Time of Decline and Demise

The rise of television as the major source of home entertainment must have been a significant factor but it is too easy to lay the total blame at the door of television. The very nature of the films on offer had changed from the wholesome family entertainment to a greater emphasis on sex and violence and as a result the X Rated film!

There were other factors which must be considered. By the 50's the vast majority of cinemas were parts of the two major circuits, and this was just as much the case in the Wolverhampton area. As a result, the smaller and independent cinemas found it increasingly more difficult to compete and get the latest film releases and so many of them began to close. The large number of circuit cinemas meant that the circuits themselves began to consider rationalisation and reduction of their assets i.e. the cinemas. There were just too many!

Whatever the reasons for the general decline in the cinema, it is now necessary to consider the individual stories of our own local cinemas, both the flea pits and the super cinemas. Towards the end of the 1950's one of the most influential of local cinema entrepreneurs, C.S. Joseph and his Pine Pictures Company began to pull out of the local cinema business, especially as his twenty one year lease on the Olympia and Coliseum came to an end.

(although it was to re-open for ten years with Asian film shows in 1963) with the final showing of 'Horrors of the Black Museum' starring Michael Gough. It was in April 1980 that the cinema building was finally demolished to make room for the Ring Road.

The Olympia had tried to struggle through the 50's with its Continental and X Rated films but the diminishing audiences proved more than the new owner could economically handle and so, with great regret, the Olympia followed a similar pattern to Vincent Wareing's other cinema. On July 9th 1960 the cinema closed with the showing of the Franco-Italian programme of Louis Malle's 'Lift to the Scaffold' and Fellini's 'Cabiria'. The original Olympia building is still standing in Thornley Street and if the observer takes trouble to look very carefully at the side wall, it is still possible to make out the red letters of OLYMPIA. The rest of the building however is currently in a quite sorry state of repair.

The movement of population from the Graiseley and Penn Fields areas of the town during the 1950's (often to the new residential estates on the outskirts of the town like Warstones, Underhill and Ashmore Park) meant that the local audience for the Scala fell quite heavily.

The closure of the Scala however came quite suddenly and actually occurred on December 1st 1956 with the showing of 'Beyond Mombasa' starring Cornel Wilde and 'Miami Expose' starring Lee J. Cobb. The building has had something of a chequered career over the forty years since its closure in 1956. It has been a Bingo Hall, a Wrestling Venue, a Dance Hall and is currently the First Base Night Club. The building has recently been re-painted and much of its former glory (at least externally) has been re-captured. One of the town's most popular cinemas was, as stated above, the Queen's. As a result of its popularity the Queen's was largely able to cope with the competition from the super cinemas during the 30's and 40's. However, it was during the 1950's that the Rank Organisation (the owners of the cinema) began their rationalisation programme.

The Queen's Ballroom and Restaurant.

The Queen's Ballroom and Restaurant 1968.

Their original plans (1957) for the cinema was to convert it into a dance hall but the company failed to get a licence. Next, Rank attempted to auction the cinema but this also failed. Finally, on February 7th 1959 the last picture show did take place at the Queen's with the showing of two British comedies, 'The Square Peg' with Norman Wisdom and 'The Lavender Hill Mob' with Alec Guinness. It had been decided by the Rank Organisation that the dance hall proposal would go ahead! The Queen's Ballroom opened on May 15th 1959 and was to become a venue for many of the groups of the 60's including the Kinks, John Mayall's Blues Breakers and the Small Faces. It was to remain a ballroom until 1969. The building was finally demolished in 1978. The site was redeveloped by Lloyd's Bank as part of its Queen Square branch.

The Carlton was very much the one man show of its owner, Norman Burton. It is not therefore surprising that when he became very ill in 1960, the cinema was put up for sale. The final film at the Carlton was 'Tommy the Toreador' starring Tommy Steele. The final show was on April 2nd 1960. The premises became the property of the Household Stores and was used as a warehouse. It was ultimately demolished and the site has become part of the great transformation that has occurred in the Horseley Fields area of the town.

 

 

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