| The new cinema was built between
March 6th 1920 and June 12th 1922. The ornamental stonework
came from Mr Cox's own yard in Old Church Road, and
the bricks and tiles from Sidney Keen's brick yard in
Strode Road. During the whole period of rebuilding and
changeover the nightly programme was never cancelled.
It was to have a row of lock-up
shops along the front and a cafe for the convenience
of patrons after the show.
It was also to be provided with facilities
for stage shows, having a dressing room block at Stage
Left, with connecting door, fly gallery and grid,
as well as boxes and a balcony.
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It is understood that in 1927 a sound
on disc system was introduced for the screening of
shorts, but no 'talkie' feature films were shown at
the Curzon until 1930 when two Zeis Ikon projectors,
with Zeis Arc lamps were installed utilising the Western
Electric Sound on film (optical sound).
The Zeis Icon projectors also were fitted
with Vitaphone sound-on-disk units at the rear of
each projector. Whether they were ever used is obscure
but likely though 'Grand Parade' was Photophone.
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The organ in the actors left front
box was fitted on opening of the new Picture House
and removed by Cox in 1929, presumably just prior
to installing sound. Whether Percy Daniels, a local
organ builder, was responsible or not remains obscure
because the organ is thought to have been a Casson,
although research still cannot confirm this.
The cafe on the first floor was to be known as the
'Oak Room Cafe'. It had its own entrance, as well
as access from the cinema. The appropriate lettering
remains on the gable at the eastern end of the building,
as does all the original oak panelling on the walls
and ceiling of the cafe. |
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The large, semi-circular stained
glass window to the cafe foyer, which was furnished
with armchairs and a piano, was shattered by the second
world war bomb that fell at the bottom of Hillside
Road, fracturing a gas main. It was this bomb which
pitted the stonework at the west end on the north-side
of the cinema and can still be seen today. An East
Lancs Infantry serviceman, who was standing at the
entrance to the cinema when the bomb fell, was the
only fatality in Clevedon as the direct result of
enemy action.
The cinema changed hands on 11th of
June 1945 when Maxwell Corn purchased the site, and
on 5th August 1946 the name was changed to the MAXIME.
There were some changes made, the main one being the
removal of the projection box from the stalls to the
rear of the balcony. The cinema had two box-offices,
one at the eastern end where the lower price tickets
were issued, the other at the western end for higher
price tickets and the balcony seats. This office also
had a sweet shop so that patrons while buying their
tickets could provide themselves with goodies to munch
during the show. Throughout the show an usherette
came along at intervals with tray and torch. |
Before the 'talkies' came in, the musical
background to silent films was provided by a number of pianists.
Later, the organist from nearby St. John's Church became
cinema organist. Mr Cox's stepmother, Blanche Harwood, was
a professional singer and sometimes, when some special film
was being screened, she would go on stage and open the proceedings
with a rendition.
Many of the original Art Deco features of
The Picture House have been 'protected' and remain virtually
intact. The auditorium walls, proscenium arch and ceiling
are covered in moulded, tin plates of various dimensions.
These panels remain intact to this day, having been covered
(and protected for the most part) with side curtains, or
above the suspended, false ceiling which extends from rear
of the stalls to the proscenium. The reason for using these
metal panels (which were very popular in America in the
early 1900's) may well have been the desire for 'instant'
decoration, in order not to disrupt the business of the
first cinema 'underneath', as they would have been constructed
off-the-premises.
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