The Dorset History Centre is fortunate to have been given a collection of images belonging to the Gaumont Cinema, Weymouth. The images have been digitised by Eddie Prowse who has provided as much information as is currently available for an interesting insight into 1950s local cinema.
Background to the Gaumont Cinema Archive of Photographs
In the mid-1950s cinema attendances were falling quite dramatically as the growth of TV ownership grew. In an attempt to stem this fall; cinema managers were encouraged by senior management to publicise films more widely.
An intriguing idea
Mr F A Connett, the manager of The Gaumont in Weymouth, rose to the challenge with a series of novel ‘on-street’ and ‘in-store’ promotions, using photographs to record these efforts.
Promotional material photographs
Among the films that feature in the promotional advertising are classics such as The Young Ones (1961), St Trinnians (1957), The Left-Handed Gun (1958), and Around the World in 80 Days (1958)
There are 29 films in the collection featuring the promotional material used around Weymouth.
Nearly lost
In 1971 The Gaumont British cinema chain, including the Gaumont in Weymouth, was sold. At that time Jon Thorne had a seasonal job in the cinema. He was instructed by the new management to clear and dispose of a large amount of stored material. Amongst this material was a box file containing copies of the promotion photographs.
Jon Thorne was allowed to retain the collection for his own use. The collection remained in Jon’s possession until 2015 when he contacted Eddie Prowse seeking advice on how to dispose of it. Eddie Prowse digitised the collection and provided as much information as he was able to discover.
The Gaumont Cinema remembered
In an article by the Dorset Echo in 2018, Andy Hutchings shares his memories of the cinema;
“I have fond memories of the Gaumont… I remember we would go in at 6.30pm and see a Randolph Scott film with an intermission in it, during which the ice cream lady would come around.”
And afterwards a cinema outing would be rounded off with cod and chips from the Criterion for 1/6 and a cup of tea for six pence.
Another reader, Alan Wolsey recalls going to the Saturday Morning Pictures from the age of eight or nine to when he was about 16,
“All the films had a U certificate, but I remember quite a lot of them did frighten us! They would be shown in instalments, and I always remember them saying ‘tune into next week’s startling instalment’”.
Alan watched Ben Hur in 1959, Guns of Navarro in 1961 on the wide screen and, after 1963, when his father had an advertising hoarding at the cinema, could get in for free.
He said:
“I watched Lawrence of Arabia every week as a summer season. It was about three and a half hours long!”
What do you remember about the Gaumont Cinema, Weymouth? We would love to hear your memories – find out more about the collection in our catalogue, D-2715.
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The original collection (D-2715) has been given to The Dorset History Centre with a digital copy also being given to Weymouth Museum.
I well remember Saturday Morning Pictures , we sat upstairs for 9d and downstairs was 6d. We used to drop our wooden ice cream spoons over the balcony below. I remember all the words to the opening song,” We come along on a Saturday morning…” A brave man used to come onstage with a microphone and greet us and we’d all boo and shout when he said “ Good morning boys and girls.” (Actually my brother and I didn’t we were quite shocked at this )
My mother must have loved it because she could drop us off at 9am and could have a much needed Saturday morning without kids !
It was a good programme, usually a western, a cartoon, a comedy , and a good cliff hanger at the end, so you absolutely had to come the next Saturday .
On your birthday you’d get a card with a complimentary ticket which was nice.
I very well remember the Gaumont cinema because in 1955 at age 13, I started my final educational years at the sadly now demolished South Dorset Technical College in Newstead Road, I was a boarder for only the first term and I used to go to the cinema when homework permitted it, I have loved Weymouth deeply all of my life simply because I consider my three years at the “Tech” to be the three happiest years of my whole life, I am now 81 years old.
Thank-you for your comment Peter, and what a lovely memory!