,
OX4 1BN
53 Jeune Street,
Oxford,
OX4 1BN
4 people
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@CF100 - The Ultimate Survivor documentary that you linked to was very interesting and a real trip down memory lane.
Thank you.
I was always intrigued as to the old name of this cinema The Penultimate Picture Palace. Apparently this arose from a discussion between the previous owner and his bank manager we who said words to the effect that this was the second stupidest business proposition he had heard.
LARGE_screen_format: According to the “History” page on the cinema’s website, the cinema was acquired by a local person, Becky Hallsmith, in 2011. Digital projection/replacement screen were added, and the sound system “upgrad[ed],” alongside “redecorations.” Subsquently, the seating was replaced also.
Alas, Ms. Hallsmith passed away last year; however, it is to become a “community-owned” business—so you, too, can own a “piece” of the cinema!
The cinema is the subject of an ~1 hour long documentary, “The Ultimate Survivor;” which can be viewed on the linked page.
Great to see this cinema still running after all of these years. Not the Moulin Rouge ( http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/41623 ) was not so lucky.
Watched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly here around 1980. Has the projection, sound system and seats been upgraded over the years?
projection room accessed via ladder just by paybox outside
I saw many a picture at the PPP in the early 80s, including ALL of Bertolucci’s ‘1900’. They issued handy discount cards to we poor students. It was always cheaper than the Phoenix across town.
(I wonder what happened to the Jolson/Jazz Singer 3-D sign/sculpture?)
Current number of seats at the Ultimate Picture Palace, Jeune Street, off Cowley Road, Oxford: 121.
(via email from the cinema)
O.K.
The Penultimate Picture Palace / Ultimate Picture Palace is 100 years old in 2011.
To mark the centenery we are making a documentary film about this historic oxford landmark.
If you have memories or stories about the cinema we’d love to hear from you.
email: .uk
or visit the website at: www.picturepalace.org.uk (sign up for our newsletter there)
or follow us on Facebook
A few vintage shots of the Penultimate dating from 1986 here:–
View link
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The UPP is a true gem, run and owned as a labour of love by a man who used to go to the PPP as a child and fell in love with it, only to get a chance to buy it later in life. The programming is very very mixed – if you want to see it, and if the owner thinks others will, he’ll get the print in for a few days run! Forget modern conveniences and concession bars, this is old-style cinemagoing and a must for cinephiles visiting Oxford (it’s a 10-minute walk South from Magdalen College – over the roundabout (take the middle fork ‘Cowley Road’), on your left.
Anther recent view which also shows the side of the building:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/460576399/
The Picture Palace opened on 25th February 1911. It was designed by local architect John R. Wilkins. It operated until the early 1920’s when it was closed and became a furniture store, retaining the original ‘Picture Palace’ sign on the front of building until around 1950.
It re-opened as the Penultimate Picture Palace on 18th July 1976. Oxford artist John Trigg designed the exterior name on the facade from a 1896 French poster. Above the name board was the cinema’s motive; a giant cut-out of Al Jolson with hands outstretched as seen in the first talkie “The Jazz Singer” (the fibre glass hands were designed by scupture John Buckley who also designed the new door handles shaped as Mae West’s lips!. The original 1911 pay box was retained. Seating capacity was given as 192. It now operates as an Art House cinema.