Palladium Cinema

Torchlight on April 23, 2024 at 9:55 am

First sighting of the Ballymoney Picture House in Main Street was found in the Kine Year Book 1927 (had no access to earlier editions). The proprietor and manager was P. J. O’Kane. The entries continued along the same lines up to and including the 1933 edition but after that the Picture House disappeared from sight. Had no access to the 1934 but in the 1935 edition the Cinema (no address given then or subsequently) was seen for the first time. Could it be that the Cinema was the successor to the Picture House and, perhaps, had taken over the latter’s Main Street premises? Unfortunately, the Provincial Towns section of the Belfast and Ulster Street Directory throws no light on this conundrum.

The Kine Year Book 1937 (and again in 1938) lists A. C. Cinemas Ltd as the proprietor of the Cinema (in other editions the proprietors were not shown). A. C. Cinemas was also the owner of the Cinema in Ballycastle around the same time.

First sighting of the Palladium was in the Kine Year Book 1939, which lists J. N. Crawford as the proprietor (400 seats). Other than the name, this Palladium had no connection with the Palladium cinemas in Coleraine or Portstewart. Perhaps Crawford just liked the name! He also owned the Castle Cinema in Belfast.