Hello and welcome to the first Bugle of 2024! I hope you all have had a very Happy New Year so far. It's certainly going to be an incredible year for the Broadway! In this thirteenth edition we take a look at what the year ahead has in store for us. Buying the Broadway and bringing it into community ownership, investing thousands in the immediate preservation of our existing structure, and the imminent expansion of our Roadshow programming, heritage collections, and community engagement methods. All to come and more! We open this Issue 13 with our latest news and a special New Year's address from our chairperson, review and preview the Roadshow's past and future, and discuss what comes next for our beloved C-listed building. We join our chief projectionist on his holidays to cinema nerd heaven, learn about a forgotten Ayrshire neighbour with some famous names, and get to know your newest co-opted director of the board! 2024 has also brought a refresh for your favourite newsletter, with the Bugle getting a subtle new look for the year ahead. It's an honour to be a part of something so incredibly special, and as our project enters uncharted territory, I am feeling more grateful than ever for all of your incredible support. We exist because of you, and I can't wait to see what 2024 will bring for all of us. Let's find out together! Your chief editor, |
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Kyle Macfarlane Director, Friends of the Broadway Prestwick |
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PROJECTION DONATIONS CONTINUE AT CARLTON BINGO STIRLING |
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We were delighted to announce our return to Carlton Bingo in Stirling on 30th December to continue our collection of donated projection equipment! |
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Our first visit in March to the former Allanpark Cinema heralded the dawn of a new age for our heritage collections and vision for the Museum of Scottish Cinemas in the Broadway of the future. On that first day we saved a remarkable collection of long disused 35mm film equipment and small pieces of Stirling's cinema history. Featured first in Issue 4 of the Bugle, nine months later we have been able to return to complete the collection! We have begun the disassembly of two Westrex 2001 35mm film projectors, with Strong lamphouses and Westrex tower systems. These projectors stopped showing film at the Allanpark in 2008, and remarkably despite only powering down 15 years ago, had been in operation in Stirling for over 70 years! For our projectionists, Christmas came twice in 2023! |
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Once back in our foyer workshop they will be fully restored to working condition, either to be recommissioned for public exhibition, or displayed for decades to come. They will join our beloved Gaumont-Kalees, our Victoria 5 duo, and ODEON Ayr's Rank RK60 in a projector line-up that will serve the Broadway for generations to come. Having that variety and flexibility will be pivotal to our operation in the future, and this latest trip will ensure your friendly team of neighbourhood projectionists will be kept busy in 2024! |
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Trips like these are always tinged with a certain sadness at preparing to take items away from their homes. Yet we will forever respect their history, origin, and journey. The Allanpark Cinema is fondly remembered by the past generations of Stirling's communities. We will ensure that our Westars' heritage will always be respected and their journey shared with the world. We will now give them a home where they will be preserved for future generations. Either in the working projection rooms of the Broadway or the Museum of Scottish Cinemas, they will roar to life once more. |
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Their spark reignited, their spirit restored! |
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The reaction locally and nationally to our major press release three weeks ago was truly remarkable. We set out to celebrate the announcement by making as big a splash as we could across all forms of media but we couldn't quite have anticipated just how far and wide the news would spread and how quickly. It was a crazy few days, and a huge thank you goes out to our two new amazing executive advisors of marketing, Alexandra Wilson and Caroline Mitchell, who have been incredible since joining us in the project! In the first 48 hours since the press release launched, our phones began exploding with comments, messages, and phone calls. It was literally impossible to keep track! Across all forms of social media our news was shared almost one hundred times and generated over 3,000 reactions. Our followers broke the 4,000 barrier, new members began signing up from across the country, and just about every major news publication picked up and ran with our story! |
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News articles were published by the BBC, the Times, the Herald, the National... We were all across local radio with WestFM even visiting the foyer and interviewing our community on Main Street. Receiving phone calls from the Times in London was certainly a surreal experience, and yet it didn't end there! In the first two days, I received two separate calls from BBC Radio Scotland, with invitations to both reappear on Good Morning Scotland live from the Broadway, and feature on the Mornings with Kaye Adams, live from the studio. This was such a wonderful opportunity and an honour to represent the Broadway on the national stage. Everyone at the BBC was fantastic and Kaye in particular was extremely kind, engaging, and interested in our project. Speaking live to the nation about a subject I love is something I never imagined I would experience. And all for the Broadway. In the national consciousness, we have arrived. |
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Oh and the views from the BBC weren't bad either! Below you can listen to our appearance on the Mornings with Kaye Adams, beginning at 1:38:18 during the programme and available until 17th January on BBC Sounds, and read some of the articles published on our announcement. |
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Here's to more breaking news in 2024! Your cinema is on its way! |
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We are delighted to officially have our plaque in place for Prestwick Heritage and the upcoming history trail to be created throughout the town. Keep an eye out for more red and gold plaques appearing across Prestwick, including one for our dearly departed neighbours, the Bug Hut! It's an honour to play a part, thank you to Alasdair Malcolm for all his hard work in establishing the initiative and for erecting our plaque. Forever cementing our place in Prestwick's history. |
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This month we look ahead to 2024! |
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Dear members and community, With the imminent purchase of the Broadway Cinema it is indeed a very Happy New Year! We have had an absolutely fantastic reaction to the news and have not stopped smiling since. It really is a dream come true. Everything now changes for the project to bring back the Broadway. We have had time over the festive period to digest the news. I wanted to write to you all about what happens next and how to get involved. |
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WHAT DOES THE PURCHASE OF THE BROADWAY ACTUALLY MEAN? |
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It will mean the Broadway passes into community ownership via the charity Friends of the Broadway. Residents of Prestwick are able to become members of the charity with voting rights, meaning you have a direct influence on how the project develops from here. Our membership is currently the largest it has ever been but in 2024 we need to grow it further. The more residents who become members, the more we can ensure the Broadway meets the needs of the community and the more funding we can attract. So can I ask you all a favour? Can you encourage your friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbours to join us? Can you help us by volunteering at our events? Do you have expertise that could be useful? We would love to hear from you and now is the time to get involved! |
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WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE GET GIVEN THE KEYS? |
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We are looking to move at pace with the purchase of the Broadway and have instructed our solicitor accordingly. When the keys are eventually handed over, Friends of the Broadway will own the largest building on Main Street! One that requires ‘a lot’ of rehabilitation. We have been awarded £50,000 to fund essential maintenance and we will mobilise these funds as soon as possible in 2024. The building is currently in poor condition, as discussed in this month's Building Update section. Despite recent temporary repairs to the roof more work is required to make it watertight and prevent further damage. We also need to repair a superficial crack in the wall of the main fire escape staircase with temporary strapping. We need to make the building safe to access by removing items of asbestos (mainly pieces of electrical equipment and old fire blankets and hoses). We need to undertake work on the front façade and canopy. We also need to improve building safety and security. Finally, but by no means least, we need to remove the squash courts before they sink through the auditorium floor! All this work will ensure the building maintains its value, does not deteriorate any further, and will be safe and secure pending full renovation. To that end, and with full health and safety training and supervision, we would love to enlist the help of members on site. The Broadway needs a massive clean and tidy up. Would you like to help us with that at some point this year? |
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WHEN IS THE BROADWAY GOING TO OPEN? |
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The honest answer is we don’t know yet. No one does! It depends on funding and it also depends on how the project is set up, and that depends further on more detailed site and building investigations. But let’s say we were to receive the total amount of funding needed tomorrow, and the doors remained shut until a fully restored Broadway was ready to open. In this case you are probably talking about a 24 ~ 36-month construction project. Things are not always as neat and tidy as that, though. The UKs biggest cinema restoration project currently is the New Victoria in Bradford, a 3,000 seat super-cinema taken over by the operators of the NEC. They have gutted this enormous building and beautifully restored it to become a live venue due to open in September. It took them five years from beginning to end (notwithstanding COVID) and a bill of more than £20m. On the flip side we can look at venues like the Tivoli in the town of Wimborne on the South Coast. The community made the building just about habitable and re-opened it within 12 months, with restoration and renewal work taking place in between the film and live performances. The community loved visiting despite it being very much a work in progress. Between these two extremes, cinema chains who take over older properties are known to operate out of parts of their buildings, while unused screens or other areas are renewed out of sight of paying audiences over months or years. So, you see, there is no easy answer - yet - to when and how the Broadway will re-open, but it will re-open, and we would welcome your views on how we might do it. |
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HOW MUCH IS IT GOING TO COST? |
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The funds needed to restore and rehabilitate a building the size of the Broadway are not insignificant, but then again, the social value is not insignificant either. That is why the Scottish Land Fund looked favourably upon our funding bid. Pre-COVID, Friends of the Broadway had a report produced by quantity surveyors, and to simply reinstate the building ‘as is’ was something in the region of £3.5 to £4 million pounds. Those costs, post-COVID, are likely to be double. But again, the precise figure is currently unknown as it depends on the specifics of the architectural scheme we will, as a community, adopt. We will have a much more precise understanding by the end of this year. While the figures involved are likely to be substantial, it is important to say the Broadway is not like restoring a 13th century cathedral or castle. The Broadway is a modern, well-designed steel framed building with an interior made up of inexpensive panelling. This is not to underplay the costs involved, or indeed the architectural merit, but a benefit of restoring a 1930s cinema is that it is all ‘showbusiness’; a façade, and that façade can be restored surprisingly economically. It is also important to say that the amounts required are well within the funding envelope available to us. Other projects in the UK are orders of magnitude more expensive. Not just that, but having been awarded the funds to acquire the Broadway now means key funders are invested in making the project a success. Owning the Broadway really is a game changer in terms of the funding sources now available to us. |
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So, lots for us all to think about and do in 2024, all of it tremendously exciting. The Broadway is coming back! Happy New Year to all our valued and excellent members. The journey starts here, and we are all on it. Yours sincerely, |
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Professor Guy Walker Chair, Friends of the Broadway Prestwick |
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2023 heralded the return of the latest blockbusters to Prestwick for the first time since the Broadway's last film on 20th November 1976. It brought a new venue, new equipment, new film festivals, and an all-new cinema-going experience to our community. The Broadway Pop-up Cinema Roadshow was born, and it's here to stay! Prestwick Academy truly is an incredible venue and has provided us with the perfect home away from home for the years to come up until the Broadway's completion. With an auditorium featuring raked seating for over 300, a full stage featuring red curtains, and the facilities to install professional projection, sound, and lighting equipment? We couldn't have asked for much more. |
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Launching with a Back to the Future Special, this first event provided us the perfect test of our new surroundings, as we showed one of the greatest and most iconic film trilogies of all-time in June, with the debut of our partnership with Indy Cinema Group, and the 1.21 gigawatts of the Broadway Stereophonic Sound System! The immense significance of our partnership with Indy was yet to be announced too, as in July, we took a massive step forward with the arrival of brand-new cinema releases to our programme! With licencing now available through Indy, we were able to show the first 'new' films in Prestwick since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 47 years ago! Our July programme began with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which was particularly exciting as not only was (the other) Indy's fifth and final adventure partially filmed in Glasgow, the Broadway missed out on Raiders of the Lost Ark by just five years, so it was special bringing everyone's favourite archaeologist to our town for the first time! |
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Then came a worldwide phenomenon, 'Barbenheimer'. The release of Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer on the same day unleashed the perfect storm of excitement and engagement throughout the industry. Cinema audiences peaked at a level not seen in years as people all over the world flocked back to cinemas to experience one, or both, of the greatest films to release in 2023! To bring these films to Prestwick under the Broadway's name just three weeks after global release was beyond our wildest dreams and resulted in a record-breaking weekend for our organisation! Joined on our August programme by Disney Pixar's visually stunning Elemental and Tom Cruise's epic latest instalment of the iconic Mission Impossible franchise, Dead Reckoning Part One, Barbenheimer fever swept across our community! With a truly astonishing 439 tickets sold across the weekend, August smashed all of our previous records for pop-up cinema events and became undoubtedly one of our highlights of 2023! |
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With new releases then taking a break while we await news on additional funding, we thankfully did not need to stop there, and in the second half of the year launched two inaugural film festivals that will return annually, eventually in the Broadway itself. In October, the Broadway Halloween Film Festival, and in December, the Broadway Christmas Film Festival! Both of these events were also wonderfully successful and a joy to host, with members able to choose several of the films that appeared on our programmes, and hundreds more tickets sold as we enjoyed together the greatest horror films and festive films of all-time to celebrate both holidays! The Roadshow has catapulted our group into a new dimension, with a level of film exhibition and presentation that would have been unthinkable just months before Marty McFly travelled back to 1955, and the curtains opened on a new era for Friends of the Broadway Prestwick. Now, we look ahead, at what is shaping up to be a blockbuster year in 2024! |
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Fancy seeing what's in store? |
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Here is a special teaser montage of what you can expect to see at the Roadshow in 2024. Enjoy! |
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A massive thank you goes out to our official music composer and projectionist in training Calum Upton, for creating the fantastic preview compilation you have just watched! We hope you are as excited as we are! With major announcements coming in the very near future, new releases are coming back to Prestwick once more, as part of a packed 2024 programme that will also include more inaugural and returning film festivals, specially catered vintage screenings, and some unique special events yet to be announced. |
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Our Roadshow events are an integral part of our project. They provide an essential funding stream at a crucial stage in the Broadway's journey, they create the perfect opportunity for audience development and allow us to learn all there is to know about our community's cinema-going preferences, and most importantly, they are bringing the magic of film back to Prestwick for the first time in almost half a century! It's a lot of hard work! But it's worth it. We have an incredible team of volunteers that we could not host these events without, and we are always open to new volunteers joining and helping us make the Roadshow an extra special film-viewing experience. If you would like to join the Broadway's journey and help out when you can this year, then please do feel free to get in touch via the button below. |
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The Roadshow goes on in 2024! |
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ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE INCOMING |
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Have we mentioned yet we are buying the Broadway? Our successful Scottish Land Fund application has rocketed our community into the stratosphere of excitement! Being awarded the funding to purchase the Broadway has truly been a dream come true and the perfect way to end 2023, and yet SLF delivered even more than simply the funds to buy our cinema! The award will also fund a full-time Project Development Officer to work with our organisation for two years, and also, £50,000 for essential building maintenance. This could very well prove to be the Broadway's saving grace. |
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The imminent £50,000 will go a long way. Yes, the Broadway is a remarkable survivor with so much of its original character and soul still alive and well. And yet, time is a cruel mistress. When a building lies empty for 20 years, natural decay begins to take hold. It's a slow process but one that only accelerates the more time passes, it's like a snowball effect really! Even in the nine months since signing the licence agreement last April, the signs of visible deterioration have been clear to see, and although we have done everything we can to halt this process, without means to heat the building the elements will still take their toll. Especially in winter... It can often feel colder inside the Broadway than out! And as water freezes in cracks and expands, and then later melts, the cracks have then expanded too. And we are on the West coast of Scotland. So even when we aren't quite at freezing temperatures, the wind and rain that has battered the Broadway for decades still has a massive impact. Thankfully, the temporary roof repair completed last month was a major step forward. The armada of buckets that were rapidly filling with gallons of water that otherwise would have found its way elsewhere below, are now only seeing the occasional drip if anything at all. Despite this, with the sheer scale of the Broadway and the now very old age of our original 1930s roof, inevitably there are still hidden crevices that water is able to seep its way into. |
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So there is much more still to do! Over the next few months we will be hard at work inspecting every inch of our cinema and making decisions on areas to prioritise, with aims to further secure the building and stop the natural decay in its tracks wherever possible, until the time comes for our full restoration to begin, and we aren't quite there yet! It's a long road and yet we need to enjoy the journey. Caring for the Broadway is a wonderfully therapeutic process. With every safeguard put in place, structure supported, and area cleared of decades of dust, you can almost feel the building taking a deep breath and sigh of relief. It's incredible how emotionally connected one can feel to what to many may at first appear as crumbling bricks and mortar, but we all know it is so much more than that. We will bring you along every step of the way and hope to invite you back into your cinema once more when it is safe to do so. |
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First, let's secure our future. |
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This month we take a trip to the projection room and discover a small fragment of history found hidden under the cracked linoleum! |
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In early 2023, while carrying out building checks in the projection room with our chief projectionist, I spotted a jagged object sticking out from underneath a crack in the linoleum flooring, that after half a century of disuse now resembles the surface of Mars. Upon further inspection, it turned out to be a fragment of a broken record, that was subsequently placed back on the old Westrex record player it would have spun on decades ago! Thankfully, the serial number of the Capitol record was still visible, and therefore was able to be identified, as the Theme from "Helen of Troy" by Les Baxter, His Chorus and Orchestra! This is quintessential cinema house music. House music during the golden age of cinema was really played through record players, and Les Baxter's soothing tones would have echoed around the Broadway's auditorium undoubtedly numerous times! We of course have already played out the track in the auditorium again just for fun. Evocative atmosphere levels off the charts! |
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Listening to the record above tugs at the heartstrings and instantly transports you to the Broadway's auditorium in the 1950s. Walking into the vast space with the person you love to take your seats under the camels and await the curtains opening, and the beam of light shining above your heads, with hundreds more patrons surrounding you. Magic. Helen of Troy released in 1956 as an early Cinemascope feature, and even without seeing the film based on the famous story from Sparta, Les Baxter's theme music evokes very powerful emotions, and in the name of showmanship, we have actually already used the track digitally as house music at some older pop-up cinema screenings! So if it sounds familiar (I'll be very impressed) and that is likely the reason why! |
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Unless you're a huge Les Baxter fan. Which we are now! |
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It’s now time for some New Year nerd-ism courtesy of the Broadway’s Chief Projectionist, who has been on holiday! |
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The festive period is a wonderful time to visit the cinema, isn’t it? |
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After all those turkey-based exertions what better way to fill those slightly depressing days between Christmas and the start of a New Year than with a visit to the movies. Yet, behind the scenes, it’s been a bit of a nightmare for some cinema operators. Unbeknownst to audiences sitting there beyond the projection portholes we’ve been experiencing - cue dramatic music - ‘projector-gate’. Cinemas with Sony and Christie projectors suddenly found they didn’t work with content from Warner Brothers… so no Wonka, Aquaman or One Life. To make matters worse, despite a good 12 months of email reminders, some operators found their cinema servers (the boxes which store, unlock and play back film content) had serial numbers which had expired on 31st December. A world of digital dudgeon and stress, a world which Friends of the Broadway are in the process of joining! |
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That’s right, we are going ‘DCI’ in order to bring new releases to Prestwick in 2024! |
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DCI stands for Digital Cinema Initiative and encapsulates all the ways in which professional digital cinema is different from your run of the mill home cinema. |
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Yes, you can buy a ‘4K’ projector in Tesco, but you can’t play a cinema release on it. For that you need a server to store and unlock what’s called a DCP, or Digital Cinema Package. This is then spat out the back on two network cables to an ‘enigma card’ inside the projector which contains its ‘media block’. The media block is the thing that can decode the encrypted content and send it straight to the ‘light engine’ deep inside the projector. This is the electronic equivalent of Fort Knox. To make matters worse, both the server and the media blocks have data stored in volatile memory which needs to be powered constantly… with only a £1.99 watch battery as back up. If your battery goes flat, you’re in for many thousands of pounds of new circuit boards and hassle. Just ask cinema operators who turned off their projectors during COVID. Professional digital cinema, then, is not, repeat not, cheap or easy! But we’re doing it anyway in order to bring new releases right into the heart of our community. Anyway, long story short, we have just purchased a Doremi DCP2000 server from our friends at the Tivoli theatre in Wimborne for an exceptionally reasonable price. Brand new, cinema servers can be tens of thousands of pounds. Indeed, a full DCI set up including server and projector can easily exceed £100,000. We are doing it for about a tenth of the price. Even shoestrings are beyond our budget. We’re driven purely by the expertise, generosity, and goodwill of Friends of the Broadway supporters who can rejuvenate near-obsolete 15 year old equipment and give it a second life in Prestwick Academy. As an example, the Doremi DCP2000 we have just acquired for peanuts has been serviced and given a brand-new server certificate. No ‘projector-gate’ for us: if we were showing films on Jan 1st we would have been fine. |
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It’s not just the kit, but how you use it! |
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WEALTHY BENEFACTOR WANTED |
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While down on the South Coast collecting the cinema server, and before the nerve-wracking journey back where the watch battery inside the Doremi needed to last the 8-hour journey unpowered(!), I got wind of a community cinema I just had to visit. |
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Located in one of the wealthiest private schools in the country, this was community cinema on another level entirely. Welcome to Bryanston School (approx. £12,500 per term, extra if you require stabling for your horse). Alumni include some of the great and good of the entertainment and arts world: TV presenter Ben Fogle, singer Amy Studt, actor Emilia Fox, and some of Sting’s children. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the Coade Theatre on the School’s grounds would put many a provincial theatre to shame. This is not an assembly hall. This is a purpose built, dedicated theatre with 350 seats, a balcony, a proper foyer, full stage and fly loft. It is a fantastic environment to show films. I was shown around by the Senior Technician who I was pleased to discover worked previously as a projectionist. I was amazed to find an almost brand-new Sound Associates set up with 7.1 channels, QSC amplifiers and speakers, the biggest screen in the area, and a Sony DCI projector. “Is it 2K”, I asked? “No, 4K…” Of course it was! I was even more amazed to discover that the whole lot - a good £300k worth at least - had been paid for by a wealthy benefactor! |
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They had done a fantastic job for their Christmas Eve showing of Elf. There was theatre lighting playing on the courtyard outside the entrance, with a food truck, artificial snow, elves and reindeers. Inside, the auditorium was beautifully lit. When the holding screen faded, the spotlights moved from the center of the screen to shine instead on the two Christmas toy soldiers placed artfully either side. As community cinemas go, this couldn’t be further removed from the Blu-Ray, Curry’s projector, and two PA speakers on poles one is normally accustomed to. With a slight tinge of envy, it also put into perspective our efforts in the Academy. We deliver a very similar ‘experience’… but with 30 year-old broken/repaired amplifiers purchased off Facebook Marketplace, 25 year-old cinema speakers donated (and repaired) from another venue, and a 20 year-old sound processor with a broken volume knob found at the back of a cupboard in the old ODEON Ayr. |
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For goodness sake, we still use ‘cassette’ for our house music! |
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A projectionist’s Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the mighty ODEON Leicester Square. |
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Home to UK, Europe, and World Premieres, this black granite behemoth is nicknamed ‘the Cathedral’ by Hollywood types. I always think it interesting that back in its 1930s heyday, at 2,000 seats, it was no bigger than most super cinemas to be found all over the country in non-descript suburbs and towns. Indeed, there were many far larger super-cinemas and even the seating capacity of the Broadway was only half that of the ODEON Leicester Square. But as the circuit flagship this venue was - and is - special. When built it had leopard skin fabric on the seats and the exterior was covered in shiny black granite: the complete opposite to the rest of the circuit’s biscuit cream faience tiling. Everything about it spoke ‘glamour’. That continues to this day. Anyway, this was a visit to appreciate the technology and to experience the UK’s first Dolby Cinema… whilst lying flat in a leather business class seat in the Royal Box! |
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Dolby Cinema is a ‘premium cinema experience’ and the technologies behind it are Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Both technologies have spec sheets to die for… 8K resolution, ultra-high brightness and contrast, ‘object based’ surround sound with 64 individual speakers, etc, etc. It is quite the thing. However, against the dark multiplex colour scheme I just couldn’t get over the glimpses of white cable they had used to wire in all the ceiling hung speakers, or the fact that for a good ten minutes a ‘blank sheet’ was showing at the front of the auditorium. I had the uneasy feeling that the 1930s grandeur was blending uncomfortably with the austere technical requirements for Dolby Cinema. It was multiplex meets movie palace, and I wasn’t sure about it. It is something to be very careful about in the Broadway. The ODEON was built two years after the Broadway and there are certainly some stylistic similarities. Great care is going to be needed in the Broadway to make sure the new sound and vision technologies blend inconspicuously. |
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On the other hand, the seating in the ODEON Leicester Square (or OLS as we projectionists call it!) was out of this world. Cinemas are now competing with the luxurious and comfortable homes we all now live in. Remember, back in the 1930s living conditions could be considerably more austere, and it is no coincidence that the size and grandeur of cinemas in the 1930s was often in direct proportion to the straightened living circumstances of their local audiences. Not so today. The lesson for the Broadway is comfort. The fact the ODEON Leicester Square has gone from a seating capacity of 2,000 down to 750 in order to provide it, is something of a lesson for us too. For the Broadway that would mean a modern-day seating capacity of roughly three or four hundred. Far from outrageous. And here’s the thing. For a mid-week matinee in Leicester Square which seats were sold out? Not the normal cheap seats, but the Royal Box. Not a luxurious lie-flat seat to spare. |
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Also of interest was that the change to Dolby Cinema also brought with it a revamp of the foyer spaces. In the 1930s these could be relatively cramped compared to the size of the auditorium, often because people were served at their seats and there was a continuous programme. At the ODEON Leicester Square it was interesting to note how the immense grandeur of the auditorium was completely preserved, despite some space from the rear stalls being ‘borrowed’ to enlarge the entrance foyer, which looked pretty spectacular with parquet flooring and other 1930s touches. Again, another interesting (potential) lesson for the Broadway. |
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There is lots more to say about the wonderful ODEON Leicester Square, but we can probably save that for another issue. See you all next month where I think it’s time for us to have a proper chat about digital cinema. Pull up a chair, because herein lies a story! |
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ABC KILMARNOCK (KING'S THEATRE/REGAL/CANNON/MGM) |
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ABC Kilmarnock in March 1965. |
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Welcome to Scottish Cinema Spotlight! The segment where we shine a light on one of our nation's other golden age picture palaces, taking you on a journey through their history from construction to the present day. This month we're heading to Kilmarnock, to visit an iconic name in an iconic building in East Ayrshire. The building in question was born as the majestic King's Theatre. One of the largest theatres in Scotland upon its construction, the King's opened on Titchfield Street in October 1904 to the plans of architect Alexander Cullen for a hefty sum of £19,000. |
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The King's Theatre in 1909. |
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The King's was the vision of a Mr. Robert C. Buchanan of Glasgow, a former actor and upcoming theatre developer and manager that would in the beginning of the 1900s create a federation of theatres in Scotland. The King's opened offering opera, musicals, and variety theatre, under the newly formed Kilmarnock Theatre Co. Ltd. It was grandeur on a scale Kilmarnock had never seen before. The building was designed in glorious Edwardian Baroque style, with a façade constructed of red sandstone that featured intricately carved palisters and columns and shop units either side of the grand entrance doors. The auditorium was built to hold 2,200 patrons and yet upon opening the King's could boast an impressive final capacity of 2,400. The auditorium contained stalls, a dress circle, and a balcony, and also featured two galleries, eight proscenium boxes, and six private boxes behind the circle. |
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Original plans for the King's Theatre hand-sketched by architect Alexander Cullen. |
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The original plans above show just how grand the King's would have been! Although, unfortunately the theatre struggled to sustain itself in its early years, and the original founding company folded after just four years, entering liquidation in 1908. The King's then saw multiple different owners come and go over the following decade, including a most noteworthy Edmund Tearle, an owner of touring companies of some repute whose Shakespearian skills were admired on both sides of the Atlantic. Sadly, Edmund would pass away in 1913. After which the building would welcome cinema for the first time, as Bioscope shows began to share the theatrical schedule. In 1916, our old pal Robert C. Buchanan would then buy back the theatre he had created at a quarter of the price, as he had now transformed his business into a picture house operator! He liked to keep up with the times evidently... |
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The auditorium of the Regal Cinema in 1934. |
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Nevertheless, after another four year stint as owner, Buchanan sold the King's once more, this time to a Mr. John Maxwell, a solicitor who some cinema nerds may recognise as the founder of ABC Cinemas! Yes, the King's in Kilmarnock was one of the very first cinemas owned by the chain that began as a subsidy of the Associated British Picture Corporation, and would go on to become one of the largest cinema chains in Britain! John Maxwell would develop grand plans for his cinema empire, and in 1934 the decision was made to reinvent the King's as a new super cinema for the town, ceasing variety theatre productions and committing to full-time film. The original King's closed for the last time on 14th April 1934, to be altered internally to the plans of architect Charles J. McNair of Airdrie, and re-opened as the all-new Regal Cinema on 17th December that same year, and what a cinema it was! |
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The foyer of the ABC Regal in 1954. |
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The building was completely transformed. With a new capacity of 1,834, the original triple-tier auditorium was changed to a single enormous balcony, with the stage facilities intact yet with the side boxes and orchestra pit removed, and an all-new Art Deco interior design was created. The angled proscenium arch was immense, and glorious styling details included a large Art Deco grille in the centre of the ceiling. The Regal became one of the largest cinemas in Ayrshire and a jewel in Kilmarnock's crown for decades. Additional photographs here show the foyer and circle lounge of the Regal in 1954, by this time proudly operating under the iconic red triangle of ABC. The foyer was actually surprisingly small for a cinema of this size, with the paybox window on the right-hand side and concessions stand directly in front of the entrance. The concessions offering we can see in the photograph includes Sun-Pat salted nuts and Lyons' Orange Maid ices! |
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The circle lounge of the ABC Regal in 1954. |
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We can also see advertising for one of ABC's lasting legacies, the ABC Minors Club! The chain was the first to introduce a Saturday morning club to their cinemas in the 1940s, offering the children of their communities a very special trip each weekend, meeting their friends at the ABC and enjoying a specially catered programme of cartoons and a main feature to follow, often a Western. Club members received a badge to wear every Saturday and at the beginning of every club showing all members sang the ABC Minors song, which appeared on screen with a little red ball bouncing over the words. "We're minors of the ABC!" The advertisement in the Regal's foyer for the ABC Minors matinees shows several iconic characters of the age, with Laurel and Hardy alongside Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweety, and Bugs Bunny! |
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The ABC auditorium in 1964. |
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In 1964, the Regal name was dropped and the cinema became simply the ABC, as did dozens more across the country. At this time of course, cinema audiences were beginning to rapidly decline, primarily due to the introduction of television across more and more of our homes. Nevertheless, the ABC soldiered on with its single auditorium until 1973, when another drastic reconstruction would take place. The last film to be projected onto the original stage showed on 12th May 1973, as the ABC was thereafter closed to be twinned as a bingo and cinema hybrid. The balcony would become the new 602-seat single cinema, with the stalls becoming solely dedicated to bingo. The new-look offering would open officially in just over four months on 17th September. And yet, tragedy would soon strike less than two years later. |
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The new balcony foyer on 19th October 1973, and the aftermath of the fire in 1975. |
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On 1st June 1975, a fire broke out that would cause lasting damage to many of the original features of the auditorium. In the photograph above we can see the staff of the ABC inspecting the damage, as most of the 602 seats were burned out entirely. Thankfully, ABC would not be deterred and just over two months later the cinema re-opened once again, with yet more changes! This time, with the rapid re-construction, the bold decision was made to bin the bingo and re-open the ABC as a three-screen cinema! The existing balcony screen was rebuilt, and the stalls were converted to two smaller screens with seating capacities of 193 and 149. |
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The former circle soon after becoming the single 602-seat cinema, with the stalls becoming bingo in 1973, and then Screens 2 and 3 in 1975. |
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This layout remained the ABC's final form, with the only changes still to come for the cinema being its name! To anyone who remembers Scotland's cinema landscape in the 80s and 90s, some other iconic names will spring to mind. It's safe to say ABC as a company was passed around a lot! First, in 1967, when the majority of ABC's shares were owned by Warner Brothers, the company was bought over by a group initially known as Electric and Music Industries, better known as EMI. Many of you may remember ABC Cinemas for many years also featuring the acronym EMI in their branding, and this was why! In fact, many ABC Cinemas featured the EMI name more prominently, and in the photograph below you can see the EMI logo present on Kilmarnock's façade, with the old Regal canopy since replaced with new signage featuring a readograph! |
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The entrance to the ABC on 19th October 1973. |
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The 'ABC under EMI' era would last for 19 years, until in 1986 the chain was sold once more through an Australian businessman called Alan Bond that could only be described as 'a tad dodgy' to the American group known as Cannon. Does that name also sound familiar? The former ABC Cinemas were since re-branded, and the Cannon name appeared in cinemas all across the country. But not for long. Strap in. Sadly, Cannon was then taken over by an Italian businessman called Giancarlo Parretti, who could only be described as 'outrageously dodgy'. In fact, Giancarlo would soon after (when on the verge of bankruptcy) change the company's name to Pathé Communications, in a bizarre case of jumping the gun with a follow-up bid to purchase the entire iconic Pathé empire falling through. This would not however stop Parretti purchasing the equally iconic MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) brand around the same time. Yet it then transpired this new super company was involved in a highly illegal phony transaction to a sister chain of Cannon-owned cinemas in the Netherlands! The Dutch authorities inevitably unravelled Parretti's scheme, their bank seized control of his company, and he was sentenced to four years in prison. Ouch. |
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The Cannon Cinema in 1993. |
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Thereafter, the Cannon/MGM hybrid began re-branding the majority of its cinemas once more, choosing the more iconic name of MGM Cinemas. Some of the smaller multiplexes however remained Cannon Cinemas, with the bizarre strategy of MGM opening new multiplexes in towns and markets already served by their Cannon cinemas, and then closing the Cannon cinemas 'due to the competition from the new multiplex' despite them being owned by the same company. Confused? Me too. What we do know for sure is that Kilmarnock did endure a short period as an MGM cinema, before (surprise, surprise) the state of play would shift once more, as MGM Cinemas were bought over in 1995 by a gentleman called Richard Branson and his newly-founded Virgin Cinemas. You have definitely heard of him. Yet unexpectedly, Virgin would then subsequently sell 90 of the 116 cinemas they inherited, choosing to focus on their larger multiplexes. Kilmarnock was one of the 90, that were then sold to a group called Cinven, who thereafter finally reinstated the ABC name. ABC was back! |
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ABC Kilmarnock on 25th August 1998. |
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And yet, three years later the ABC would get some competition it sadly could not compete with, as the all-new state-of-the-art multiplex ODEON Kilmarnock opened on 10th July 1998. Well, that was just too much for the old ABC, and the building that started out an astonishing 95 years prior as the King's Theatre would close for good in 1999. Ironically, one year later, the Cinven Group that owned ABC would make a historic purchase from the Rank Organisation... ODEON Cinemas. Therefore, at the turn of the century, the ABC name virtually disappeared, as the remaining ABC venues were either re-branded as ODEONs, or closed for good. Except strangely in Bournemouth, where despite having two cinemas on the same street, ODEON kept the ABC name in operation until 2017, when the nation waved goodbye to the final ABC. One of the attendees in Bournemouth at that historic last screening? Your chair and chief projectionist, Guy Walker! |
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The building on 18th September 2008, after lying empty for 10 years. |
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Sadly though, for the ABC in Kilmarnock the years have not been kind. Now having lay derelict for almost 25 years, the building that once was one of the finest theatres in the country is in a sorry state. There have been numerous plans to change the building's use over the years, most recently as an indoor food market, yet no serious renovation work appears to have started. Strangely and heartbreakingly, some interior photographs that were shared publicly over the last few years, appear to show areas of the interior of the building as a brick shell with the steel frame clearly visible. This suggests that despite not being successfully converted since the closure of the cinema, the building's original interior features have all but disappeared. |
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ABC Kilmarnock on 2nd January 2024. |
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It helps put into perspective for us how lucky we are that the Broadway remains as such an incredible survivor. The sad truth is that if a golden age cinema has managed to survive all the way until 2024 then the majority are now shadows of their former self. And the ABC in Kilmarnock is a prime example of just how devastating dereliction can be. And yet, it still stands. On a streetscape that countless residents have said is crying out for regeneration and a focal point for their community. It may be mostly a brick shell, yet historic buildings have come back from far worse! In many areas our own beloved Broadway will require being taken back to brick and re-developed using the same materials and same methods to the same design. The ABC's Category B-listed status has got it this far. Maybe it can one day also receive the same TLC that we will see in Prestwick. |
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ABC Kilmarnock on 2nd January 2024. |
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It sure would deserve it. |
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THERESA ELGAR CO-OPTED DIRECTOR AND EXECUTIVE ADVISOR OF FINANCE AND ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT |
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WHAT'S YOUR ROLE WITHIN FRIENDS OF THE BROADWAY PRESTWICK? |
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My role within The Broadway is Executive Advisor of Finance and Account Management and I am delighted to have very recently been co-opted onto the Board of Directors after having worked with the team for the past 6 months. |
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HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT? |
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I became involved with the project after the AGM last May. I am newly retired and had moved to South Ayrshire a couple of months earlier from The South and was looking for a volunteering position when I heard about the project from fellow Board member Kirsty McGinn. I went along to the AGM to find out more and was captivated by the passion and ambition of both Guy & Kyle. Getting involved would tick so many boxes for me, it would be a source of mental stimulation, a way of feeling part of the larger community, a chance to make new friends and work with some talented and passionate people and the once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in a huge and fascinating project. Being part of a team that is restoring and bringing back to life for the current and future generations an iconic Art Deco cinema isn’t an opportunity to pass up! |
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WHAT EXPERIENCE DO YOU BRING TO THE PROJECT TO REOPEN THE BROADWAY? |
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Before retirement I worked as a qualified book-keeper for 20 years but also during that time set up and ran my own retail business. Earlier in my career I was an Administration Manager for a multi-national Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company so I have quite a wide-ranging skill set. It’s my accountancy skills that I am currently using to assist the Broadway with it's financial procedures. My experience of running my own retail business and customer service experience will be useful further along the road to opening The Broadway. |
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WHAT WAS THE FIRST FILM YOU SAW, AND WHERE? |
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The first film I ever saw at the cinema was Bedknobs and Broomsticks which would have been in 1971 and I saw it at The Odeon in Sutton Coldfield. It was the main feature of a double bill with the other film being about a choir boy but have no memory of the title, perhaps someone might be able to recall it? |
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WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THE BROADWAY? |
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My vision for the Broadway is a destination cinema combining a state of the art 21st century film experience within a restored “time capsule” building , taking visitors back to the heyday of the silver screen. Also a multi-purpose community space open to all. |
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WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT? |
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I am currently looking at maximizing the Broadway’s current income stream by the most effective use of the Gift Aid scheme. |
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LASTLY, WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM? |
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I always have a problem with naming a favourite so will choose the one film that made the most impact on me and gave Steven Spielberg his first Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director, “Schindler's List”. It’s a hard film to watch but I think everyone should watch it at least once. It’s an amazing story to start with, the black and white cinematography created a sense of timelessness, the musical score is beautiful and it’s the only film I’ve seen where I actually fell in love with an actor and the character he was portraying, Liam Neeson as Oscar Schindler. |
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This may seem like a Letters from the Manager's Office article but bear with me! |
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The festive period is a special time for cinema. The perfect time of year to experience the magic of film, with everyone holding their own Christmas classics close to heart, and watching religiously year after year. Our Broadway Christmas Film Festival was a brilliant weekend with a wonderfully heart-warming atmosphere, and undoubtedly the loveliest comments we received were those saying "I can't wait to watch this in the Broadway at Christmas!". There were a lot of those comments too! And we wholeheartedly agree. Christmas will be such a magical time in the Broadway Cinema of the future. A beautiful Christmas tree in the centre of the foyer, our auditorium glistening in a warm festive glow, and unquestionably mulled wine and mince pies being served from the café. And not only will it be incredibly special in the future, evidence shows it was very special in the past too! |
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Chapter 12 of our Letters to the Manager series as you can read above shows that the Broadway even opened on Christmas Day! In 1947, a special screening was held for the children of the Glasgow Poor Children's Fresh-Air Fund staying over the holidays at Biggart Hospital in Prestwick. For those children growing up in poverty-stricken communities of post-war Glasgow, visiting the Broadway on Christmas Day would have been so magical. In fact, a film that was released just one year prior? It's a Wonderful Life. Could Frank Capra's all-time favourite even have showed on the Broadway on Christmas Day? Maybe one day we'll find out for sure! Yet even though we may not be opening on Christmas Day in the future (our staff will deserve a fantastic festive break with their families), for the days in the lead up to Christmas and New Year, we could be hosting some very special events! The Broadway could become a Christmas tradition for many! Thoughts of taking a trip to Bedford Falls with George Bailey on Christmas Eve in our original auditorium, and Hogmanay celebrations counting down to the New Year as a community are all super exciting and it is moments like these where the Broadway will truly come alive! |
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So herein lies the question! Would you visit the Broadway over the festive period? Do Christmas Eve or Hogmanay screenings sound exciting to you? Let us know what you would want to see at the Broadway Cinema of the future by clicking the button below. Thank you! |
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Captured by our official photographer and filmmaker, Gemma of Esther Morgan Photography. |
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