Mystery film: 5

We're back this week with the last mystery film of 2011! You can mull over this Christmas edition over the Christmas week; answers will be posted in the New Year.

You know how it works by now: post your guesses either here in the comments, on twitter or on our facebook page.

From all of us here at the Regal, we hope you have a very Happy Christmas.

See you in the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is almost upon us, so this seems like a good time to wish everyone who has been following the progress of the project in 2011 a very Merry holiday!

We've got some more exciting blog posts planned for the new year, including spotlights on some of the features that are being renovated or reinstated in the restoration project, more film trivia, more behind-the-scenes from the cinema during the work, competitions with actual real prizes and more! So make sure you keep following us in 2012, especially on the run up to the re-opening later in the year.

Have a great holiday everyone, and we'll see you in the New Year!

Object of the Week 5: Revealed!

Just the one guess this week, but one that was spot on! Steve on the blog correctly identified the mystery equipment as being a sound amplifier. By the time the Regal opened in 1937, the most widely accepted type of soundtracks for film were included on the film itself, rather than on a record that was played alongside the film.

Here are a couple of close photos of the switches. The word 'Duosonic' referred to the sound input coming from both of the projectors; you can see the switch at the top of the left-hand picture, which was used to swap the sound input from the left to the right projector as you changed reels. The right-hand photo shows the model name of the amplifier.

The projectors and the sound equipment fitted into the cinema originally were of Gaumont-Kalee manufacture. Although we don't know exactly when this amplifier was fitted into the cinema, we know it was in use by 1951. The wear marks on the top of the amplifier are a particularly nice reminder of the many times a projectionist has leant onto the box during a show.

The short video below is a promotional film reel which would have played in cinemas using Gaumont-Kalee equipment; it may have played at the Regal.

We hope you enjoyed this week's mystery object, the last of 2011! There'll be a mystery film to last you over the Christmas break and we'll be back again with more objects from the Regal in the New  Year.

Object of the Week 5

Another in-situ object today. I think this is probably one of those 'you either know it or you don't' type of objects, but we'll see how well you all do!

I know it looks a bit like a vending machine, but I promise you it isn't! What do you think it is?

Guesses anytime between now and about midday on Monday, either through facebook, twitter or the blog comments here.

Happy guessing!

A bit of a mix-up

As Christmas is approaching I thought now was a good time to provide you all with some film-related fun for the holiday season. So, here are a couple of anagram activities to keep you all amused whilst you're waiting for the holiday to begin!

This first sheet is designed for children; all of the films are children's films, and the spacings are all in the right places. Children of all ages are welcome to play along, of course, even the big kids!

This second sheet is a little harder; more general films, and with the spaces in all of the wrong places (not even the right number of spaces in most cases, in fact). Well, you wouldn't want it to be too easy, would you?

You should be able to print out both sheets for entertainment away from the computer, but if you're having trouble send me an email at hao@tenburytown.org.uk and I'll email you over a pdf version.

If you can complete them all, you win the satisfaction of knowing you got them all right! And it'll be good practice; hopefully we'll have more of this sort of game in the New Year, next time with actual prizes!

If you'd like an answer sheet, send me an email and I'll send one back over to you.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

Mystery film: 4 - revealed!

We're a day late with our reveal this week due to some technical difficulties, but as it's given some more of you a chance to guess the film I don't think that's too much of a bad thing!

Congratulations this week go to Steve on the blog and Mandy and David on facebook for correctly identifying the film as the classic "It's A Wonderful Life". In a recent poll, the film was named the public's favourite Christmas film of all time.

We'll have one more mystery film for you before Christmas, another Christmas-theme, coming up a week on Friday. Before that, this Friday you'll have your last mystery object of 2011!

Mystery film: 4

We're back this week with another mystery film; to celebrate the greats of film history, we're taking iconic scenes from films and putting them up onto our miniature Regal screen. All you have to do is tell me what film they're from. The projectionist in our hand-drawn Regal doesn't seem to be very good at focussing the lens in the projector as the picture looks rather blurry... I'm sure you'll manage to guess the film anyway!

This week and in a fortnight we've got a special Christmas edition for you! Can you guess the Christmassy film?

You know how it works by now: post your guesses either here in the comments, on twitter or on our facebook page.

I'll put up the answer on Monday, and credit all the correct guessers then.

Enjoy!

Poles, planks and ladders

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's the moment you've all been waiting for.

That's right - this is the post about scaffolding!

If you've been in Tenbury recently you'll have seen the scaffolding going up around the outside of the Regal. Just in case you haven't been to Tenbury, here's a picture for you to see what the building looks like swaddled in planks, poles and blue netting.

But really, the scaffold on the outside of the building is nothing compared to the scale of the transformation that has gone on inside of the auditorium.

(Click here for a larger version of the panorama)

This picture doesn't really do it justice; the room feels entirely transformed with the wood and metal all around the walls and ceiling. The scaffold isn't quite finished yet in this picture, though you can see the general shape of it. When finished, it will provide the workmen access to the roof and the walls. The double levels of height around the side give good access to the mural for the work that will be carried out to them later in the restoration (as one of the later things to happen, work on the murals will be started after Christmas).

One of the most surprising things to see was just how many pieces go together to make the scaffolding. These pictures show just some of the poles and connectors that haven't yet been put together. It looked like a giant meccano set!

Within the scaffolding, ladders are used to get between the different heights. Here's one of the ladders, leading up to the first floor of the scaffold (where the chair is). The auditorium slopes, of course, so what is near the floor height at the back is above my head height at the front.

I hoped you enjoyed the pictorial tour of scaffolding! This is all staying up during the mural painting phase, so until well after Christmas. So don't be surprised if you see more photos of scaffolding in the future!

Object of the Week 4: Revealed

We had some excellent thoughts this week on what that mystery record was all about. Well done to Ian and Stephen on twitter and Kate on the blog for knowing that it was a record and making some good guesses as to its use.

No-one quite managed to guess the real story behind the record though, so here goes!

The record lives in a cabinet in the projector room, which has this fantastic notice on it:



That's right - the record was the fire alarm! A lot of early cinemas weren't fitted with fire alarms for fear that it would panic the audience if it went off. At the Regal, staff would be made aware of a fire by the playing of 'Going Home' from the film 'Local Hero' across the cinema's audio system. We're not sure what happened before the release of Local Hero, or whether they had a back-up song for when Local Hero was showing that week!



As you can see from the picture above, the record was a special cinema release. Cinemas were sent music from films by the film distributors to play before and after the presentation reel, to set the mood for the films and, we suppose, to act as some kind of advertising.

Film soundtracks were (and still are in some cases) read on an optical track from the film itself. After Christmas I'll put up a blog post all about film soundtracks, for those of you who are interested!

Back to the fire alarm; you'll all be glad to know that the Regal does have a proper fire alarm these days, with flashing red lights and noisy sirens. The record still lives in the cabinet though, just in case.

We hope you enjoyed this week's mystery object; this Friday we'll have a Christmassy mystery film for you to guess!

Object of the Week 4

This week we've got a photograph of an object in-situ at the cinema for you.

This might seem like an odd choice of object, but there is a story behind it! Guess away and see if you can figure it out.

We'll post up the answer on Monday.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Through door number two...

Unless you've spent time in the shop units at the front of the Regal, this is probably a doorway you've never seen before. Up on the top floor, this new arch now connects the rooms on the right with the rooms on the left. Similar doorways will connect the middle floor too, increasing the usability of the space as you'll be able to access these rooms directly from the cinema itself.

As you can see from the picture, this isn't the first time that there has been a doorway here. The large lintel across the door makes it very obvious, and before the doorway was knocked through you could see the outline of the previous door in the plasterwork.

Whilst we're showing architectural features in the shop units, here's another you might not have seen before; an old fireplace. Despite the dust and dirt it's in very good condition, and pre-dates the cinema's construction, belonging to the house that originally stood on the site.

This fireplace is in the lefthand shop (as you look at it from the street). There was once a matching one in the right had shop, but although the angled wall of the chimney breast and the slab on the floor remain, the fireplace itself disappeared years ago.

We found a few odds and ends underneath the floorboards in these rooms. Our favourite are a little cigarette box and card, in excellent condition, which date to 1937. They were probably dropped there by the workmen building the cinema as they converted the old houses into rentable shop spaces, and have sat undisturbed there ever since.

More in-restoration photographs coming soon, including an entire post dedicated to pictures of scaffolding! Which I promise will be more interesting than I'm making it sound here...

Regal Advent Calendar - Merry Christmas!

Greetings all! It's nearly December, so to share the Christmas spirit with you, we've got a small surprise for you. On our twitter feed @RegalTenburyHLF we'll be opening an imaginary door on our Regal advent calendar every day from the first to the twenty-fourth of December! Behind those doors you'll find Christmassy quotes from Christmassy films, hopefully ready to put you all into a most Christmassy spirit.

To join in, just follow our twitter feed. The advent updates will appear every day at 1pm. You can find all of the advent calendar posts together by searching for the hashtag #RegalAdvent (click on the hashtag to search).

The picture at the top of this post is of a piece of film reel from the Regal's own Christmas history. It's the short few seconds that would have played before film previews on the run up to Christmas.

We hope you enjoy our advent calendar. We think we've covered all the great Christmas films, but if you think we've missed one then please let us know!

Mystery film: 3 - revealed!

You'd like me to reveal this week's mystery film?

As you wish.

It seemed inconcievable that there were no guesses over the weekend, and I wondered if you'd fallen foul of one of the classic blunders (obviously not the ones about land wars in Asia or going up against Sicilians). But obviously someone took a miracle pill this morning and all wasn't lost, as we got some guesses before lunchtime. The film was, of course, the classic Princess Bride! Well done to Stephen on twitter and Duncan on facebook.

As it's December by the end of this week, we'll be starting on the Christmas films for our next mystery installments.

Until then... have fun storming the castle!

And I promise not to badly paraphrase the key quotes from the mystery film next time.

Mystery film: 3

We're back this week with another mystery film; to celebrate the greats of film history, we're taking iconic scenes from films and putting them up onto our miniature Regal screen. All you have to do is tell me what film they're from. The projectionist in our hand-drawn Regal doesn't seem to be very good at focussing the lens in the projector as the picture looks rather blurry... I'm sure you'll manage to guess the film anyway!

 

You know how it works by now: post your guesses either here in the comments, on twitter or on our facebook page.

I'll put up the answer on Monday, and credit all the correct guessers then.

Enjoy!

Behind door number one...

If you've been to the Regal before, have you ever wondered what was behind this door?

 

In case you've not been to the Regal before, it's a door at the top left of the auditorium (as you look into it from the front). The writing on the door says "NO EXIT" in gold, art deco capitals, and above the door you can see the outline of where a brass sign used to say the same.

So what's behind this mystery door? Well, I can show you!

 

 

That's right. It's... a room!

Well, of a sort. Although it looks like a room from this angle, in fact it's more like a very small covered courtyard. The back wall stops just about where the red pelmet starts in this picture (can you see the sliver of blueishness?) and from there to the height of the auditorium it's open on that one side. Not much of an opening though - the building next door is only about a half a metre away!

You can see a green downpipe in the corner beyond the doorway too. You should recognise that from the 'True Colour's post.

This room or courtyard is getting a new lease of life in the renovation process. The odd little space will become part of the ladies toilets, providing a washroom area for the new facilities.

I've been promised they'll put a proper roof on it first, though.

Object of the Week 3: Revealed!

We've had lots of correct guesses this week from all over the web, so well done to TC from Artrix, Stephen and Ian on twitter, David on facebook and Beaver on the blog, all of whom knew it was a film splicing machine, for joining together pieces of film. Or, as TC put it: "It's a splicy film reel fixy togethery machine!"

This is another picture of it, this time with the handle lifted up. You can see the little notches in the centre of the plate; these would have allowed the projectionist to perfectly align the two pieces of film so that the join was straight. The roll on the right hand side of the picture is tape, very much like sellotape but designed specially for sticking film together. 

Tools like these are still used in cinemas that show film on projectors. This one was still being used to join together film reels in the Regal right up until the closure for restoration.

Thanks to everyone who took part; we'll have another mystery film for you to mull over this weekend.

Object of the Week 3: Return of the Object

Welcome to another addition of Object of the Week. We've found some pretty cool things whilst we were taking everything out of the Regal to prepare the building for the restoration work, so every other Friday I hope to be able to show you something from the cinema and give you the weekend to figure out what it is. On Monday I'll let you know the answer. Feel free to post your guesses in the comments here, or send them via twitter. Correct guessers will be appropriately praised in Monday's post!


Here's this week's object. Lots of possibilities here, I think... looking forward to hearing your ideas.

What is it?

If you've not yet added your voice to our survey of film history then now is the time to do so. By answering four very quick questions you can help us to shape the exhibition in the Regal. What are you waiting for? Go do it now!

Mystery film: 2 - revealed!

That didn't seem to prove to be too much of a challenge for you! Well done to our correct guessers, this week from twitter; Ian, who knew it was a Star Wars film, and to Stephen who correctly identified it as Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

We'll be back to the mystery film again next week; look out for another object from the Regal collection this Friday for this weekend's guessing game.

True Colours

Welcome to the second set of photographs from inside the Regal during its restoration project!

Today I'll be showing you some photographs that reveal some original colour schemes from around the cinema.

First up are the walls in the auditorium. If you saw last week's wide auditorium shot then you'll remember that there were some discoloured patches on the back walls, behind the chairs. These haven't been made by the contractors; this is the way it was left last time it was repainted.

This close-in shot shows you some of the detailing of the paint. Directly under the yellow we see today was a browner colour. Underneath that is a deeper, more reddish-brown. You can also see that the outlining of the block structure with black lines was done on the previous light brown surface too. 

It's possible that the light brown colour was originally lighter, closer to today's yellow in colour, but was stained by cigarette smoke and dust in the auditorium. You can certainly see the dirt and staining on the mural in other places in the room.

You can see on those pictures too that they didn't quite manage to paint in all of the block joins with black lines. If you look at the wide shot from last week you might spot a couple more places where these lines are missing too.

These are two very exciting pictures of a water downpipe! They're from a part of the cinema that you've probably not seen before... more on that in another post. What they do show very well is the green colour of the original rainwater goods. All of the drainpipes would have been this colour of green originally; flecks of this colour are still visible on some of the repainted pipes, showing through the modern black.  You can see these pipes are rather dirty, but they're probably very close to the original colour; they're fairly well protected from the elements and probably haven't been bleached lighter very much by sunshine or rain.

That's it for today! Plenty more to come still...

We hope you're enjoying getting to see behind the scenes at the cinema during this exciting time. If there's ever anything you'd like us to keep an eye open for whilst we're in there snapping away do let us know - if we can take a photo of it, we will!

Mystery film: 2

We're back this week with another mystery film; to celebrate the greats of film history, we're taking iconic scenes from films and putting them up onto our miniature Regal screen. All you have to do is tell me what film they're from. The projectionist in our hand-drawn Regal doesn't seem to be very good at focussing the lens in the projector as the picture looks rather blurry... I'm sure you'll manage to guess the film anyway.

This week I've given the Regal a little colouring in. I don't think it'll make it any easier (or harder) for you to guess this week's film, though!

Post your guesses either here in the comments, on twitter or on our facebook page.

I'll put up the answer on Monday, and credit all the correct guessers then.

Enjoy!

Spot the Difference

Today I'm bringing you the first of the pictures from inside the Regal during the restoration work! So that you can spot the changes, I'll include a picture of the same view from before the work started as well as one as it is now.

Other than the fact I stepped a bit further forwards to take the second picture, there's a few more obvious changes starting to happen!

As you can see, the chairs on the left and right side of the auditorium have been removed (they're being safely stored during this phase of the project and will be replaced later) and the central seats have been covered over with plastic sheeting. This is all so that the scaffolding, which you can see in the bottom of the shot, can be erected, allowing the contractors access to the roof. Replacing the old roof is one of the first major pieces of work to be done. The black plastic sheeting that covers the centre and right parts of the upper floor area will also cover the left hand side before the roof work begins.

You can see some lights sticking up out of the ground beside the aisles; these were the lights that were attached to the seats and lit the steps down into the auditorium. They've been left in place during the work because they will be remaining in the cinema after the work is complete.

You can also see some patches of different colours on the walls at the back of the auditorium, behind where the back row would have been. I'll be showing you a better picture of that in another post, but  even from this distance the areas where the yellow paint hasn't covered stand out.

There'll be more photos from inside the cinema to come soon, including a reveal of what's behind one of the doors at the back of the auditorium, some original paintwork colours and a new doorway!

Object of the Week 2: Revealed

Thank you to everyone who took part in this week's object of the week!

Credit for the correct answer goes to Stephen on Facebook and Miles on Twitter, who guessed that it is indeed an ash tray. Consolation prizes to those who thought it was a drawer handle; it certainly looks like one!

Smoking in cinemas used to be considered completely normal, despite the issues to projection that the smoke hovering in the auditorium must have caused. It was one of the reasons that ventilation was built into the cinema; you can see ventilation grilles in the Regal still today.

There's still a little evidence in the cinema of these lost artefacts. Check out this photograph of the radiators on the wooden partition in the middle of the auditorium:



That's an ash tray just like the one in this week's challenge! Only that one is a bit squashed, obviously. There are two still in situ in the cinema, one on each of the sides of the auditorium. None survive in the middle section, as there are no radiators there to protect them. Originally, ash trays would have been found on the back of every seat.

We hope you enjoyed this week's object of the week. There will be another a week on Friday; this Friday's challenge will be another guess-the-film.

Also coming up this week on the blog we'll have the first of the photographs from inside the cinema during the restoration work. Things are beginning to change inside...

Object of the Week 2: The Sequel

Welcome to another addition of Object of the Week. We've found some pretty cool things whilst we were taking everything out of the Regal to prepare the building for the restoration work, so every other Friday I hope to be able to show you something from the cinema and give you the weekend to figure out what it is. On Monday I'll let you know the answer! Feel free to post your guesses in the comments here, or send them via twitter. Correct guessers will be appropriately praised in Monday's post!

Here's this week's offering. We've got a few of these. They're an interesting shape.

What is it?

If you've not yet added your voice to our survey of film history then now is the time to do so. By answering four very quick questions you can help us to shape the exhibition in the Regal. What are you waiting for? Go do it now!

Mystery film: revealed

We had some people playing along this week! Well done to Vicky, who knew it was an Indiana Jones film, and to David who correctly identified it as Raiders of the Lost Ark.

We'll be back to the mystery film again next week; look out for another object from the Regal collection this Friday for this weekend's guessing game.

Mystery film!

I mentioned earlier in the week that you'd be seeing another use of that black and white drawing of the Regal's interior. Well, here it is.

To celebrate the greats of film history, I'll be taking iconic scenes from well-known (and perhaps not so well known, if you get too good at it) films and putting them up onto our miniature Regal screen. All you have to do is tell me what film they're from.

Unfortunately, the projectionist in our hand-drawn Regal doesn't seem to be very good at focussing the lens in the projector as the picture looks rather blurry...

As with our mystery objects, I thought I'd start out with a fairly easy one. Can you tell which film this is from?

Post your guesses either here in the comments, on twitter or on our facebook page.

I'll put up the answer on Monday, and credit all the correct guessers then.

Enjoy!

Now showing?

Happy half term everyone! For those of you with children at home (or those of you feeling young at heart) here's a little activity for you. Below, I present you with the Regal cinema! In 2D form and black and white, ready for young creative minds to get their crayons out on:

So what's showing at your Regal?

Click here for a large version of the image which you can print out. Do send us pictures of your drawings! We'd love to see what's on your Regal screen.

Watch out for another use for this Regal picture, coming soon. Are you good at guessing films?

Object of the Week: Revealed!

Well, we didn't have any online guesses this week but I'm hoping you were all playing along at home.

If you guessed that our mystery object was a projector lens then congratulations! You can give yourself a pat on the back. That fabulously sci-fi-looking piece of equipment was indeed one of many projector lenses that we've got in store now. Some of them don't belong to the current projector, but to previous projectors from the cinema.

You might be wondering why a projector needs lots of different lenses anyway. Different types of film, such as widescreen and cinemascope, need different shaped lenses to make sure that the image on the film looks correct up on the screen. The projectionist would be responsible for making sure that the right lens was on the projector before the film started; sometimes this meant swapping the lenses over after the adverts before the feature film started!

We'll have another 'object of the week' up on Friday next week.

Welcome to... Object of the Week!

We've found some pretty cool things whilst we were taking everything out of the Regal to prepare the building for the restoration work. Every other Friday, I hope to be able to show you something from the cinema and give you the weekend to figure out what it is. On Monday I'll let you know the answer! Feel free to post your guesses in the comments here, or send them via twitter.

There are no prizes at the moment I'm afraid, other than the satisfaction of knowing you got it right, but I will announce the names of everyone who guesses correctly here on the blog, unless you ask me not to.

Some weeks will be harder than others. We're starting off with something fairly easy, since it's our first week...

So... it's not one of WALL-E's eyes, and it's not a part of R2-D2.

What is it?

Open House Update

Well, what a fantastic turn-out to our Open House on Friday and Saturday last week! In total we had 377 people drop in and visit us across the two days, which was absolutely phenomenal; it was great to see so many people interested in the Regal and what's planned for it. We saw a lot of people from Tenbury and also from outside of the area. Thanks to everyone who turned up, and to the local newspapers and Sunshine Radio who got the word out there about the event.

I saw a few people scribbling down the blog's web address during the day, so hopefully some of you reading this now will be doing so because you dropped in at the weekend. Hello to any and all new followers!

The contractors take posession of the building today, so those of you in Tenbury will be noticing construction hoardings going up soon.

A lot of people at the weekend talked about the shows they remembered seeing at the Regal over the years, from queues around the building to see E.T. to classics like the Guns of Navarone and more recent offerings, such as the Dark Knight. What do you remember seeing at the Regal? It doesn't matter how long ago, all memories are welcome!

Drop in and see the Regal one last time...

If you've been to the Regal before and are interested in the changes going on as part of the HLF project, don't miss your last chance to see it before all the work starts. The contractors will be on site soon, but before they start we're opening up to show you the auditorium and information about the restoration and renovation work that will be going on.

Friday 14th October | 11am - 2pm
Saturday 15th October | 11am - 3pm

You're free to drop in whenever you want during our open times. We look forward to seeing you!

Welcome to the blog!

Welcome to the first post of the Regal's restoration blog. Here we're going to be keeping you up to date with the progress of the restoration work going on at the fantastic Regal Cinema in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire.

As well as regular updates on what is going on behind the walls and construction hoardings, we'll also be using this space to give you some insights into the history of the Regal, and why we're undertaking the renovation project in the first place.

The project is being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and in addition to the construction work the project will include events, activities and research into the history of the cinema. If you are interested in volunteering in any part of the project or if you've got any information about the history of the Regal that you'd like to share, please get in touch with me. I'm Sarah Fellows, and I'm the Regal Heritage Access Officer during the project. You can contact me through the blog, through our twitter feed @RegalTenburyHLF or by email at hao@tenburytown.org.uk.

Work will be starting on the Regal in the next couple of weeks, so if you're in town look out for changes happening as well as information at the site. We'll try and include all the on-site information here on the blog for those of you who can't get to Tenbury.