From Picture House Managers to King Solomon’s Mines and The Halls of Montezuma!

This week I have been finding out about the second manager of the Picture House, Mr Duncan Sinclair. Born near Colintraive in Cowal Duncan Sinclair came to Campbeltown after WW1 in connection with his training role with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders after serving in the regiment as a Territorial before the war and in the 8th Battalion during the war. Amongst his many other roles both paid and voluntary Mr Sinclair was manager of the Picture House for 19 years until his death in 1952.

I had previously done some research on the first manager of the Picture House Mr George F Roger, whose name featured prominently in the very first of the Picture House adverts to appear in the Campbeltown Courier. Mr Roger came from the Dundee area and was a photographer both before and during his time as Picture House manager. His father was a professional photographer with a studio in Dundee and George Roger himself had a professional studio in Greenock then a succession of studios in Campbeltown and the shop next to the Picture House. Both very handy for his home in Royal Avenue Mansions. George F. Roger invested in fifty shares in the Picture House.

To conclude my research into the life of Duncan Sinclair and to enable me to write his biography I went to the library to read his obituary in the Campbeltown Courier. Usually when we do research in the library we call upon the always very helpful librarians to let us look through the microfilmed versions of the newspapers. On this occasion, and on one other, the newspapers in question were not on microfilm but bound in huge hardback books big enough to hold the copies of broadsheet newspapers for two years. I very much enjoyed turning the pages of the original editions of the newspapers and it took several minutes longer than necessary to reach the article I was looking for as I kept stopping to read little bits of this and that fascinating article or headline I saw along the way.

Research objective complete it occurred to me that I had an opportunity to have a look at what films people had been watching in 1952, so I had a look through some editions and took a few quick photos of the adverts for both the Picture House and for the Rex. I didn’t take the time to set up and get perfect shots, so some look a little less than squared up. My first impression was that the adverts were similar in the main but that the Rex listed their supporting films and included a lot more separate adverts featuring photos of the major stars of the day.

For example:

Photo or graphical adverts were rare for the Picture House, but on the 10th of April 1952 there was a photo advert for the Picture House too showing the male lead Stewart Granger who played Alan Quartermain in the major film King Solomon’s Mines. The female lead was Deborah Kerr.

Two Pictures you MUST see !!

In King Solomon’s Mines, based on the book by H. Rider Haggard, adventurer Allan Quartermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an attempt to locate an explorer who went missing during his search for the fabled diamond mines of King Solomon. The film won two Oscars and was nominated for a third.

The other must see was I’d Climb the Highest Mountain a simple story, based on Corra Harris’ biographical book, of a Methodist minister, called to a north-Georgia mountain-community in 1910 who, with his gently-bred new bride, meets the problems and crises of his circuit congregation fearlessly and honestly. The big star name in this top six of the year movie was Susan Hayward and her male co-star William Lundigan (not a name I recognised).

… and the films were now in…

The 1952 adverts listed quite a number of films for any one week and they had all the admission prices listed along the bottom.

That set me thinking about pre-decimal currency and comparative prices.

What could you buy back in 1952 for one pound?

How about 15 pints of beer, or 14 fish suppers!

… and finally, back to the movies !

For the weeks that I looked at in the Courier, here are two lists of movies. One for each Cinema.

Have you seen any of the movies?

How many films in the lists have you even heard of?

Image credits

1.) ‘Rex Cinema- Man of bronze, Burt Lancaster’, (10^th December 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)

2.) ‘Rex Cinema – Showboat’, (10^th July 1952 Courier 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)

3.) ‘Rex Cinema – Captain Horatio Hornblower, Gregory Peck’, (19^th June 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)

4.) ‘Rex Cinema – The Stooge, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis’, (22^nd May 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)

5.) ‘Picture House – King Solomon’s Mines, Stewart Granger’, ’ (10^th April 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)

6.) ‘Picture House – Weekly Listings Advert’, (10^th April 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)

7.) ‘Rex Cinema – Weekly Listings Advert’, (3rd April 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)

8.) Picture House – Weekly Listings Advert’, (3^rd April 1952, © Campbeltown Courier)