Rushden Research Group: Palace Cinema news & notes

The Palace Cinema

News & Notes


c1910	Staff of the Palace Cinema July 1912 The boy - centre - Horace Wills

The Place Cinema

The Rushden Echo, 16th September 1910, transcribed by Jim Hollis

Amusement Hall for Rushden - “The Palace” To Be Opened Next Week - Well-Adapted Building

“The Palace at Rushden, which is now practically completed, is to be opened on Monday next. It has been erected on a portion of the site in High-street and Alfred-street formerly occupied by Messrs. John Cave and Sons, whose factory was destroyed in the great fire. The building adjoins Alfred-street, and entrances are provided therefrom and also from High-street. It is a plain, substantial building, admirably adapted for the purpose for which it has been erected. The promoters are the company who run the King’s Palace at Wellingborough, and the manager will be Mr. William Hewitt. Popular prices are to be charged for admission, the tickets being 2d., 4d., and 6d., each. The balcony is devoted to the sixpence seats, and will be numbered, and they can be reserved at an extra cost of 3d. It is proposed to have two houses nightly – at 7 p.m. and again at nine o’clock.

Description

The Stage, which is at the Alfred-street end of the hall, is exceedingly spacious being about 40 feet wide by 20 feet deep. The front of the stage is picked out in fibrous plaster, moulded. The proscenium is about 24 feet wide. Footlights are provided in front of the stage. The artistes’ dressing-rooms are underneath the stage, and there is a scenery exit from the stage direct into Alfred-street.

The front seats, which, by the way, will be the cheapest, are entered from Alfred-street, the other seats on the ground floor and also the balcony being entered from the High-street by a long covered corridor, with an imposing front. The hall is capable of seating about 700 in all, from 180 to 200 seats being available in the balcony. The front seats are plain stained, the back seats and those in the balcony being plush covered. The flooring is boarded all the way through.

Electric light is supplied throughout by means of the company’s own dynamo, the installation being under the supervision of Mr. Leonard Hewitt. The average height of the roof is about 32 feet, and

The Ventilation

is admirable, there being 13 inlet ventilators besides four outlets in the roof. The interior walls are all coloured in red distemper, with a green cement dado all round.

Three exits are provided at the north-end these emptying themselves into Alfred-street, and two other exits are provided, one at the east and the other at the south end, besides the stage exit. There are two fire-proof staircases from the balcony. The corridor is divided into two – one for entrance and the other for exit. A pay-box is provided at each entrance. The artistes’ dressing-rooms are well fitted up.

The engine, dynamo, and cinematograph machinery are all contained in a fire-proof building outside the main hall.

Contractors &c.

The heating apparatus is the work of Mr. J. E. Smith, of Higham Ferrers, and six radiators are provided, so that the building will be adequately heated. The hall is lighted in the centre by two large brass electric pendants. The scenery has been painted by Mr. G. Clarke Lockett, of Wolverhampton.

Mr. William Packwood, of Newton-road, is the contractor, the architect being Mr. F. E. Preston, of Rushden. The whole of the carpentering has been executed by Messrs. Whittington and Tomlin, of Queen-street, Rushden, and the painting and plumbing work was carried out by Mr. A. T. Nichols.

First-class musical artistes will be engaged from time to time. The artistes enter by Alfred-street and go straight to their dressing rooms and then direct on to the stage, so that the hall doors need never be opened for them.

Chocolates, sweets, &c., will be on sale during the performances, and smoking will be allowed in all parts of the hall.

Rushden Echo, 22nd July 1921, transcribed by Kay Collins

The Place Staff, with their wives and friends, had their outing on Sunday to Leamington in charabancs supplied by Mr. George Robinson, Church-street. Leaving Rushden at 9 o’clock a halt was made at Daventry; then, arriving at Leamington about 12.30, various places were visited, including Warwick. The party proceeded to Mrs. S. Adams, Spencer-street, where a good meat tea was provided, 40 sitting down. After tea a hearty vote of thanks was given to the following gentlemen, who contributed towards the expenses: Mr. Carrington (manager), Mr. Arthur Cave, Mr. W. F. J. Hewitt, and Mr. W. Neville, who kindly gave all the gentlemen cigars. A vote of thanks was given to the following gentlemen, who had all the arrangements in hand: Mr. J. Bird (chairman), Mr. H. Rice (treasurer), Mr. J. A. Coles (secretary). Leaving Leamington at 7.30 another halt was made at Daventry. The party left at 9.45, arriving home about midnight, after having a most enjoyable time.

Rushden Echo & Argus, 3^rd September 1937

Betty the Swimmer
Six-year-old Betty Delamare, whose father, Mr. George Delamare, is the popular manager of the Rushden "Palace," is on the books of Rushden Swimming Club as the youngest member. And Betty is a credit to her club. She is completely confident when swimming in the Ouse, and to the delight of the crowd at the Rushden gala last Thursday she appeared there and did two widths of the baths in very good style.

Northampton Chronicle & Echo, 6^th September 1956

CINEMA TO CLOSE
Charlie Chaplin once appeared there

THE Palace cinema, Rushden, where an unknown Charlie Chaplin once played on the stage as one of Fred Karno's "Mumming Birds," has been sold. It will be closed at the end of October.

The oldest of three cinemas in Rushden, the cinema belongs to the Palace Company, who opened the Ritz on an adjoining site in 1936.

They have sold to local purchaser who are expected to redevelop the site using the frontage for shops.

Rising cost and the smallness of the seating capacity led the Company to sell.

The Rushden Echo and Argus, 7th September 1956, transcribed by Jim Hollis

The Palace is closing for the last time
On the Monday before Rushden Feast in 1910, people flocked to Rushden’s first permanent house of entertainment and were enthusiastic as they heard Williams’ Welsh Minstrels and saw a number of short films. The Palace had made local history.

Next month the Palace will cease to be a cinema. The whole site extending from High Street to Alfred Street has been sold and will not be used again for entertainment purposes.

Mr. W. R. Hewitt, a director of the Palace Company, explained that the reason for selling was the burden of entertainment tax and rising costs in general.

Loyal Audiences
He recalled that when the owners built the Ritz Cinema on an adjoining site in 1936 they expected that the Palace would soon close down. It still drew loyal audiences, however, and the war helped to keep it going.

First manager at the Palace was Mr. Hewitt’s father, the late Mr. W. J. F. Hewitt, whose book recording the first week’s takings is still in existence.

The book did not mention the original programme but files of the “Argus” give the story.

“The building, which has accommodation for some 600 or 700 people, has been erected in the centre of the town, adjoining the scene of the great factory fire, and is reached by a covered passage from the High Street. It is well fitted up in every respect, and bids fair to supply a great want in this direction in the town. Two performances are being given each night, and on every occasion this week the attendance has been very large. The cinematograph films, which are very fine, have included the following subjects: Rio de Janeiro, On the Border Line, It Pays to Advertise, The Minstrel, The Hindoo’s Treachery, Hunting Wolves in Russia, Courting the Merry Widow and Distraction of Foolshead. But pictures do not form the whole of the entertainment for Williams’ Welsh Minstrels have appeared in instrumentals and vocal selections with much success, and Mr. Percy Agutter (comedian) and Miss May Vincent (singer of chorus songs) have also delighted the audiences.”

New Shops?
Mr. Hewitt senior had been a pioneer of entertainment in the town and district, and was also connected with local amateur stage societies.

Mr. C. J. Knighton manager of the Palace will transfer to the staff of the Ritz when the Palace closes at the end of October.

It is understood that shops will be built on the High Street frontage of about forty feet, where there is now an entrance and passageway.

Mr. Jim Knight of Rushden in whose name the purchase has been made had no statement to make.

The purchase was negotiated by John L. Wilson and Company.

Northampton Chronicle & Echo, 14^th September 1956

Tax to blame

A PICTURE house which began to entertain Rushden people 46 years ago, when there was no entertainment tax, will be closing its doors soon.

The Palace, which once had penny seats for children and a top price of 3d., has been sold— the site will be redeveloped—and the tax is one of the reasons for the decision. That plus the seating capacity, which is small by present-day standards.

The Palace seats 500: its modern neighbour, built by the Palace Company, of Wellingborough and Rushden, holds 1,200.

Mr. W. R. Hewitt, a director of the company and son of the late Mr. W. F. J. Hewitt, who pioneered celluloid entertainment in East Northamptonshire, told me this week that entertainment tax was introduced in 1916 as a war-time measure and the Government then promised its eventual disappearance.

But, like purchase tax, it is still with us.

Mr. Hewitt said that the first films ran for 10 minutes and less, and for years "good old melodramas" and variety filled the bills.

Records show that they included "Siberia," "Shall We Forgive Her?" "Ticket of Leave Man," and "East Lynne."

In 1913, a film made at Irthlingborough—"The Battle of Waterloo"—was shown.

A year earlier, Charles Chaplin was a performer. He doubled performances at Wellingborough and Rushden with Fred Karno's Mumming Birds, playing the drunken character—in a box overlooking the stage—who kept up a running fire of criticism.

In 1918, five elephants were on the bill. For them, the stage had to be shored up and Alfred-street—leading to the rear entrance—was closed to traffic each time the animals were led up a specially built ramp to the stage, The Palace is built on the site of a boot factory which burnt down in 1901 in one of the town's most spectacular blazes.

The manufacturers, the Cave family, erected other works in nearby college-street. One member of the family was a partner in the Palace undertaking, and, at his instigation, a coat-of-arms in tiles—which had been on a wall at his old home— was laid in the entrance hall. Feet passing over them for years have worn the tiles badly,

In 1996 Rushden & District History Society put up a Blue Plaque on the building, in commemoration of the centenary of cinema.

The Palace was opened in September 1910 and closed in November 1956.

Click here for more Blue Plaques

The Place Cinema

Letter from Bandsman H Rice of the Rushden Palace Orchestra