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Cinemas, films, and stars
Epsom's first venture into the cinema age came with the Electric Theatre, built in 1910 to dominate the Hook Road/ East Street corner with two vaguely baroque towers. Success came a year later when townsfolk queued to watch the coronation of George V on film, although for many years after this newsreels still had to be shared with a Sutton branch via the railway. Piano music was provided by Herbert Glenister, and the programme included films from the Cecil Hepworth studios. After World War I there was a lighter touch with Charlie Chaplin on the bill; but the cinema was in an awkward site and it closed in 1926 to reopen (looking much the same) as the Pavilion Theatre, where small touring companies could appear in melodramas and revues. Three years later the doors closed for good. The Public Hall, which occupied the quadrant between Church Streetand Upper High Street, was built in 1883 as a social centre for the town. By 1916 it had fallen on hard times and was refurbished as the Epsom Picture Palladium; Herbert Glenister the bandmaster took over and showed official war features as well as early Hollywood dramas. Management was casual, and the fire inspector reported seeing a bottle of petrol beside loose papers in the projection room, where the No Smoking sign was missing its No. Neither the presence of a commissionaire in blue coat and brass buttons nor the use of premises by the Epsom and Ewell football club were enough to keep the Palladium in business and it folded in 1930, just as the impressive Capitol Cinema opened its doors across the road. The Cinema Royal was built on the High Street/ East Street corner by the Thompson family, who ran an independent chain with other cinemas at Reigate and Dorking. It opened in 1910 and was enlarged to seat 630 a few years later, with space for an orchestra of violin, piano and piccolo. The orchestra left early to catch a train one night in 1928, skipped the National Anthem, and were sacked the next morning. Further shocks that year came from the fire inspector who found inflammable nitrate film being cut in open rooms. The Thompsons brought in a manager, Frank Sharp, who made sure that the Royal was the first cinema in Epsom to have sound; there were four shows a day and during Derby week he ran racing thrillers. But the Cinema Royal lay in the path of a road-widening scheme and it was demolished in 1938. After the Cinema Royal was lost, the Thompson family planned to reinvest in another local venue. Seeing a new catchment area in the Stoneleigh development, they built the Rembrandt on Kingston Road; it opened in 1938 with an ambitious programme which was to include the London Philharmonic as well as films, and it had its own tearooms until 1953. Associated British Cinemas acquired the site during the war as part of a programme to expand without commitments to new buildings. They were just making plans for its conversion to a bingo hall in 1971 when the loss of the Odeon left them the only cinema in the Borough. Instead they converted the auditorium into the present twin cinema and improved the quality of the projectors. Ownership of the cinema passed to Cannon in 1986 and it is now part of the MGM chain. Lord Ebbisham opened the Capitol Cinema at Church Street in 1929 - tailor-made for sound, it was designed for an audience of 1500 by a local architect. The ample staff included ten ushers, two doormen and a pageboy. The manager, Richard Wainwright, had a flair for publicity and brought in boxing, beauty contests and performing bears to attract custom; he also mounted stage shows and masterminded the town's 1933 Carnival, but when he left Epsom, business stagnated. The Capitol was quietly taken over by Granada in 1947: it was selected as the first cinema to test a deaf aid system for the chain. Stunts were kept up, including a free ticket (and red carpet) for the Mayor to The King And I, but programming in the 1950s was less innovative and the Granada closed in 1960. The Odeon in the High Street was built in 1937 at a time of rapid development for Oscar Deutsch's chain. Soon afterwards the lights went out for the War, sandbags were piled up in front of the doors, and fire-watching teams occupied the roof. After 1945 the children's club was resumed for Saturday morning serials, and films (U certificate only and of a 'healthy' nature) were allowed to be screened on Sundays. The poll results of the 1950 election were screened at midnight to a not altogether sober audience; five years later Cinemascope was introduced. But the writing was on the wall. Bingo, introduced in 1961, was a flop and the Odeon went upmarket instead with a series of opera and ballet films, followed by midnight horror movies in 1968. It closed in 1971. Stanley Baker was born in 1928 in Glamorgan to a mining family. He first appeared in films at the age of 14 in 1943 in Undercover. From stage performances he graduated into films. On the silver screen he portrayed tough, insecure heroes in the early 1960s, pioneering the way for a new realism in British cinema. He formed his own production company, which had big popular success with Zulu (1963). He starred in several memorable films for Joseph Lasey, including The Criminal (1960) and Accident (1967). Stanley Baker was knighted in 1976, and died the same year in Spain at the early age of 48. Hew owned Woodcote End House, where he lived with his wife and three sons. His films include The Cruel Sea (1953), The Knights of the Round Table (1954), Richard III (1955), A Hill in Korea (1956), The Guns of Navarrone (1961) and Sands of Kalahari (1965). Stewart Granger was born James Lablanche Stewart in 1913 in London. He went to Epsom College and hoped to become a doctor, but on reaching pre-medical school he followed the advice of a friend (Michael Wilding) to take up acting instead. He attended the Webber Douglas School for Dramatic Arts in London. During the War he served in the Army and in 1942 was invalided out and joined the film industry. Because of his dashing looks he always landed the leading romantic roles. In the 50s he went to Hollywood under a contract with MGM and in 1956 became an American citizen. Amongst his most memorable films are King Solomon's Mines (1950), Scaramouche (1952), The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), Beau Brummel (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972) and The Wild Bees (1978). Oliver Reed, born Robert Oliver Reed in Wimbledon in 1938, attended Ewell Castle School; he was the nephew of the famous director Sir Carol Reed. Prior to going into the movies, he had worked as a nightclub bouncer, boxer, and cab driver as well as doing his military service in 1960 in the Medical Corps. Oliver Reed started his acting career playing bullies and villains because of his powerful brutal looks. But gradually he progressed to leading roles of a more romantic nature. In the early 60s, through his collaboration with Ken Russell in Women In Love (1969) and The Devils (1971), he became something of a heart-throb. His other best-remembered films are Hannibal Brooks (1968), Oliver (1968), The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Black Arrow (1986). Norman Wisdom was born in London in 1925 and now has a pied-a-terre in Epsom. He worked as a pageboy, a cabin boy and a waiter among other jobs before joining the Army as a musician. He won boxing awards while in the services. Norman Wisdom made his debut in music hall in 1946 and on television in 1948. In the early 50s he made Trouble in Store which was an instant success and made him a star overnight. Then came a succession of comedies at the rate of one a year for fourteen years with the RANK organisation. Dressed in too-tight suits he portrayed the little man for whom nothing goes right. Amongst his best films are A Stitch in Time (1963) and The Night They Raided Minskys (1968). Petula Clark was born in Ewell in 1932 to Doris and Leslie Clark. She went to Moor Lane School in Chessington, but at the same time made her debut as a child star singer at the age of 6. Her father arranged for her to appear in more than 100 concerts for the troops and on radio shows. In one concert at the Albert Hall she was spotted by Maurice Elvie who cast her in her first film A Medal for the General (1944), which won her a contract with RANK organisation. She became known as 'Our Pet', playing mostly sweet-young-thing roles. At 17 she rebelled against the stereotype by recording Music, Music, Music, an instant success worldwide, after which she teamed up with songwriter Tony Hatch for her biggest hit Down Town in 1964. After several years in France she has lately made a spectacular comeback with a West End debut in Sunset Boulevard. Tom Walls was born in 1883, the son of a Northamptonshire builder. He made his stage debut in 1905 after experience as a policeman, a busker and a jockey. After making a career in musical comedy, he went into management in 1922 and produced a string of farces at the Aldwych including A Cuckoo in the Nest and Rookery Nook; written by Ben travers, these starred Tom as the philanderer or flashy opportunist against Ralph Lynn as the 'silly ass'. Tom Walls came to The Looe in Ewell to fulfill his ambitions as a trainer, and achieved success in 150 races including the 1932 Derby, won by April the Fifth. His films of the 1930s were in the Aldwych farce style and include Spring in Park Lane and Maytime in Mayfair. His last film Derby Day was made in 1949, the year of his death.
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