How ABC once spelled out a golden age
JOHN MAXWELL was one of three powerful figures running the British cinema industry in the 1930s during the golden age of the cinema, when movie houses provided entertainment for tens of thousands every night.
Maxwell, born in 1879, began his career in a legal office in Glasgow. For time, he harboured the idea of becoming a Liberal MP for Motherwell, though was unsuccessful in an election. He acted as secretary and adviser to several small Glasgow companies in the early days of the Bioscope, which operated in halls in working class districts of the city. This showed him the great possibilities of motion pictures. In 1910, he acquired his first hall to start business on his own account as a film exhibitor and soon obtained other halls in the Govan and Springburn districts.
By the early 1920s, Maxwell had around 20 cinemas and he began to acquire more including the Savoy, Bradford and City Cinema, Boar Lane, Leeds. He added film renting to his activities, and founded Waverley Films Ltd, which subsequently became Wardour Films.
Maxwell next turned his attention to production and acquired the Elstree Studios of British National Pictures and formed British International Pictures (BIP). At Elstree, he had the cooperation of British film director, Alfred Hitchcock who released Blackmail on July 28, 1929, Britain’s first ‘talkie’. Film production would continue up to the Second World War and in 1937 BIP would be renamed Associated British Picture Corporation.
During the late, 1920s, Maxwell established a substantial cinema circuit to exhibit and distribute his films and, more importantly, to compete with the GaumontBritish Picture Corporation. To this end, Associated British Cinemas was established in 1928 as a subsidiary of BIP.
ABC initially swallowed up three smaller circuits, Scottish Cinema and Variety Theatres Ltd, Savoy Cinemas, and the Favourite Cinemas group. Expansion continued with the acquisition of Mortimer Dent and Joseph Cohen’s C.D. Circuit and in 1929 a new £1m share issue was launched to enable further growth.
Maxwell had a reputation for selecting the right people. One of them was William Riddell Glen who became staff architect for ABC. Glen studied at the Glasgow School of Art and served in the First World War reaching the rank of Major and winning the military cross. Afterwards he teamed up with Albert V. Gardner and together they produced designs for a number of cinemas.
The first new cinema opened by ABC was the large Ritz Edinburgh, in September, 1929. Yorkshire had to wait until the end of 1934 before seeing a new Glen-designed ABC. The luxurious Ritz opened on November 11 in Vicar Lane at a cost of £75,000 and seated nearly 2,000. The mural work and lighting in the auditorium was reported to be ‘most pleasing’. Incorporated in the scheme was a stage well equipped for spectacular vaudeville presentations and an 11-unit three manual organ. At the short opening ceremony, the Lord Mayor said this was the city’s 66th cinema, and he was pleased that the building work had been entrusted to the Leeds firm of J.T. Wright & Sons Ltd. The first film shown was Those Were The Days.
Throughout the 1930s, Maxwell was personally involved in choosing sites for new cinemas. However, he rarely attended new cinema openings preferring local dignitaries to hold centre stage.
In Yorkshire, Maxwell absorbed cinemas in a number of areas in the county. Amongst these were the Ritz, Barnsley; Regal, Beverley; Ritz, Brighouse; Albion Picture Palace, Castleford; Regal Super, Dewsbury; Ritz, Huddersfield; the
Rialto, Regal and Rex, Hull; and Hippodrome, Sheffield.
A new super ABC cinema, the Regal, was opened to the designs of Glen at the Kirkgate/Sun Lane corner, Wakefield, on December 12, 1935. Seating 1,594, the venue was opened by the local Mayor. Mayor A. Charelsworth said he was sure the cinema would help make a brighter Wakefield and bring increased revenue to shops.
During the mid-1930s, Maxwell spent around £600,000 in an attempt to acquire a controlling interest in Gaumont-British from the Ostrer brothers but failed. According to Allen Eyles in ABC The First Name in Entertainment (1993) it ‘was one of the Scotsman’s rare financial mistakes’. A court battle ended in victory for the Ostrers.
Undeterred, Maxwell stepped up a gear and took over the Union Cinema circuit in October 1937 which embraced cinemas throughout, England, Wales and Scotland. Yet, Union Cinemas continued as a separate company controlled and managed by ABC. The deal gave Maxwell much satisfaction and a total of around 460 venues. By comparison, Gaumont had 345 outlets. In 1937, Maxwell boasted he had the second largest cinema circuit in the world showing Hollywood’s best pictures.
Cinemas built in Yorkshire by Maxwell before the Second World War included the Ritz, Bradford; Regal, Halifax; Regal, Harrogate; and Regal, York. During the 1930s Maxwell had organised the building of over 100 cinemas.
After war was declared on
Sunday September 3, 1939, all cinemas closed though it was soon realised entertainment was needed to boost the nation’s spirits and they re-opened six days later. On October 2 1940, John Maxwell died at the age of 63 as a conesquence of diabetes.
In the early days of ABC, he revelled in publicity and success.
He often travelled to important meetings in a Rolls Royce smoking cigars.
His shares were inherited by his widow Catherine who sold a large number to Warner Brothers for £900,000 and they effectively took control of ABPC and ABC.
After the war, ABC emerged with 415 cinemas. A small number were defunct after aerial bombardment. ABC was eager to continue with new cinema building but this proved difficult for almost ten years. Company architect W.R. Glen died aged 65 in February 1950.
An idea of how many people were attending ABC cinemas in the early 1950s is revealed in an annual report from 1952 which recorded 207,700,717 admissions.
From this point onwards and with the introduction of television, attendance figures rapidly declined.
By the late 1950s and into the 1960s, ABC was rebranding most of its remaining cinemas. They lost their individual titles and were simply named ABC. This was true with a number of Yorkshire cinemas, including the Wakefield Regal and the Ritz in Leeds.
The ABC name was eventually lost along with that of the parent company ABPC in a number of takeovers.
Subsequent owners of these companies included Seven Arts, Thorn-EMI Screen entertainment Ltd, and the Cannon Cinemas Group.
Sadly, many ABC cinemas up and down the country have long been demolished – some after a relatively short lifespan – or have been put to other unrelated uses. A few have been listed while others, like the former Regal at Wakefield and the ABC at Doncaster languish as empty shells.
■ Further reading: Allen Eyles ABC The First Name in Entertainment (1993).
Sadly, many ABC cinemas up and down the country have long been demolished