Cannon Deansgate

rivest266 on November 4, 2021 at 1:54 pm

1960 reopening ABC Deansgate reopening 01 Sep 1960, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

terry on May 5, 2014 at 12:35 pm

A small cinema with a big feel – the ABC Deansgate used to be solidly booked for weeks and months ahead which gave it an air of exclusivity and was known as the cinema you could never get into.

Not everyone appreciated this intimacy, however, and when ‘My Fair Lady’ had its roadshow run there a friend of mine, whilst having his hair cut at a Manchester Barber’s, overheard a conversation in which a disgruntled person said “Fancy showing a lovely film like ‘My Fair Lady’ in a poky place like the Deansgate when we have the Gaumont!”

He obviously did not understand product alignment and agreements between certain distributors and exhibitors and,of course, why should he have? – his sentiments were,after all,quite valid.

ABC, of course, had at one time operated the Theatre Royal, Peter Street, which became Manchester’s cinerama theatre. They later purchased a valuable site on Oxford Street on which was to be built a prestigious ABC but I understand that this did not materialise because they received a very generous offer from a developer for the site. When that company once again addressed the matter of not having an actual city centre venue in Manchester(they had many large cinemas on the periphery the best example being the huge Apollo Ardwick), the only place available was the small, but generally highly regarded,Deansgate Picture House which included a busy restaurant. At this time it was part of the Brennan’s Circuit(which included the Queen’s Theatre, Blackpool)whose Head Office was at the Deansgate.

abcman on September 30, 2008 at 8:46 am

Did Management relief duties at the ABC Deansgate in the early 1970’s when Ken Pickering was the General Manager there. Always a busy house.

(abcman)

delta on January 22, 2007 at 5:51 am

The first Todd-AO presentation was ‘Porgy & Bess’ which, unusually, was shown as a continuous performance rather than as a roadshow presentation with pre-booked seats. Later, I recall seeing ‘Dr Zhivago’ in 70mm. When the screen curtains opened they became jammed thus obscuring part of the screen. The film was stopped after about five minutes when the manager came on stage, tugged at the curtains and was able to clear the screen. Then the film started again from the beginning.

Ian on August 14, 2006 at 12:02 am

Another picture here when still a cinema:–

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