Film 50: ABC Cinema

"Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theatre" - Roman Polanski

The ABC Ritz Cinema in Barrow-in- Furness, Cumbria

In a connected post 'Film 50: I Wouldn't Have Put That In', I attempt to interpret and provide an answer the to question of whether 'you can map your life through your favourite movies'. The post also contains a link to a movie chart that reflects my map, which can be found in the Sound & Vision section of this blog. To accompany that post and chart, I thought it might be useful to share a bit of personal background to perhaps give a better understanding to some of the references.

My map started at the ABC (Associated British Cinemas) Ritz cinema in Barrow, where I was born and raised, and it was a huge part of my childhood. Unfortunately, just as the morning of my day was getting started, my parents had a fairly acrimonious divorce. Whilst it was the best thing for my parents, as they got married far too young, as a confused little 6-year old boy stuck in the middle, it was a difficult time. I stayed with my mum, and my father went to live with his mother, my 'nana', who worked as an Usherette at the ABC, and it was there I discovered the magic of the cinema. Going to the pictures not only allowed me time and space to process events, or block them out, it gave me a love of films that has lasted a lifetime.

"What's a bigger mystery box than a movie theatre? You go to the theatre, you're just so excited to see anything - the moment the lights go down is often the best part" - J. J. Abrams

On Saturday mornings in the early 1970s I would regularly attend the 'ABC Minors', a children's cinema club, where for a few pence (although I used to get in for free, thanks to my nana) you could join hundreds of other kids and spend the whole morning watching the big screen. It would always start the same way. As soon as the lights started to dim, everyone would flip their seats up, into the unoccupied position, and sit on the upturned edge, so when the show was about to start everyone would cheer and kick the back of the upturned seat with their heel's until the screen burst into life. I remember the sound like yesterday. Bedlam.

The morning show would generally begin with a couple of cartoons (e.g. Bugs Bunny), followed by an old series like Flash Gordon (made before WWII in Black & White), The Double Deckers, usually a short film made by the Children's Film Foundation, and sometimes an old film. There was also a break midway through, the lights would come on and a guy (I can't remember his name) would walk on to the stage in front of the screen with a microphone. He would tell a few jokes and invite kids on to the stage who had a birthday that week, give out collectable ABC Minors badges and get everyone to sing along to the ABC song. Sounds cringy now...but it was great fun.

ABC Minors Badges: You could spell out your name...no pronouns, but possibly swear words 😇

The cinema itself was beautiful. It was designed and built, in an Art Deco (short for Arts Décoratifs) style, by the Manchester based architects Drury and Gomersal in 1936. ABC Cinemas opened it as The Ritz in the same year, and from 1961 until the late 70s, it was just called the ABC.

Inside of the auditorium, even as a child, you could not fail to be taken aback by the elegant design of the decor and size of huge screen that everything was pointed towards. There was a stage in front of the screen, and the sides of the stage had ornate deco-style floor to ceiling compositions of glass and chrome that incorporated the clean straight lines of a Frank Lloyd Wright type design. The geometric patterns continued throughout the auditorium, including a stepped zigzag line in the middle of the walls that climbed upward with the incline of the seats.

The Foyer of the ABC in Barrow. It stayed like this until the late 1970s. Apart from a new carpet, a lick of paint and less of the flower arranging

When you entered the cinema, you were greeted by a lovely foyer containing a ticket booth, a kiosk selling sweets and cigarettes, as well as entry to the corridor behind the Stalls [ground floor seats]. There was also a staircase leading off the foyer to the upstairs corridor and the Circle that had sweeping curved balcony that overlooked the seats and stage below. The wide corridors had sets of double-doors (vomitories) that provided access to the auditorium, which held over 1,200 seats. The upper floor also contained a bar and lounge area, and a cafe.

"The cinema is really built for the big screen and big sound, so that a person can go into another world and have an experience" - David Lynch

As the years passed, and the ABC Minors club had stopped being a thing, I was going to see full length films. Watching a movie on that big screen was mesmerising, not just for the visual impact, but also because of the Dolby Stereo system which seemed to wrap you up in a bubble of sound. Whilst today's powerful digital audio sound systems provide a cleaner, more dynamic and energetic sound, at the time, the Stereo speakers provided a lovely warmth and richness to the audio of each film.

Going to the cinema is more than just watching a film

Unfortunately, by mid-late 1978, ABC had sold the building to new owners who had completely refitted and reconfigured the cinema to make 3 smaller auditoriums, and it re-opened with the new name of 'Astra'. In essence, the upstairs Circle became Screen 1 by keeping the seats and stepped zigzag line decor, taking away the balcony parapet, extending out into the void and adding a new screen to create a large contained box that seated 640. The downstairs Stalls were split in half with a dividing wall, with each side given a new screen to create two smaller boxes for Screens 2 and 3, with each seating 260. This may have made financial sense on paper, but they forgot a key aspect...the experience.

Tripling your potential revenue streams is good business, but if you also destroy the emotional connection and experience of the users in doing so, you risk loosing more than you gain. In destroying the beautiful internal design of the ABC, the irreplaceable art deco features, as well as the soul of the cinema, the owners of the Astra failed on all aspects of not just their business model, but their stewardship of an architectural landmark.

I would have loved to have ended this post by saying that some well-heeled benefactor or English Heritage stepped in and restored it to its former glory, but sadly, just like movies, not all stories have a happy ending.

The cinema acquired another set of owners who renamed it 'Apollo', but due to the world class muppetry of all concerned, the cinema eventually closed. The local Council then left it to decay for years before a mysterious fire took place. Rather than investing in fixing and preserving it's own and England's architectural and cultural inheritance, in 2004 the Council decided to demolish it and allow a developer to build yet another instantly forgettable glass and steel box of offices on the site. I wonder if the foundations are made of concrete or brown envelopes?

"If you ask me, this was arson...Yeah, somebody arsin' around! One of you lot!" - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

I left Barrow shortly before my 18th birthday in 1984. Despite it's unedifying end, the memories I hold from a cinema that was a sanctuary, a place of education and happiness cannot be erased. Looking back, and thinking about the generally impersonal and soulless visits to today's multiplexes, the experience of seeing films like Oliver! (1968), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Star Wars (1977), in an elegant and atmospheric theatre, was not just one of the highlights of my early morning, it was a blessing.

Finally, if you would like to see what I've ended up having a bit of a rant about (there's always one), you can find a 2-minute snapshot of the cinema in the Sound & Vision section of this blog, and/or via this link:

https://www.vitabaccano.blog/videos?wix-vod-video-id=9e775b9917584897a697140e903f6b08&wix-vod-comp-id=comp-jcuhobq1

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