UKs last ABC Cinema abdandoned in BOURNEMOUTH
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2020
- ABC Cinemas was established in 1927 by solicitor John Maxwell[1] by merging three smaller Scottish cinema circuits. It became a wholly owned cinema subsidiary of British International Pictures when it was merged with the production arm of British National Studios, which had been formed by Maxwell in 1926.[2]
During the 1930s, it grew rapidly by acquisitions and an ambitious building programme under the direction of chief architect W.R.Glen, who had been appointed in about 1929[3] and maintained a distinct house style. Existing cinemas which could not be re-modelled were usually operated as separate circuits. In 1937, the parent company, BIP was renamed Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). ABC also ran cinemas under the Ritz brand such as the Ritz Cinema, Muswell Hill.
After his death in 1940, his widow Catherine sold a large number of shares to Warner Brothers,[4] who eventually became the largest shareholders and able to exercise control, though ABPC was separately quoted on the London Stock Exchange. By 1945 it operated over 400 cinemas (usually called the Savoy or Regal) and was second only to Rank's Odeon and Gaumont chains. By the close of the 1950s ABC had started rebranding most cinemas as ABC and dropped names like Regal. Uk exhibition was characterised by alignments between distributors and exhibitors. ABC had access to Warner Brothers, MGM and its own ABPC productions, whereas rival Rank had 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Walt Disney, Columbia, Universal, United Artists and its own productions. Rival ABC, Odeon and Gaumont cinemas in a town showed their own releases and barred each other from showing the same film.
Television led to a sharp decline in cinema audiences after 1952 though with the coming of commercial television from 1955 ABPC had expanded into the new medium with the creation of ABC Television Limited, which gained the Independent Television contracts for the North of England and Midlands at the weekend. ABC-TV lost its franchises in 1968, and was merged with Rediffusion to become Thames Television.
As a result of the decline many suburban ABC theatres closed. Most of those remaining began, from the late 1950s to lose their individual names and were simply branded "ABC". In 1959 Rank abandoned the separate Odeon and Gaumont release and put the best cinemas from each circuit onto a new Rank release. The remaining cinemas were given a new "National" release but this was unattractive to distributors and in 1961 Paramount switched to ABC after refusing a "National" release for the Dean Martin comedy "All in a Night's Work". The "National" release soon ended entirely and there were in future just ABC and Odeon release patterns. In 1967, Seven Arts, the new owners of Warner, decided to dispose of its holdings in ABPC and subsequently EMI launched a successful take-over bid for the company. Associated British Picture Corporation was later to be renamed Thorn-EMI Screen Entertainment Ltd, although the cinema chain retained its name. In 1986, this was later divested by EMI to the Australian businessman Alan Bond who sold the chain a few days later to the Golan & Globus "Cannon Cinemas" Group for a reported £50 million profit in seven days. EMI retained ABPC's lucrative television interests. Eventually, the advent of largely American owned multiplexes led to the end of barring and the old distributor alignments, which had in any case been rendered largely irrelevant by cinema closures often leaving only one cinema in a town, which had access to all films but usually had to give precedence to its traditional alignment (so an Odeon might have a poor "Rank" release in its biggest screen and a big "ABC" release in a small cinema and vice versa).
As an ex projectionist have you never heard of "Sprockets" ~ "Inching Knob" ~ "Gate" ~ ACOP was a safety feature that shut the system down in emergency and was also known as (in the box) Automatic Call Of Projectionist..When you know how much love, time effort and pride that projectionist took in the maintenance and cleanliness of the box all over the years and in whatever cinema, it's heart breaking to see the destruction done to these buildings, and done in such a short time after closure and now
Well done Matt Sam & Jess , Enjoyed this explore , Keep up the good work , Thanks.
Excellent work Matt, Sam n Jess. Very interesting vid with lots of interesting stuff to have a look at. Great work.
Another great explore, thank you for taking me along. Shout out to Sam & Jess, did they see the arches with the artwork? I love your long play footage, saves me switching videos to get the whole thing. Saw some new stuff this time, shame you couldn't get to the roof. On to the next one.
that drone footage shows some real hidden history another great job guys AWESOME.
Not sure what microphone you use but the spatials on the sound are incredible. Listening through headphones and every time Sam or Jess speak from behind you it sounded like someone was talking to me from behind. The other half thought I was mad keep turning round to see what he wanted.
After the Gaumont adventure many memories of the ABC, the ABC B'mth became Canon during the 80s and then reverted back to ABC. During the 1970s there were only 2 screens I remember another screen was added during the 1980s, the gold curtain was used in ABC 1 until late 1980s, a bubble projector was used after. I remember seeing The Sting and Kellys Heroes as a boy here, there was a super bar next to ABC 1
Great video ! Worked as a projectionist for nearly 10 years and also have owned many 35mm projectors as an interest. Sad to see these cinemas and equipment rotting away. The projectors on the film are Philips DP75 machines. I rescued two of these machines out of a skip many years ago with a friend which had been in a Leisure Centre. Sadly a bygone era ... keep up the good work with the videos !
Matt I love these old cinemas and yr cinema 🎥 lessons another great explore thanks for sharing 👍 love Sam and Jess too, brilliant video 👍🎥💖
Thank you Matt awesome as always! I like your longer videos because when I want to sit down and watch something I don’t wanna watch 10 minute clips of stuff in addition I remember before digital they had the beginning of the film you could hear the click click click winding up before there was sound started and you actually see them adjusting the gates and everything live. I also remember when film would get stuck and you would watch it burn from the center out followed by a bunch of booze and somebody yelling will be back up in a minute and then it would get started again and everybody would forget about what just happened
love the video and the insight into the workings of the cinema
Was having a bad day this cheered me up. Few things: That burnt stuff looks like burnt film matt bloody vandals.
I used to work in both locations. You seemed to have missed the staff room and main office? Also screen 3 I believe. Anyway, if you have any questions I may be able to answer them for ya
thank you matt and sam and jess in joy watch .....stuff about the old cinma dont make like that any more ,,,did work in one years ago in bristol top rank ordon .......jy
Great to see inside the building it’s so huge can’t believe so much stuff is still left it was fantastic to se the film projectors and film reels and still working by hand when turning the dials etc 👍😊
Poor ABC cinemas 😥 there is one in Maidstone Kent which still has power running through it from the Bingo complex next door, so she is in good nick!!
The ABC cinema in Plymouth closed its doors on November 2019 The floor at 12.56 is painted in the two main colours of the old ABC design Blue & Red I'd say most of the rooms off the stage were dressing rooms The Beatles did the ABC circuit back in the mid 60s so could of been in them rooms Shame to see the old ACB curtains still hanging there they were worth top money one time Apparently above the pay booths there is a way into what used to be the old ABC lounge area which has been sealed off to the public for over 40 years
Secret vault notification 👍 brilliant stuff ✌️
I SMASHED the like button. As always.
1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth❤🩹❤🩹❤🩹👍