A short booklet on the history of the cinema is now available via Amazon Kindle store. A shorter, paper versionis available for free at the cinema in the museum space, and a more comprehensive hard copy version will be available to buy in mid-2013.
Here is a short extract from the booklet.
Opening Night
The Regal opened on Thursday July 29th, 1937. Its 316 seats were packed for the opening performance, a showing of the 1936 film ‘Everybody Dance’ starring Cicely Courtneidge and Ernest Truex, supported by the Laurel and Hardy short ‘Them Thar Hills’ and the cartoon ‘Good Little Monkeys’.
The local newspaper published a long article about the grandeur of ‘Worcestershire’s New Luxury Cinema’. From its ‘unusual amount of legroom’ and ‘quiet dignity’ in the ‘magnificent auditorium’ to the ‘warmth and solidity’ of the decoration in the foyer, the opening of the Regal made a great impression in the town.
Building the Regal was a large financial commitment for the Craven Cinema group who owned and opened it. The building, designed by Ernest S Roberts from Birmingham who was a well-known cinema architect of the time, cost around £12,000 to build. Rather than build a new building entirely from scratch, the Regal was constructed by modifying houses that had been standing on Teme Street for some time. Alterations were made to the houses to create the projection room and other technical spaces, and the auditorium was built onto the back of the houses in the land behind the original building.
Before the opening of the Regal, the people of Tenbury could see films in the Picture House at the Corn Exchange, just down the road from where the Regal is now, which had been showing films since 1912. When the Regal opened the Picture House closed, and the manager of the Picture House, Mr A J Smith, simply moved from one to the other.
The full booklet is available on Amazon here. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the e-booklet is provided to you at the lowest price Amazon will allow. Any profits from the sale of the e-booklet go towards future learning and engagement work at the Regal.
The Regal is now managed and operated with the Regal Tenbury Trust, a charitable trust of local volunteers. The building provides a local venue for film, music, live shows and more; a full programme and online booking is available at www.regaltenbury.co.uk
