New Hall Cinema
High Street,
Bargoed,
CF81
High Street,
Bargoed,
CF81
1 person
favorited this theater
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Located in Bargoed in the Rhymney Valley. The New Hall Cinema is listed as operating by 1937. It also contained a cafe and ballroom.
It was destroyed by fire some time around 1958.
Contributed by
Editha Pearce
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
A recent publication by Brian Lee contains a section on Cardiff Cinemas ,including one picture of an unidentified projection room with 2 black Kalees which Editha will probably be able to identify and give an opinion on whether 1960 is an appropriate date for the photo!
As far as I can recall (I am now in my 70th year) by 1964 there were only two Cardiff halls operating Kalee sets.
The Ninian had a pair of Kalee Regal Mk1 arcs with Kalee 12 heads. The Ninian was notorious for its limited box space and tiny ports. It would have been well nigh impossible to have fitted Peerless Arcs into what was referred to by projectionists as the Nin Pit. I believe that it was for this reason that the Jackson Withers Circuit never upgraded the Ninian box equipment. I would add that the Ninian had a short throw and that the Kalee Arcs were entirely fit for purpose.
Hello Editha, thank you for adding your comments, which I appreciate, as well as those added to the Blackwood Maxime listing to.
While researching the Jackson Withers Circuit I have found a number of conflicting pieces of information so it is refreshing to have feedback from someone who actually worked for the circuit â€" you are the only person to date, making you especially interesting.
The 1963 Kinematograph yearbook lists the registered office for the circuit as Park Place Cardiff with Hodge as MD and AJ Withers as Chairman. In 1937 the circuit is listed at New Hall Bargoed while in 1944 the circuit office is listed as the Albert Hall Swansea, the circuit was then trading as South Wales Cinemas.
You might find my website interesting and do feel free to contact me via the email link, it would be wonderful to hear from you.
http://cinemawales.homestead.com/INDEX.html
The other cinema operating complete Kalee sets in 1964 was the Globe in Wellfield Road. The hall contained two Kalee Regal Mk2s with Kalee 12 heads and an RCA sound kit that I would think dated from the late 1930s. However I cannot be sure about the dating of this RCA kit.
Whenever parts gave out on this ancient equipment, spare parts were purloined or removed from machines in the other Willis halls that had gone over to bingo or had closed down. The Canton Coliseum was a regular donor in this respect. It is for this reason that I’m sure the Coliseum never went back to films once it went over to full time bingo circa 1961.
If the photograph you mention are of the last two Kalee Regal equipped boxes. Then identification of the box should be easy.
The Ninian had its two machine located in a pit and the rectifiers located on a higher step behind. The Globe had its two machines on a level with the RCA box on the wall between the two machines.
Following the coming of cinemascope. all of the Cardiff Withers halls, apart from the Ninian, were upgraded by 1961
The Withers Circuit had a preference for Westrex and Westar heads and Peerless Magna Arcs.A few of the larger cinemas were later fitted with Kalee 18s purchased from closed down (non Withers operated) halls.
Both the Withers management and their projectionists favoured Peerless Arcs for two differing reasons. As far as management was concerned the Peerless arcs gave a better light and were lighter consumers of carbon rods than the Kalees. In normal use you could usually get five reels out of a negative rod and three reels out of a positive rod. The arcs were also easy to maintain – the mirror just needing a bit of de spattering each day and a wipe over with Windolene. The dowsers were two sided which meant that the operator on the number 1 machine could dowse the light whilst the number two machine’s operator raised or lowered the lights and drapes.
One of the operating perks of working in a Peerless equipped boxwas that the waste copper from the rods was collected in a tray. Projectionists carefully hoarded this copper and every so often it was sold off to a scrap dealer.
The Peerless arks could be controlled from the side, by left and right hand feed knobs, so that the projectionist could easily look at the screen and at the arc rod. Striking up an arc was very easy.
Kalees on the other hand had the controls on a two wheel (one rod) system that was not so easy to strike or check.
Greetings JMBrighton. I cannot get into your website from here. Have tried many times.It seems to be blocked at this end. Perhaps you could put the photograph you wish me to see onto Flicka? That site is not blocked and available to me.
Hi Editha –
Seating 1460 people at prices from 6d to 1/– in 1938, the cinema had a Sound Ltd sound system and the propreitor was Alfred Withers. By 1951 ownership was with Hanbury Palace & New Hall Cinemas Ltd, who controlled the other 2 cinemas in town, and seating had dropped to 1315 seats at 1/– and 1/9d. No reason is known for the drop in seating – this was pre-cinemascope – so lines of sight was not the reason.