Movie fan finds out he is part of cinema’s history
One of the movie fans who joined a free tour of Campbeltown Picture House last week was surprised to find himself on display. Craig Smith, 44, originally from Campbeltown, but now an assistant head teacher in Birmingham, spotted a photograph of himself on a timeline of the cinema’s history. In the photo, a 13-year-old Craig is wearing a green jacket and standing at the cinema’s entrance, but he has no recollection of it being taken. The advertisement board on the right of the photo indicates that romantic comedy Roxanne, starring Steve Martin, was playing at the time but it is unclear whether Craig and his friends were heading inside to watch or just sheltering from the rain on the steps. The image appears on the ‘120 years of cinema’ timeline on the wall in the café area of the building, with the caption: ‘1987. Campbeltown Community Business Ltd is set up to raise funds for the refurbishment of the Picture House.’ The cinema closed in 2014 and reopened in December 2017 after a £3.5 million refurbishment. The upgrades included the cinema’s art nouveau exterior being extensively restored and the main auditorium returning to its 1930s atmospheric style, created by the cinema’s designer, Albert Victor Gardner, 20 years after it first opened in 1913. Additions to the cinema complex included a second screen, smaller than the main screen, with 52 seats compared to its 193, a conference space and a café area. Several questions arose on the free tour Craig was on, including: ‘What was the first film ever played at the cinema?’ Although there was an extensive report of the cinema’s opening in the May 31, 1913, edition of the Campbeltown Courier, there is no mention of the movies that were shown. When the cinema first opened its doors, on May 26, 1913, welcoming invited guests, ‘a selection of pictures was shown, and afternoon tea was handed round’. The report reads: ‘The variety of subjects dealt with in the pictures shows wise and careful selection, and everything points to the conduct of the house being worthy of the best and most extensive patronage.’ An advertisement in the same edition urged people not to miss The Rajah’s Casket, the cinema’s ‘great star picture’ being shown the following Monday. The 1906 silent film, the first to be referenced at the time, was an exotic tale set at the Rajah’s palace where his casket of jewels is stolen by an evil sorcerer, before a search is launched. The cinema’s current general manager, Ellen Mainwood, said it ‘looks wonderfully bonkers’. The managing director when the cinema opened is named in the article and in the advertisement as F Rendall Burnette. Mr Burnette was described as a ‘pioneer of the business’, who ‘wisely saw the future that was in store for the moving pictures’.