Winter Gardens Theatre

Last updated

1937 advertisement Winter Gardens Theatre.jpg
1937 advertisement

The Winter Gardens Theatre was a theatre and later a cinema in New Brighton on Merseyside. Located in a tourist area close to the New Brighton Tower it catered to both locals and holidaymakers. Originally constructed in 1908, it was rebuilt in 1931 and increasingly used for showing films. These continued until 1959 when it shut as part of nationwide fall in film attendances. Used as bingo hall in the 1960s, it then stood empty for many years before being demolished in 1991. [1] It had a capacity of 1,400 seats.

In the 1920s a number of plays premiered there before heading to the West End including Dorothy Brandon's Araminta Arrives in 1921 and Joseph Jefferson Farjeon's Number 17 in 1925. In February 1927 Edgar Wallace's hit play The Terror appeared at the Winter Gardens before heading to a lengthy London run. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flora Robson</span> English actress

Dame Flora McKenzie Robson was a British actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her range extended from queens to murderesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leicester Square</span> Pedestrianised square in London, United Kingdom

Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester. The square was originally a gentrified residential area, with tenants including Frederick, Prince of Wales and the artists William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds. It became more down-market in the late 18th century as Leicester House was demolished and retail developments took place, becoming a centre for entertainment. Major theatres were built in the 19th century, which were converted to cinemas towards the middle of the next. Leicester Square is the location of nationally significant cinemas such as the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square and Empire, Leicester Square, which are often used for film premieres. The nearby Prince Charles Cinema is known for its screenings of cult films and marathon film runs. The square remains a tourist attraction which hosts events, including for the Chinese New Year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Hordern</span> English actor (1911–1995)

Sir Michael Murray Hordern, CBE was an English actor. He is best known for his Shakespearean roles, especially King Lear. He often appeared in film, rising from a bit part actor to leading roles; by the time of his death he had appeared in nearly 140 films. His later work was predominantly in television and radio.

A winter garden is a garden where winter-hardy plants are grown for winter decoration or to be harvested for food between winter and early spring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Albert Smith (filmmaker)</span> British filmmaker (1864–1959)

George Albert Smith was an English stage hypnotist, psychic, magic lantern lecturer, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, inventor and a key member of the loose association of early film pioneers dubbed the Brighton School by French film historian Georges Sadoul. He is best known for his controversial work with Edmund Gurney at the Society for Psychical Research, his short films from 1897 to 1903, which pioneered film editing and close-ups, and his development of the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coral Browne</span> Australian-American actress (1913–1991)

Coral Edith Browne was an Australian-American stage and screen actress. Her extensive theatre credits included Broadway productions of Macbeth (1956), The Rehearsal (1963) and The Right Honourable Gentleman (1965). She won the 1984 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the BBC TV film An Englishman Abroad (1983). Her film appearances included Auntie Mame (1958), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Ruling Class (1972) and Dreamchild (1985). She was actor Vincent Price's third wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighton, South Australia</span> Suburb of Adelaide, South Australia

Brighton is a coastal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, situated between Seacliff and Glenelg and aside Holdfast Bay. Some notable features of the area are the Brighton-Seacliff Yacht Club, the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club, the Brighton Jetty, and a beach. The Windsor Theatre, constructed in 1925, is a long-standing institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Brighton Tower</span> Former observation tower in northern England

New Brighton Tower was a steel lattice observation tower at New Brighton in the town of Wallasey, Cheshire, England. It stood 567 feet (173 m) high, and was the tallest building in Great Britain when it opened some time between 1898 and 1900. Neglected during the First World War and requiring renovation the owners could not afford, dismantling of the tower began in 1919, and the metal was sold for scrap. The building at its base, housing the Tower Ballroom, continued its use until damaged by fire in 1969.

<i>Das Mirakel</i> 1912 German film

Das Mirakel is a black-and white silent German film made and released in 1912, directed by Mime Misu for the Berlin film production company Continental-Kunstfilm GmbH. It was based on Karl Vollmoeller's 1911 play, The Miracle. The film was originally advertised as The Miracle in Britain and the US, but after copyright litigation in both countries it was shown as Sister Beatrix and Sister Beatrice respectively. In Germany it was known as Das Marienwunder: eine alte Legende.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saville Theatre</span> Cinema in the London, former theatre

ODEON Covent Garden is a four-screen cinema in the heart of London's West End. Formerly known as The Saville Theatre, a former West End theatre at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue in the London Borough of Camden. The theatre opened in 1931, and became a music venue during the 1960s. In 1970 it became the two cinemas ABC1 Shaftesbury Avenue and ABC2 Shaftesbury Avenue, which in 2001 were converted to the four-screen cinema Odeon Covent Garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Laurillard</span> Theatrical producer

Edward Laurillard was a cinema and theatre producer in London and New York City during the first third of the 20th century. He is best remembered for promoting the cinema early in the 20th century and for Edwardian musical comedies produced in partnership with George Grossmith, Jr., including Tonight's the Night (1914), Theodore & Co (1916) and Yes, Uncle! (1917).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighton and Hove city centre</span> Human settlement in England

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Laurier</span> English actor

James Alexander Chapman, known by his stage name, Jay Laurier, was an English actor. Early in his career he was a music hall performer, but by the late 1930s he was playing in the works of Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as well as having a career in films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astoria Theatre, Brighton</span> Historic site in Brighton, England

The Astoria Theatre was a former cinema in Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1933 in the Art Deco style for a local entertainment magnate who opened one of Brighton's first cinemas many years earlier, it was the first and most important expansion of the Astoria brand outside London. It initially struggled against the town's other "super-cinemas", but enjoyed a period of success in the 1950s and 1960s before rapid decline set in, culminating in its closure in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighton Open Air Theatre</span>

Brighton Open Air Theatre, also known as B•O•A•T, is a British theatre built in Dyke Road Park, Brighton, which opened on 9 May 2015. It has been paid for not by corporate funding or public grants, but by private donations. The theatre is the legacy of the Brighton showman and construction manager, Adrian Bunting, who died of pancreatic cancer, aged 47, in May 2013.

<i>Youth at the Helm</i> Hungarian-language play by Paul Vulpius

Youth at the Helm is a Hungarian-language play by Paul Vulpius, the joint pen name of Ladislas Fodor and László Lakatos, which premiered in Budapest in 1933. The play was also staged in Vienna, Austria in 1933 under the title Hau-ruck using a German language translation of Fodor and Lakatos's play by Hans Adler who also adopted the pen name Paul Vulpius. Adler's German language translation was the source material for two different English language translations of the play: Youth At the Helm by Hubert Griffith (1896–1953), used frequently in the United Kingdom during the 1930s, and Help Yourself by John J. Coman for the work's Broadway production in 1936. The play has also been staged using the titles Jugend voran (Germany) and L'affare Kubinsky (Italy). The play served as the basis for the 1936 film Jack of All Trades starring Jack Hulbert.

The Terror is a 1927 mystery thriller play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It is based on Wallace's 1926 novel The Black Abbot.

The Outsider is a play by the British writer Dorothy Brandon. It portrays the struggle of an unorthodox medical practitioner to gain acceptance by the medical establishment. It was subsequently revised to show the unconventional triumphing over the conventional, whereas the play had originally had the opposite ending.

Araminta Arrives is a 1921 play by the British writer Dorothy Brandon. It is a historical romantic comedy, set in the nineteenth century, about a young woman going to live with her aunt in London and becoming involved in a series of entanglements with men.

Number 17 is a 1925 thriller play by the British writer Joseph Jefferson Farjeon.

References

  1. "Winter Gardens Theatre in New Brighton, GB - Cinema Treasures".
  2. Wearing p.514

Bibliography