Final shows at derelict picture house before it gets flattened
It is a dusty, derelict ruin which was once a palace of the silver screen.
But, for one last time, the State cinema will revisit its glorious past before being lost forever.
The long-shuttered art deco picturehouse, opened in 1938, showed everything from newsreels to The Lone Ranger serial to Hollywood classics over the years, before closing in 1972.
But, with planning permission granted to demolish the cinema and build flats on the site, organisers of Edinburgh’s Hidden Door Festival – who made headlines last year by injecting new life into nearby Leith Theatre – saw an opportunity to reopen the State for one last time. This week the venue will host a number of festival events, including a screening on Saturday of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, released the same year the cinema opened.
David Martin, the festival’s founder and creative director, said: “After the buzz and excitement surrounding our use of Leith Theatre last year, we decided we would keep at it and try to provide something unexpected again.
“We thought it would likely be in the centre of Edinburgh and we had a shortlist of 30 unused buildings, but then the State cinema came up.
“We had previously tried to find out who owned it without luck, but when we saw an interview online with the new owner, we got in touch and told him what we would like to do. He said it sounded like a great idea to use it one last time.” Once permission was granted from the council and a full safety check was carried out, artist David and his army of volunteers got to work. “It’s much more stripped down