Blaze sticks out above movies

Craigie yesterday featured the first in a three-part look back at cinemas in Dundee over the past seven decades by film enthusiast Stanley Gordon.

Today, the Newport dweller picks up his story with his memories of the most iconic of them all, the city centre super-cinema that held more than 2,500 people in its stalls and 1,500 in its circle areas, giving a capacity just 100 short of that of its Glasgow equivalent, which was the largest picture house ever built in all of Europe.

Mr Gordon says: “Green’s Playhouse, in Nethergate, was in a class of its own, what with being in the Art Deco style, the huge foyer with portraits of film stars on the right and cafe on the left.

“Climbing the grand staircase gave one a sense of occasion and entering the vast auditorium was truly awesome. I also remember the pastel-coloured wash basins in the restrooms.

“Oscar Baillie was the manager and I enjoyed chatting with Billie at the ticket desk. She was a mine of information about the movie stars as well as mind-boggling gossip about street life of the time.

“I vaguely recall attending a live radio show at the Green’s with my mother and father, but was too young to take much of it in. There were cash prizes and I do remember pestering my poor father to take part.

“My lasting memory of the Green’s was when returning home on a late evening train from the Edinburgh Festival on August 21 1995 and seeing the Playhouse – a bingo hall by that time – engulfed in flames. A dramatic and spectacular ending to the dear old place.”

Stanley goes on to recall another Dundee landmark of yore, adding: “The Capitol Cinema was built in 1956 on what had been the site of Her Majesty’s Theatre, Seagate, which had been gutted by fire in 1941.

“The Capitol was the first cinema to show Cinemascope on its 50ft screen. I remember viewing films such as South Pacific, My Fair Lady and Passage To India in that movie theatre.

“It was later named ABC and when the auditorium was partitioned to form two screens, it became ABC1 and ABC2. It was then renamed Canon Cinemas 1 and 2 after a few years, showing blockbusters such as Dances With Wolves and Crocodile Dundee. Sadly, the complex closed its doors in 1995. It was the last commercial cinema in Dundee city centre.”

Stanley’s story concludes tomorrow with a look at city cinemas of the more recent past.

This picture from Dundee University’s Archive Services shows the Victorian training ship Mars for homeless or poor boys of all ages berthed off Dundee in the Firth of Tay.