A Derann Story

I’ve always enjoyed the pleasure of reading, with my earliest memories being that of Nevil Shutes’ ‘A Town Like Alice’, however once I’d read ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘War of the Worlds’ I was primarily interested in Science Fiction for the remainder of my erly teen years, reading nearly all of Wells’ fantasy output as…

By now my brother could be found regularly strumming a guitar, but I don’t think that any of us really thought that we had a budding Hank Marvin or Bert Weedon in the house. In a few years he would soon be walking around in a Kaftan, with a brass medal or bell on a…

In the 1950s and early 60’s, films on TV were still relatively few  and far between, and when they did turn up they were usually so old that even my dad would grumble. I don’t remember any horrors and I’m sure that even if there were my father would have made sure I was in…

Posts numberd 8 , 9, 10, 11 contained the main cinemas that both entertained and educated me for nearly ten years, while posts 12, 13 & 14 show my early excursions, but there were others… The ABCs Stourbridge, Edgbaston, Bristol Road and New Street Birmingahm. Odeons Stourbridge, Dudley, Walsall, Worcester, Queensway and New Street Birmingham.…

I’m sorry if these posts are seemingly just a list of cinemas and films, but virtually most, if not all of these visits to the cinema during the years 1963 to 1973, along with my magazines where really my cinematic education, one that would eventually enable me to take a job that would last for…

The Futurist in Birmingham city centre began its life in 1919. It was the first cinema in Birmingham to have screen curtains, was decorated with wall murals and seated 1,400. It presented talkies from 1929 and by the late 60’s was part of the S & K circuit. Twinned in 1981, It became a Cannon…

After the first couple of years had passed I’d found that I had to widen my parameters, in in order to find new goodies to watch. The Imperial cinema felt like Walsall’s answer to The Clifton in Wolverhampton and I began to take a bus into Walsall at least once week. This building had a…

The last of my four regular cinemas in Wolverhampton was the Odeon. It opened in September 1937 and  was a wonderful example of the Odeon style. Originally seating in excess of 1,900 it was converted to three screens in 1973, became a bingo club in 1983 and closed in 2007. By 2009, it had been…

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…

The Clifton Cinema in Wolverhampton, started life as the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1865 and over the years was known as ‘The Star’, ‘The Hippodrome’ or, as it was known locally, ‘The Blood Tub’.  No, not because it showed horror movies but because it was built on, or near, the site of an old…