“Regent Cinema, Eccles 1920-1962, opened with Fatty Arbuckle, closed with Ingrid Bergmann”
Now in terms of cinema history that pretty much sums up how many of our picture houses went.
They opened in their hundreds across the country as this new form of entertainment caught the public attention and started going dark as televisions proved an even greater draw.
And so Andy’s comment which accompanied the photograph pretty much says it all.
The lucky ones became Bingo Halls and some even made their way back to showing films, others became supermarkets, and even undertakers while the unlucky ones remained closed and eventually were demolished.
The Regent fared a little better and so while its bingo days lasted for just a few short years it became a wine bar in 1983, reopened as the Silver Screen night club and in turn was saved by J.D. Wetherspoon becoming the “Eccles Cross.”*
Nor is that quite all because in looking for information on the old cinema I became a cross a wonderful short video on Eccles in 1949 which as you would expect included our picture house.
Picture; the “Eccles Cross” from the collection of Andy Robertson, August 2014
*Regent Cinema, from Cinema Treasure, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/36699
**Salford Online “Rare and unseen film footage of Eccles in 1949, http://www.salfordonline.com/salfordvideos_page/40710-video:_rare_and_unseen_1949_eccles_film_footage_sees_the_light.html
They opened in their hundreds across the country as this new form of entertainment caught the public attention and started going dark as televisions proved an even greater draw.
And so Andy’s comment which accompanied the photograph pretty much says it all.
The lucky ones became Bingo Halls and some even made their way back to showing films, others became supermarkets, and even undertakers while the unlucky ones remained closed and eventually were demolished.
The Regent fared a little better and so while its bingo days lasted for just a few short years it became a wine bar in 1983, reopened as the Silver Screen night club and in turn was saved by J.D. Wetherspoon becoming the “Eccles Cross.”*
Nor is that quite all because in looking for information on the old cinema I became a cross a wonderful short video on Eccles in 1949 which as you would expect included our picture house.
Picture; the “Eccles Cross” from the collection of Andy Robertson, August 2014
*Regent Cinema, from Cinema Treasure, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/36699
**Salford Online “Rare and unseen film footage of Eccles in 1949, http://www.salfordonline.com/salfordvideos_page/40710-video:_rare_and_unseen_1949_eccles_film_footage_sees_the_light.html
i think my friend used the building as a kids play centre for a while
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