• A Day in Local Cinema History
  
• Reference Sources and Acknowledgements
  
• Copyright
  

A Day in Cinema History
Monday 22nd September 1930 was a special day in Bradford which was to give a new dimension to the cinemagoing public of the district. It was the grand ceremonial opening of Bradford's new 3318-seater New Victoria theatre/cinema, ballroom, restaurant and tea room. This luxury new super-cinema offered films on the "talking screen" plus the "Mighty" Wurlitzer Organ and stage show with a full orchestra. All this along with wining, dining and dancing under the same roof and setting a new standard for cinemagoers in Bradford and Shipley. So how did the Shipley cinemas compete on this same day?

Princes Hall advertised . . .

"The Sacred Flame" - 1929 USA B/W Talkie Drama
Starring Pauline Frederick, Conrad Nagel and William Courtenay.
'Hear Nagel sing the theme song'.

Saltaire Picture House - Advertised "All Talking" . . .

"The Saturday Night Kid" - 1929 USA B/W Sound
Starring Clara Bow, James Hall and Jean Arthur.

Shipley Picture House - offered . . .

"Undertow" - 1930 USA B/W Silent + some sound!
Starring Mary Nolan, Robert Ellis and Johnny Mack Brown.
Also a 'Talking Comedy'.

Pavilion de Luxe . . .
Did not advertise that week.

Shipley cinema prices were very much cheaper than those in the Bradford city centre but as sound and picture quality improved rapidly the audiences likewise increased reaching a peak in the 1940s (particularly the war years) and early 1950s. It was with the popularity of television (still only two B/W channels, BBC and ITV) in the late 1950s that the decline in cinema audiences began. The rest, as they say, is history.

Reference Sources & Acknowledgements
Information and photographs for this history of Shipley Cinemas has been collected over several decades from many sources including . . .
Bradford Daily Argus
Bradford Daily Telegraph
Shipley Times & Express
Telegraph & Argus
Bradford Central Library - Local Studies
Bradford Timeline
Joan S. Hyde (re Glenroyal & Pavilion de Luxe)
(late) A.S "Shack" Hyde
(late) Annie (Hyde) & John Raistrick
(late) William 'Bill' Procter (re Saltaire PH/Gaumont)
Various Kinematograph Trade sources
Various Internet archives.

Copyright

All the articles accompanying the History of Shipley Cinemas are the copyright of Colin Sutton and may not be copied, reproduced or included in any other version of history without my permission. The articles include a large amount of previously unpublished material from my own personal memories, connections, family archives and after interviewing many people who have worked in the local cinema trade. Also some information does actually appear word-for-word in other published works simply because it was researched from the same source material, eg. cinema advertising or newspaper reporting. In the past I have also supplied much basic information about Bradford and Shipley Cinemas to another author of local cinema books and provided information to local press.

Modern colour images are all copyright of Colin Sutton and are taken from my own colourslides. Older monochrome (ie. black & white and sepia toned) images are taken from very old photographs loaned or given to me over several decades whilst researching. The donor/lenders and myself did not know who took the original pictures or who, if anyone, owns the copyright of same. They are reproduced in good faith to add interest to the history and to prompt the reader's memory.

This history project is non-commercial and non-profitmaking. It is to place here on record that which has been lost over the years and is to be enjoyed as such.