Electric Theatre
5 Shirley High Street, Shirley,
Southampton,
SO15 3LS
5 Shirley High Street, Shirley,
Southampton,
SO15 3LS
1 person
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Forrester's Hall, Assembly Rooms, Shirley Electric Theatre, Cinema Hall, Picturedrome
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Different entrances meant different seats and different prices ranging from the cheap benches up front to comfortable loose seating at the back. Children were to be accompanied by an adult after 6:30pm.
In earlier days, the building was known to the town of Shirley as the Picturedrome which was controlled by Jury’s Imperial Pictures. Advertisements stated "Jury’s Joyful and Judicious Pictures Perfectly Presented" with Jury’s Bijou Orchestra.
Then over the Christmas period of 1910, the Electric Theatre was leased by the Picture & Variety Company with the fashionable Jessie Balderson as the house Music Director. Twenty-weeks of the American serial "The Million Dollar Mystery" with Richard Harris appearing on stage, resplendent in his cowboy outfit while riding his horse. Other classic silent films such as "Quo Vadis" and "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" delighted enthusiastic audiences until 1922.
Then suddenly the theater/cinema changed format from show business to furniture business and subsequently was demolished for the present, more modern Gordon Buildings.
Contributed by
Simon Overton
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
Notes from “100 Years of Cinema in Southampton” by Patrick Hayward; This place was also known as the Shirley Electric and the Cinema Hall were in the old Assembly Rooms.