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In 2006 we received an email from a lady who wrote to tell us that she had a few photos of the Picture House, taken 2 days after it closed. She said they weren't very good pictures but we might be interested! She duely delivered the photos and we were absolutely amazed by the collection of 22 interior shots. Whilst not everything worthy of note was photographed the set images are an important record of the cinema as it was. Today the building is still in use as a nightclub and pretty much doing everything it was built for even though it's main business is no longer in movies.
Take time to scroll down memory lane and enjoy these wonderful pictures. Incidentally some of the images have been used in the logo for our film production group, Picture House Films.
Seen here is the cinema foyer with the box office to the right and confectionary kiosk to the left. In between is the balcony stair and the doors to the left-of-house stalls. The box offices faces the front doors of the cinema. It is a later model as the cinema was damaged by fire in 1935 and the foyer had to be rebuilt. The stalls doorway now forms a window.
Looking the other way, the manager's office door used to be a straight-thru to the staff door at the side of the cinema. Out of sight is the door to the foyer Gents. The door to right-of-house stalls is visible and the projection room door can be seen through the box-office glass. The recess in the box-office is now a doorway to the nightclub. The displayboards above are a modification using an old poster board.
Inside the projection room are two projectors. The all Kalee equipment is a mix of old and older. The stands are 1930s models with Kalee Vulcan DL automated arc boxes from the same period. The mechanisms and sound heads are Kalee 20's we believe but the top spool boxes are 21's. The cinema sound was stereo and the gold amplifier can be seen behind the stand of the nearer projector. Both machines are fitted with Kalee Variamorph lenses for CinemaScope films. Out of shot to the right is the spool bench with rewind arms, two spool boxes and a music centre. Out of shot to the left is a cabinet with the power rectifiers and two slide dimmers for the house lights. The motorised curtain wind is controlled from dual switches below the projection ports. To get up to the projectors level there are 3 slightly high steps turning sharply to the right just within the door of the room.
When the show starts the assistant projectionist has to operate the dimmers while the chief starts the film and opens the curtains. For adverts only the footlights on the stage were lowered and the house lights dropped to 75%. For the main feature the house lights were lowered first as the curtains start to open and the picture hits the parting curtains. The footlights follow within 5 seconds. The whole effect draws the audience into the picture on the screen. The main light in the box was also lowered during the show.
To get the film there the projectors use carbon light which is genterated from an electrical arc between two carbon rods which burn intensely giving off a very bright light. This had to be monitored carefully by the projectionist as the light gently dims as the rods burn further apart. If left unattended the light will fail when the rods are too far apart.
Additionally the film was in 20 minute reels and it was required to swap from one machine to the other thru the course of the film to continue the picture. This was done manually and with some skill of timing to enable the film to be shown seamlessly. That said, I did once see a film run off to the very end of the reel closely followed by much stamping of feet in the auditoria!
From left-of-house looking to the screen with the curtains closed. The drapes were 17ft high and filled a 39ft gap. The back 9 rows forming the rear stalls are different seats from the front stalls although all are upholstered the same. The green bloches on the seat backs nearest is mold! Oh yes sir!
The various bit of equipment in front of the screen is all to do with the Caley Social Club- Bingo in other words. It's unfortunate that the clutter of bingo junk ruins what is otherwise a very pleasant auditoria all be it somewhat austere.
To the left of the screen can be seen the clock. At 25 past the big hand dropped to half-past, at 25 to it dropped to half-past thus correcting itself. You can see a gap in the right hand stalls and to the left going through the centre stalls. The right gap was for the fire exit, one of 2 two on this side.
A beautuful shot looking to the rear stalls and balcony. Nighclubbers still use that doorway in the balcony. In the far right you can see the "Crow's Nest" which had 2 pairs of seats strangely popular with lovers. On the left rear is the Alcove, not quite as popular!
The stalls floor slopes down to about the 5th row from the front where it rises again. The slope isn't big with the overall drop of about 2ft. The ceiling also mirrors the floor in order to channel the sound and minimise the area that needed to be heated- not like you'ld notice it was ever heated!
The rooms on each side of the rear house were later additions. The stalls used to go all the way to back. You can see a handle on the projection box port. That whole panel could be opened. You can see the different seat-ends of the rear stalls. In the balcony the usher had a single chair of the same type.
Just about to head up to the balcony now but let's take another look at the box-office from the stair. You can see the later display board that was added to the box and the recess that now forms a door into the nightclub. Also the left-of-house salls doorway which is now a window. Whether that's for looking in or looking out, we don't know!
Behind the camera on this first landing is a stained glass window although it was bricked up on the outside. Unfortunately it was destroyed when the building was converted into the nightclub but you can still find where it was if you tap along the wall.
The stair rises and turns to the left twice thus taking you to the front wall of the cinema. This window is on the second landing and is to the left when look from the outside. The balcony stair remains in use as does the balcony doorway although the doors have long since been replaced with a different set.
On the top landing now, this window is the main arch window onto Sir George's Street. Outside above keystone of the window can be seen an art-nouveau/deco date stone for 1922 when the cinema was constructed and opened.
The exit sign is at the top of the fire stair which runs down the inside front face of the building. The lampshade you can see used to be in the auditoria from 1955 to 1979. There is another one behind the camera. The pair were fitted to the lamps just in front of the screen and can be seen there in a photo taken in 1972 by local photographer, Maurice Harrington. Just to the right of the lampshade can be seen the other round widow with the curtains drawn. In the nighclub today, you can sit by that window.
Just out of shot to the left is the balcony doorway.
When you enter the balcony the floor rises a bit to accomodate the projection room below. The balcony was gutted by fire in August 1935 but the cinema was back in action by October.
Unfortunately a little under-exposed but still a good view with the curtains open. The screen was actually 35ft but the Bingo equipment got in the way so it was re-framed down to 30ft.
The two railings in the lower left are the sides of the access in from the balcony doors. Just below the camera out of shot is the single usher's seat. The balcony was fully raked with rows of varying lengths. There were also ashtrays between every second seat and along the front of the balcony which can be seen in this image. There is also a hint of the firedoor which used to be on this side of the balcony.
The right of house balcony seating and again the access to the balcony doors is lower right. You can see there are 2 steps down for the front row and white outlines for the edges of the steps. There were aditional low wattage lights up these steps which were always on.
The balcony seats are also of the Kalee make and were upholstered in a gold and red striped velvet (the stalls were all in plane red velvet) with considerably more stuffing. Tain Picture House also had this make and design of seating although it had green upholstry.
In all it's glory, this is how we remember the Picture House Cinema, Thurso. The house lights were an orange/amber while the footlights were various colors. The whole effect was a warm ambiance that created a magical atmosphere.
The Picture House Cinema, Thurso, closed on Saturday 24th September at 10.30pm having run Superman 3 for a two week period. Remarkably it's closure came at a time when it was begining to make money. In 1982 it had gone into profit although it's year income did not offset the years of loss. However it was the case that this cinema was one of a unique bunch at the time because it was beginning to turn around from an overall industry slump that had seen the UK cinema business lose 95%--- YES, NINETY FIVE PERCENT-- of it's customers. It was recognised by film distributors, Warner Brother's, that the Thurso cinema should have stayed open. Unfortunately the owners, Caledonian Associated Cinemas were in crisis and closed both Thurso and Wick cinemas in a desparate bid to claw back some income. CAC did concede later, that they had been wrong to close Thurso but regretably could not reverse the action they had taken.
In 1984 Cinema For Thurso Campaign began in earnest and by 1987 it had attracted a mobile cinema to Thurso and Wick with brand new films showing fortnightly. Through a move made by CFT Group in 1992, it would eventually be in 2000 that a new mainstream purpose-built 2 screen cinema would open in Thurso bringing the movies back to Caithness seven days a week.
Although the closure of the old Picture House could have been avoided it is perhaps a good thing that it did close because if it survived what would have happened next would have been the slicing and dicing process of sectioning the cinema into multi-screen with smaller screens. Whilst this would have kept cinema alive in the town, it would have meant the loss of that classic cinema layout.
The nighclub within the building today has seen changes to the interior but yet key elements of the cinema are fully intact and it is still possible to look the full length of the auditoria. In all it wouldn't take much to reverse the years of change since 1985. Whilst our preference would be to restore the cinema we are happy that it continues as a nightclub because at least the building isn't being wasted. She's 86 years on and still going strong!
