Stage and screen, side by side
Cinema and theatre were next door neighbours
ONCE upon a time, there was the pub, the cinema and the theatre, and those were pretty much your three options for a night out.
Decline
As soon as the television arrived the fortunes of stage and screen were put on notice that things would never be quite the same again ... though it was to be a long and slow decline.
And things were nearing the end, but still just about clinging on, when this week’s front cover photograph was taken.
It shows the Plaza cinema and Hippodrome theatre on Castle Hill in Dudley, and comes to us from photographer Roy Hawthorne of Wolverhampton, who took it back in 1976.
The two buildings stood next to each other for around sixty years, before the cinema, the smaller of the two, closed in 1990 and was finally demolished seven years later.
Empty
The Hippodrome, which had ceased to be a theatre by the time the picture was taken, was by the Cesars Lucky 7 Club. Though it still clings to life, the old building stands empty today and despite years of campaigning and planning by groups desperate to save it, its future remains in serious doubt.
The picture was taken from high up inside the Jehovah’s Witness’s Kingdom Hall on the opposite side of the road. This building was originally an Odeon, the grandest cinema in Dudley in its day. Confusingly, the Plaza also became an Odeon for a short spell in its final years.
Above is a picture from the good old days, showing just how impressive the Hippodrome’s Art Deco interior once was.