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Palace Cinema, Leith
Wheelan, Kevin Smith & Wheelan, Henry, 1971, Photograph
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Palace Cinema, Leith
Palace Cinema, Leith
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Location
Category
Library Item
Item no
5341
Title
Palace Cinema, corner of Duke Street and Constitution Street, Leith
Description
The Palace Cinema opened in 1913, with around 2000 seats. It closed on 31st December 1966, and was then used for bingo.
Artist / maker
Wheelan, Kevin Smith & Wheelan, Henry
Date
1971
Size
23.5 x 19.5 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Edinburgh and Scottish Collection
Opened in 1913, with around 2000 seats. Closed 31st December 1966, then used for bingo. Now a Wetherspoons pub, which occupies the ground floor, with the disused upper area still with cinema seats etc. intact. the stairs and swing doors to the balcony have survived in original 1966 decor including the carpet. The rear of the balcony has the original brown and gold panelling on the walls.
From 1900 to 1909, there were around 6 venues in Edinburgh where films were shown. A picture show would be about 90 minutes in length and the programme would include 3 or 4 short dramas.
Cinema chains started to emerge around 1910 and 10 new cinemas opened in Edinburgh in 1913 and another 4 in the following year before the outbreak of war. It is estimated that by 1917 there were 24 cinemas in Edinburgh. When Edinburgh Playhouse Theatre opened in 1929 it was the city's first supercinema able to seat up to 3000 people.
Talkies arrived in the late 1920s, but before then cinema operators would enhance the viewing experience by using music and orchestras or adding their own home-made sounds for effects such as horses' hooves, pistol shots and explosions. Children's Saturday film clubs with songs, quizzes and safety-first films were extremely popular and the first one in Edinburgh started in 1934.
On the outbreak of war, the government ordered that all entertainment venues should close. However, they soon came under pressure to reverse their decision and cinemas re-opened about 10 days later. Cinema-going actually reached a peak during and immediately following WWII when cinema programmes incorporated newsreels and were effectively used to keep up morale. In the fifties, cinema faced competition from the small screen in the home: television. In 1955, cinema admissions in the UK were 1,182 million compared to 1,635 million in 1946. Cinema makers introduced new technologies and novelty factors to attract audiences back to the big screen. Wide-screen and enhanced colour were developed and 3-D cinema was a short-lived phenomenon where audience members had to wear special glasses. Even Smell-o-vision where scents were pumped into the auditorium was trialled.
Find out more about the history of Edinburgh's cinemas and theatres from the
Scottish Cinemas
website.
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