{"id":3199,"date":"2022-07-15T09:03:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T09:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=3199"},"modified":"2022-07-15T09:03:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T09:03:37","slug":"a-collection-almost-lost-remembering-the-gaumont-cinema-weymouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2022\/07\/15\/a-collection-almost-lost-remembering-the-gaumont-cinema-weymouth\/","title":{"rendered":"A Collection Almost Lost: Remembering The Gaumont Cinema, Weymouth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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D-2715\/2\/5: The Gaumont Cinema Foyer, 1959<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Background to the Gaumont Cinema Archive of Photographs<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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D-2715\/2\/2: Manager and staff, circa 1955<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An intriguing idea<\/h3>\n

Mr F A Connett, the manager of The Gaumont in Weymouth, rose to the challenge with a series of novel \u2018on-street\u2019 and \u2018in-store\u2019 promotions, using photographs to record these efforts.<\/p>\n

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D-2715\/2\/4: The Spanish Gardener foyer display, 1957<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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D-2715\/2\/1: Gaumont Cinema Steps, 1957<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Promotional material photographs<\/h3>\n

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)<\/p>\n

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D-2715\/1\/3: Around the World in 80 Days promotion, 1958<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are 29 films in the collection featuring the promotional material used around Weymouth.<\/p>\n

Nearly lost<\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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D-2715\/2\/7: Gaumont Cinema Christmas promotion, outside Holy Trinity church, mid 1950s<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jon Thorne was allowed to retain the collection for his own use. The collection remained in Jon\u2019s possession until 2015 when he contacted Eddie Prowse seeking advice on how to dispose of it. \u00a0Eddie Prowse digitised the collection and provided as much information as he was able to discover.<\/p>\n

The Gaumont Cinema remembered<\/h3>\n

In an article by the Dorset Echo in 2018<\/a>, Andy Hutchings shares his memories of the cinema;<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Another reader, Alan Wolsey recalls going to the Saturday Morning Pictures from the age of eight or nine to when he was about 16,<\/p>\n

\u201cAll 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’\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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D-2715\/2\/6: Saturday morning<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He said:<\/p>\n

“I watched Lawrence of Arabia every week as a summer season. It was about three and a half hours long!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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D-2715\/2\/3: Gaumont Cinema seating plan and prices, circa 1955<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

—<\/p>\n

The original collection (D-2715) has been given to The Dorset History Centre with a digital copy also being given to Weymouth Museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… Read more A Collection Almost Lost: Remembering The Gaumont Cinema, Weymouth<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[82,465,334,109,16],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3208,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199\/revisions\/3208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}