1953 – Continental Cinema, Bournemouth

Description

Original 1953 foyer poster from the Continental Cinema, Winton in Bournemouth.

The poster details the films showing from Sunday 6th December for 7 days.

The film;

The Wanton (Manèges) – 1950 – details at IMDb

The Continental Cinema, Winton, Bournemouth (UK)

The Continental Cinema closed in 1989 and was quickly demolished. It didn’t always have that name. Opened in 1908 as the Assembly Rooms it was by 1911 called Winton Hall and was certainly showing films by that time. Later still, date unknown, it had been renamed the Winton Electric Palace. There was a lot of housing development at this time particularly at Stoke Wood nearby and Winton would of course soon be absorbed into fast expanding Bournemouth.

By 1928 when it closed for renovations it was advertised simply as Winton Electric.It reopened as The Palace and the opening film was a silent Fox release ‘East Side West Side’ starring George O’Brian and Virginia Valli. This was the same year that the Victoria cinema opened right on the border between Winton and Moordown, another fast expanding suburb, and only about one mile from Winton Banks. Competition had arrived in the area.

Harry Mears took control in 1929 and it was then renamed the Plaza. Could be that the ubiquitous Kalee 8 machines were installed at this time, the cinema certainly had such machines in operation right up until Westars from the Roxy in Holdenhurst Road were installed. The Roxy closed in 1963 but it was some years before the projectors were removed. The Westars were in daily use right up until closure. Both Westar machines were converted to take 6000′ spools but still retained Peerless ‘Magnarc’ lanterns and carbons.

Excerpt from primolux.co.uk, and all text and pictures in this article copyright John Thornley, Bob Dobson and others – visit the Primolux website for lots more information and some great pictures.