The Picture House — Gaumont — Odeon Bridge Street Walsall
Just before the First World War, Associated Provincial Picture Houses began work on a prestige cinema for Walsall. This was to be The Picture House in BridgeStreet, virtually built over the River Tame itself. The sitehad formerly been part of the George Hotel, an oldcoaching inn, right in the centre of town. Thefoundations were laid and then the problems began. First of all construction had to be suspended duringthe War, due to shortage of labour and materials, then building restrictions. By the time work could resume the foundations were flooded and expensive piles had to be sunk to try and put things right. A.P.P.H. had managed to open their cinemas in Wolverhampton,Willenhall and Wednesbury and were doubtless keen to open in Walsall as quickly as possible. Eventuallyt he contractors were working at nights and on Sundays to try and finish the cinema. Even then the frontage was not quite finished in time. The front elevation of the cinema was particularly handsome. It was faced in cream glazed faience and wasdominated by marble pillars above the main entrance doors. The lofty windows of the cafe at balcony level,and the ballastrades, added to the effect of grandeur.The foyer was panelled in oak, there were lifts to thebalcony level and the best seats were of a cosy arm-chair type. Everything suggested luxury and good tasteto reassure the middle classes that A. P. P. H. had made cinema-going respectable. The architect was PercyBrowne, and Glover. The Picture House opened on 29th July 1920 in the presence of Walsall’s Mayor. Mr. Derbyshire, of A.P.P.H.,made a speech explaining why Walsall deserved such a fine cinema. He said, Many of her sons have devoted their brains to the development of the picture industry. Dr. Jupp, who was the first to conceive of the idea of thesuper-cinema was a native of the town, while many senior men in A.P.P.H. were born locally. Walsall men had shown America how to build Picture Houses and when the history of cinematography came to be written Walsall would occupy a high and honourable place “It is interesting to see the term “super-cinema” in use so early. The Picture House held one thousand five hundred patrons and was therefore a “super” in the numerical sense, but I think A.P.P.H. were referring to the luxury, refinement, good quality music, fine cafe and general“atmosphere” of their cinema when using the term. The first film shown was called “Woman” and the orchestra provided musical accompaniment that included themes by Strauss, Wagner and Gounod. The orchestra’s director was a Signor Cinganelli. Theproceedings culminated in the presentation of a gift of £100 to the mayor by A.P.P.H. for the War Memorial Fund. (Walsall Theatre Co., immediately gavea similar amount!). The Picture House confidently settled into its role in Walsall’s life. It overlooked the principal town centre tram terminus and no doubt filled everyone with awe.The only distraction was a huge advertisement for theImperial, and its programmes, standing alongside thePicture House’s facade. When the cinema had been built the old City and Midland Bank buildings next door had been truncated and its new gable end was entirely devoted to the Imperial’s advertisement! Flooded foundations and war-time delays had no doubt been forgotten by 1923. On the evening of1st September of that year the audience in the Picture House saw William S. Hart’s film ‘Travellin’ On”.After the performance the manager, Mr. Pain, inspectedthe premises, locked up and went home. He wassummoned early Sunday morning to find his sumptuous theatre was reduced to a wreck by fire. During the night a P.C. Lewis had smelt burning but could not locate the fire. He had aroused the landlord of the George, and the two men suddenly saw a tongue of flames shoot out ofa ventilator cover on the cinema’s roof. The Fire Brigadeworked for an hour and a half bringing the fire undercontrol, rescuing two kittens and damping down the wreckage. A.P.P.H. had now been absorbed by its associatedP.C.T. and the company resolutely took up the task of rebuilding the Picture House. Once again it was building on a grand and luxurious scale. The new interior seemed brighter, and a rich Renaissance-style ceiling was added Oak panelling was retained and the foyer still feature its old-time fireplace. The proscenium was flanked by two new electric pedestal lights, capable of flooding the entire stage in light and the screen could now be draw up into a fly tower if the stage was required. At the sametime, the seating capacity was increased to one thousandseven hundred. P.C.T. claimed it was second in size onlyto their Regent in Brighton. The Picture House opened for the second time, on 26th December 1924, with“Down to the Sea in Ships” and once again it had been a great rush to have everything finished. Everyone workedall hours right up to the last minute. After such an exciting career, Walsall’s Picture House deserved the honour of being the first Black Country cinema to have a Wurlitzer installed, indeed, it was the first Wurlitzer in any British cinema. The two manual,six unit instrument was opened by Jack Courtney in1925. The Picture House was also the first Walsall cinema to present the “talkies”. “The Singing Fool”was shown on 26th August 1929 and the film drew massive queues to the cinema all week. The Picture House used the Western Electric system. P.C.T.eventually became part of Gaumont British and thecinema had the latest G. B. Kalee 21 projectors. The name, “The Picture House”, was retained until July 1948 and then it quietly became the Gaumont.Perhaps the name seemed more “modern”. Despitethe relative newness of the Savoy, the Gaumont still had its own special quality. Projectionist John McLeod, who joined the cinema just after its change of name,and who worked there for a decade recalled:“ Of course, the Gaumont had one major advantage over other cinemas - in Walsall: it possessed arestaurant, as well as a private room that could be hired for special occasions (The Oak Room). What a thrill it was to take that special girlfriend for a meal in the lush surroundings, before plying her with the most expensive box of chocolates, in the best seats. The seats at the front of the circle were like theatre-boxes with seats just for two.” Meanwhile the projectionists apparently flirted with the chambermaids from the George Hotel. The latter’squarters were clearly visible from the operating room and each party no doubt felt sympathy for others,each assigned to remote parts of buildings! During JohnMcLeod’s time in the operating room he saw theWurlitzer taken out of the theatre. Its departure, in 1955,seemed to mark the beginning of the period of decline.He had often been able to sit at the organ’s console on Sunday mornings and imagine the well known organistswho had occupied the same seat; Arnold Loxam, HubertSelby and Wilf Gregory. Like the organ at the Regal,Darlaston, Walsall’s Wurlitzer had starred in radio broad-casts. Today the organ is in the Congregational Churchat Beer, Devon. The Gaumont changed its name once again; on 22nd October 1965 it became the Odeon. Whether its fortunes would have declined, or whether it would have survived to this day, we shall never know because once again fire destroyed the building. Unfortunately the Odeon had not long been completely modernised. It had closed inMay 1967 for the interior to be re-modelled at a cost of£70,000. New seats, carpets, new silver curtain, and a new larger screen were installed. The old timber fireplace in the foyer that survived the fire of 1923 was abandoned, the restaurant was rebuilt and even the marble pillars were replaced with Hoganas tiling. Twohundred and forty seats had been lost in the modernisation but it was still a reasonably sizeable theatre. It “reopened” on 26th June 1967 with a special gala performance of “Casino Royale” and the manager, PhilipCross, probably felt confident that the much renewed cinema would last for decades. The following week“Privilege” was screened and many young folk in Walsall went to see themselves or their friends appearingas “extras” in the parts of the film shot in Birmingham. Less than four years later all the modernised interior was destroyed when fire broke out on the night of Tuesday 2nd March 1971. “Hello Dolly” was being presented that week, but the fire broke out while the cinema was empty. Eighty firemen from several Brigades tackled the dramatic fire, at the height of which, the roof caved in and collapsed. When PhilipCross was summoned to the scene he felt he was watching a nightmare. He went into the cinema’s officeto retrieve money and records while the auditorium still blazed. As before, the front of the cinema was relatively little affected. It was one of the worst fires ever known in the centre of Walsall and it was a miracle that it did not spread to the Walsall Observer offices or the George Hotel. At first there seemed to be no evidence that it was anythingbut an accident but later a man was convicted for arson. From Bridge Street it seemed as if the Odeon was still in existence, although the frontage was partly boarded-up. Behind the facade the remains of the auditorium were demolished and thus it remained for a year or two until the site was sold and redeveloped. The Savoy, now the ABC, was thus left as Walsall’s sole surviving cinema,and the Bridge Picture House, as it was often known, has passed into history.