Saving a cinema

Formerly known as Select Cinema (1922), Tatler News Theatre (1937), The Jacey (1970) and The Tivoli (1984) as well as The Electric (1909 and again in 1993), anyone who visited the site in the 1990s would have known it was a crumbling institution on its ‘last legs’.

Mr Lawes re-mortgaged his house to buy The Electric at auction in 2004 after it had been closed for almost a year and was suffering damage from water and pigeons.

Family and friends helped with six months of renovation work and the story of its £750,000 revival became part of Mr Lawes’ documentary film, The Last Projectionist (2011), which is now in the BFI National Archive.

When he first opened the cinema, Mr Lawes said he’d spent £14,850 of an additional £15,000 loan.

“That meant I had just £150 to spend on alcohol,” he said, ahead of celebrating the cinema’s centenary in December 2009. “We gave everyone a free drink and luckily, then sold £300 worth which enabled us to buy some more.”

Having the ‘UK’s oldest working cinema’ tag helped to pull in more than 60,000 visitors a year and to mark its centenary in 2009, Midlands MP Tom Watson put forward an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons. In February 2017, acclaimed British director Ben Wheatley unveiled a Birmingham Civic Society ‘History Plate’ to honour the cinema which today has 108 seats (24 sofa, 82 standard) in Screen 1 and 78 seats (12 sofa, 66 standard) in Screen 2.

Tom’s idea for the Electric was to create a ‘home cinema’ experience with comfy sofas and waiter service. Cinema lovers who didn’t want a multiplex experience would always prefer the Art Deco home comforts of The Electric complete with artisan cakes instead of popcorn. It often hosted Q&As and film strands as well as hosting drink-themed screenings, comedy nights, behind-thescenes tours and even weddings.

Months after celebrating the cinema’s 110th birthday on December 27, 2019 Mr Lawes came under fire on social media for not putting all of his staff on furlough.

Mr Lawes said he’d quickly feared staying closed all the way through the summer. The government scheme was only extended months after its introduction.

By July, he told the Post: “If we reopen and then it costs more to run than we make then we will go under.

“I’ve owned the cinema for 15 years and never been closed for more than Christmas Day before so there have been feelings of depression, anxiety, fear and stress. I’ve only made one person redundant before - in 2018 - and that wasn’t great.

“You plan for downturns of ten per cent, 20 per cent and so on, but you never plan for zero income.”