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FADE IN:
INT.
To begin with, let us take a look back at the glory days of
Sunderland Cinemas when they were numerous. Indeed, the
cinema industry was booming but why did they all disappear?
Once occupied by the Olympia Pleasuredome, there now stands
what was once of the biggest and most luxurious cinemas in
Sunderland's history, the new cinema in Holmeside called
'Black Regal'
The designers were architects, Gray and Evans. Local
builders, AJ Rankin, constructed the cinema at a cost of
£100,000. It had the most up to date projection equipment at
the time, and more 60 staff with seating for 2,500 people.
The Regal continued to show extravagant stage shows and film
shows until 1945. Obliviously, wartime Sunday concerts were
popular with the people of Sunderland. The seating capacity
went down by 300. In 1964, they closed the front stalls
entrance in Park Lane.
The Oden closed on the 8th of February 1975 for conversion to
three screens. The building, closed for a very long time but
then re-opened as the top-bank bingo club, indeed it remains
in use today as the Mecca Bingo. The image shows the Mecca in
a bad light. The fate of the once beloved building remains to
be seen.
Most other local cinemas suffered very similar fates. In
October 1942, for the first time ever in Sunderland the 'ABC'
screened 'Gone With The Wind'. This lasted a record breaking
six weeks. The early sixties saw a takeover of Union Cinemas
by assiocted British Cinemas. Then 'The Ritz' joined the ABC
with a seating capacity of 1500. Another unfortunate change
in 1974 when 'EMI' took over ABC. The seating capacity
reduced to 762. The late 1990s sadly saw the closure of the
Canon Cinema close by aswell.
