thursopicturehouse

The Next Picture Show

I was looking at the calander thinking about a date in 1987. I couldn't remember if it was the 17th or the 27th so of to my files and a quick 'dig'. "Two foot" down was the answer, it was Tuesday 17th February 1987. That was the day and it was to be celebrated but what am I talking about?
Well going back a bit, leaving school in May 1984 with grim prospects of Britain in recession I walked into my first "job". Oh joy, YTS! Just what every aspiring teenager of the day was itching to be excluded from. But that aside in the midst of it all I embarked upon the campaign to bring cinema back to Thurso.
It all began when I started asking people about their thoughts on the closure of the Picture House the year before. Many felt it was a bad move and that Thurso should never have been left without it's own cinema. Geographically we had been put to a considerable disadvantage with our nearest cinema on the mainland being in Inverness. However you could also go to the Phoenix Cinema in Kirkwall if you fancied and had the money to do so not to mention the time.
Whilst the Phoenix ploughed on into 1984 still being owned by the Peace family since the very first days of movies on the islands, Thurso was left in the dark. Many had said that, 'that was it', no more cinema and never again!
At the start of 1985 I began have a go at Caledonian Associated Cinemas, the Inverness based company that had owned Thurso Picture House, in a bid to get them to reconsider Thurso. The trend of rising attendance prior to the closure was pointed out to CAC who no doubt would have noticed it themsleves. All the while regular updates in the local press bouyed local support and increased public interest in having a cinema once more. Making the campaign public had made the population realise what it was missing.
After some months of arguing a strong case in favour of re-opening Thurso, CAC conceeded that they "may have been mistaken" in closing both Caithness cinema and additionally confirmed that Thurso had experienced better attendance in the last few years before closure. Well that was more than enough information as it confirmed that Thurso had been among the few locations nationwide that were in a turn-around period heading slowly but surely towards a brighter future. Armed with this information and a lot more, I started approaching other cinema operators.
I began communications with Cinema International Corporation, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers Theatres UK. Speaking directly to managing directors I found very posative support but also no promisses. The problem was that in the early to mid-80s the cinema industry had been in serious decline. Thurso as a location was a rare one in that it was already returning to profit whilst most locations were long overdue for closure.
Like so many companies in the recession, CAC were cutting losses by closing locations and selling up. Unfortunately in the economic panic of the times they failed to listen to their customers or look more closely at each location. This course was to cost them in the long run. In 1992 CFT advised CAC that Inverness was a viable location for Multiplex cinema and it was suggested that the former La Scala be moved in that direction. The operations director of CAC laughed at the proposal but in 1994 suddenly Warner Theatres UK and United Cinemas International both announced interest in Inverness. The CAC knee jerked wildly and suddenly the La Scala was to be turned into a 5 screen location. Alas Warner moved in at the Inshes retail park and nothing was done at the La Scala and in January 2000 the old cinema which first opened in 1913 closed forever. Late last year it was demolished and now only the Palace Bingo Hall remains as part of the old cinema era in the town centre.
So anyway that was the state of play. The cinema industry had suffered seriously having lost up to 95% of it's customers in the UK alone. Rock bottom came in 1984 but in 1985 the British Film Institute launched the British Film Year in what was to be a successful bid to revive the industry. Cinema operators suddenly began to see the great projection light and a way forward was visible. It had been realised that cinemas all over needed investment, renovation, upgrading and re-equiping. The last technology revolution had been in 1952 thru 1955 when commercial stereo sound was fully introduced along with CinemaScope. These two systems were to become key to the revival of the 80s. Dolby stereo which was first used in the 70s had only been in selected theatres but now cinema companies were getting it into as many locations as possible and the film industry was going back into films with stereo sound.
By the 1970s many middle to low budget films had reverted to mono sound and the CinemaScope picture which had proved the most succesful had also dwindled in use but now came the era of the block buster and they were to be made in Panavision (same system as CinemaScope) and Dolby surround sound.
Picking up on the new era the campaign hotted up more companies being approached in a bid for a new cinema in Thurso and in 1985 the directors of CAC put me onto the Moving Picture Show, a mobile cinema which ran venues throughout the Grampian region. I spoke to the then owner, Ian Rattray who had developed the business after being a rep for a photographic firm. He had been in Caithness before and had seen the potential too so CFT kept talking. In Jan, 1987 we got confirmation that cinema was to return using the Town Hall, Thurso and the Assembly Rooms in Wick. It was great news and we released the opening date to the press two weeks later.
So in the face of adversity and proclaimers of failure and doom the Moving Picture Show opened with "A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 4, Freddies Revenge" (nominated for 'film with the longest title') on Tues, 17th Feb 1987 at 7pmat Thurso Town Hall. Two weeks later Wick got to see it's first film on the big screen at the Assembly Rooms with "The Golden Child". Films were shown fortnightly with Wick on a Monday night and Thurso on Tuesdays.
The mobile cinema proved popular but within 3 months a customer drop-off had begun as the summer months came in going as low as 40 to 50 per showing. Cinema For Thurso suggested daybill advertising to boost admissions. The idea was approved and posters started to appear in local shops. With concentrated publicity in the town the audience numbers soon began to increase and rose to a steady average of 170 per house. Thurso Town Hall could seat 244 although somehow 275 were seated twice for "Crocodile Dundee" and 260 in the matinee showing. Crocodile Dundee was most certainly the most popular film shown in the 3 years the cinema operated. It generated the biggest que stretching from the top og the Town Hall stairs to Reid's Bakery along the precinct. Similarly in Wick the ques went from the main door to about a third of the road back to the hospital.
Wick audiences were generally smaller than Thurso even though the Assembly rooms has a higher seating capacity of about 400. This is perhaps due to the smaller catchment on the east side of the county.
With large numbers of people came the task of controlling the public. Anything over 12 people in a group is subject to the Public Order act so we had to keep an eye that people weren't causing a nuisance or obstruction. Everyone was well behaved although that human trait of que-jumping often reared it's head. If I caught anyone slipping ahead they were put right to the back and would be sent there each time the tried to jump. The net result would be that they often didn't get it due to a full house. My best advice when you are in a que- stay where you are.
Once the audience were in the show began. The backing music would fade softly (not bluntly cut off) and the lights would go down. The first picture would appear on the screen- the Pearl & Dean logo (Pa pa- pa pa etc), adverts then trailers and sometimes a short cartoon. Then the main feature and the audience would settle down.
Audience were well behaved although we always had at least one person sitting on each house to keep things in order. There was the choice of sitting at the back and looking over the crowd from there or going behind the screen where the reflected light from the picture enabled a full view of the audience without them being able to see us. This often proved entertaining.
During "Crocodile Dundee" all the staff watched the audience from behind the screen for that moment when the huge Croc leaps out of the pool at the woman. Seeing 270 people jump at the same time is funny- funnier still is watching them recompose their dignity (yeah- like you didn't nearly fill your underwear!). During "A Nightmare On Elm Street" part 4 an American couple sat in the front row. The young woman had her arms around her man all through the film from the start. As the film got scarier and the audience more frightened the woman's embrace tightened until at one crucial moment when everyone got a fright, she nearly throtled her man. Again this was followed by people gathering their dignity.
At "Superman 4" a young lad perked up when Superman made his first appearance in the picture- "There's Superman, he's super!" exclaimed the young lad.
A less than pleasant experience was had when after the main feature had started a young member of the audience had been sick on the smooth wooden floor at the middle end of the row on the right as you enter the hall. As the picture had started we couldn't do anything about it. To this end another customer who came back from the toilet entered the darkend auditorium striding back to their seat failed to get there. The unfortunate individual was seen to go feet first into the air to land backside in the sick.
Cleaning up after shows was fun, matinees were a mess with sweets and wrappers everywhere. It didn't take long to get everything back in order for the next show.
In 1989 the Moving Picture Show changed hands and at this time Cinema For Thurso was given the boot out the door as we re-started the campaign for a permanent screen. It had always been known that our intention was to campaign for a permanent cinema but there you go. These matters were unfortunate but beyond the control of CFT and in the long term had no effect on our operation. Thurso had become the Moving Picture Show's top commercially viable location and it was carrying the rest of the circuit of 12 locations. This success had been due to the work of Cinema For Thurso in daybilling and providing information to the public so when our association ended we took our properties with us and left the Moving Picture Show high and dry.
CFT's immediate action was to call in all advertising material and this left the cinema with no local advertising for it's next film or any therafter. From here on with only press adverts and no reviews (which were written by CFT) the cinema faltered as audiences dropped to an average of 35 per screening. As the situation worsened CFT offered to re-instate daybilling but the offer was pushed away. Within 9 months the mobile cinema seased trading at the start of June 1990 and Caithness was once again without films.
The proclaimers of doom had their field day but still they didn't know what was going on in the cinema business and CFT was making good headway in the ultimate aim of a permanent cinema.
In 1988 Cinema International Corporation had been presented with figures for a twin screen cinema and backed up with their own knowledge of the industry, they supported the proposal that Thurso could support a two screen cinema.
By 1989 Ann Galagher had joined the team and suggested running a petition which was duely launched and gained considerable support reaching over 2200 signees.
Various large cinema operators were approache but in 1992 an approach was made to a local company which had yet to start trading. Maed through their legal advisers the approach included a full copy of the petition, viablity figures and details of the type and capacity of twin screen cinema that would be suitable for the town. This approach lead eventually to a new permanent twin screen cinema being built in Thurso- our goal achieved.#

TEXT COMPLETEd 7/3/06

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