Now I have always believed in that old saying that you can wait half an hour for a bus and then three come along at the same time, which pretty much sums up my research for the day because I have just been reading The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses by Derek Southall, from the History Press, 2010.
I was told it might be difficult to get hold of, but here it is on our kitchen table, and I would recommend it. As its name implies it is a short detailed description of the cinemas in and around Manchester, and of course includes three of our own.
For the first time I can confidently write that the Palais de Luxe opened in May 1914, could seat 1,200 and closed on December 4th 1957 with the Western the Lonely Man and the Lost Treasure of the Amazon. Neither film seems a fitting way to end what had been our first proper picture house. In Lonely Man an aging gunslinger Jacob Wade hopes to settle down with his estranged son, but his old enemies have other plans for him while Lost Treasure features a Brazilin jungle head hunters and that old stand by an unrequited love affair.
And there is more. The Savoy on Manchester Road opened in 1920 as the Picture House before being renamed the Savoy when it was leased to the Savoy Cinemas. And that the Rivoli having opened on November 20 1936 was damaged an air raid in December 1940 and had to be partially rebuilt before it began again on November 17th 1954.
There are also stories from people who remember sitting in the dark in all three and of the staff as well as something of the chequered history of subsequent owners.
Picture; late in the life of the Rivoli, after its name change from the Essoldo to the Classic and before it became the Shalimar, 1999, m17470, Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council
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