Gaumont

The Gaumont ‘Palace’ Cinema, which opened in 1932, was Wolverhampton’s first ‘super-cinema’ and could seat nearly two thousand people and was selected for the world premier of George Formby’s “I Didn’t Do It” in 1945 . Later it also held live shows, The Beatles played there in 1965. It closed in 1973. Demolished, it’s site is now occupied by a Wilkinsons store. I remember vividly, that when the Gaumont started having special Friday midnight programming, of course I didn’t realise that they were just trying to attract customers and stay afloat. One of the films screened was ‘Frankenstein’ with Boris Karloff. I arrived at 11.35pm and found an enormous queue, that nearly stretched to St Mary’s and Johns church, thankfully they didn’t start the show until we were all seated, perhaps as late as 12.20 am.  It was packed and remember this cinema could hold around 2,000 people!! ‘The Munsters’ was still being shown on TV (around 1965/6) and I expected the crowd of mostly late teens and early 20’s, to make fun of the monster, but you could have heard a pin drop at Karloffs’ first appearance. It was electric. One of the first films I saw here was a movie that changed my life, ‘King Kong Vs Godzilla’, I’ve never lost my fascination for giant monster movies, but does anyone understand why the British Board of Film Censors gave this film an ‘X’ cert. it’s just two men in costumes wrestling in Tokyo.

The Gaumont showed the usual mainstream movies, and it was here that I can recall being surprised and delighted by the sound of a bullet ricocheting around the auditorium at the opening  of ‘Mackenna’s Gold’. I started taking my mother along to see the odd film and it was here that we watched, ‘South Pacific’, ‘The Ten Commandments’ and ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and that Godzilla film, which she thought was “very noisy”! But it was ‘I Was A Teenage Werewolf’, ‘It Conquered The World’, ‘Quatermass II’, ‘Battle In Outer Space’, ‘The Amazing Colossal Man’, ‘The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues’ and ‘The Devil’s Partner’ among others that got me there. Naturally they did have new fantasy movies too. ‘The Flesh Eaters’, ‘Matango, Fungus Of Terror’, ‘Revenge Of The Blood Beast’, ‘Brides Of Blood’, ‘Mad Doctor Of Blood Island’, ‘Frankenstein On Campus, ‘Blood On Satan’s’ Claw’ and ‘The Terror’. Often felt like I was the only patron, it was vast area to be seated by ones-self, but Oh! How I miss those days.