The cinema on Elm Grove was Didsbury’s oldest picture house and it saw out all its rivals.
In its time it had many names from the Didsbury Picture House, and the Didsbury Theatre through to the Tudor which it adopted in 1951 and retained till its closure in 1967.
And there will be many in Didsbury who will remember it as the Tudor and may even recall that they were there on the last night on August 12 when it showed Julie Christie in Fahrenheit 451.
By then it had outlived the bigger and more showy Capitol on School Lane which had opened in 1931 with a blaze of publicity as the Union and was partially destroyed by a fire the following year, reopening in 1933.*
The Tudor was always the smaller neighbour.
It was open for business by 1913 when it was called the Bijou Electric Theatre, seating 350 and run by H Merryweather.**
Looking at the picture from 1959 it may be that the cinema went through either an extension or rebuild.
And that just leaves me to make an appeal for pictures if the Tudor cinema or better still when it was the Bijou.
Location Didsbury
Picture; Elm Grove, 1959, J F Harris, m2333, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and advert, from The Kinematograph Year Book, 1914
*The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses Derek J Southall, 2010
** The Kinematograph Year Book Program Diary and Directory 1914
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| The Tudor in 1959 |
And there will be many in Didsbury who will remember it as the Tudor and may even recall that they were there on the last night on August 12 when it showed Julie Christie in Fahrenheit 451.
By then it had outlived the bigger and more showy Capitol on School Lane which had opened in 1931 with a blaze of publicity as the Union and was partially destroyed by a fire the following year, reopening in 1933.*
 |
| Advert 1914 |
It was open for business by 1913 when it was called the Bijou Electric Theatre, seating 350 and run by H Merryweather.**
Looking at the picture from 1959 it may be that the cinema went through either an extension or rebuild.
And that just leaves me to make an appeal for pictures if the Tudor cinema or better still when it was the Bijou.
Location Didsbury
Picture; Elm Grove, 1959, J F Harris, m2333, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and advert, from The Kinematograph Year Book, 1914
*The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses Derek J Southall, 2010
** The Kinematograph Year Book Program Diary and Directory 1914
I remember seeing the advertised film Tom Thumb there with my mother!
ReplyDeleteWow Andy
ReplyDeleteSpent many happy nights at the Tudor with my girl friend,later my wife,in the late 1950's.
ReplyDeleteSaturday kids cinema, Flash Gordon.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant !
Along with Pollyanna , Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse etc, Hopalong Cassidy , Tom Sawyer and the rest , Happy Days in the late Fifties and that all for "Sixpence"
DeleteSaturday childrens cinema, Flash Gordon!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant..
Had my first kiss in there when I was about nine
ReplyDeleteThank you Pat Laffey xx
Are you or your family and friends still alive xxx think she lived on elm drive opposite the garage at the end of the village
Fond memories xxx
After closing as a cinema it became a bingo hall.
ReplyDeleteAfter closing as a cinema it became a bingo hall
ReplyDeleteExcellent value entertainment. In the late 50s, Sunday afternoon 3 shillins for 2 Films and a short one.
ReplyDelete