The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Cinema fan holds hands up
Green’s Playhouse came under the spotlight recently in Craigie following a mention in one of Fraser Elder’s popular quizzes.
The venue was erected in Dundee’s Nethergate in 1936 and featured a movie palace that could easily seat more than 4,000 patrons and an upstairs ballroom fit for 6,000 dancers.
Its template had been set nine years earlier when the Green’s Group asked a noted theatre architect of the day to design a luxurious Art Deco cinema in Glasgow, aimed at being the finest in the UK and beyond.
The Dundee landmark included a stalls auditorium that was regarded as the largest in Europe, with the venue’s total seating capacity only 100 short of its west of Scotland equivalent, which was the most colossal cinema ever built in Great Britain or on the Continent.
Initially on reading Fraser’s account of the origins of the Nethergate structure – which was taken over by Mecca Bingo in its later years – Craigie reader Peter Rennie reckoned something didn’t quite ring true.
His first thought was that the name of the architect who designed the Green’s in Dundee was George Fairweather, rather than his namesake John.
A swift rethink, however, led the City of Discovery resident to reconsider his nominal bone of contention, prompting him to offer a swift retraction.
Mr Rennie now declares: “I have to admit that I was completely wrong regarding John Fairweather. He was indeed the architect for Green’s Playhouse, Dundee, and various other cinemas.
“George Fairweather was also an architect but did not design Green’s Playhouse, but was prominent in various other fields of architecture. I also became an architect, hence my interest in the two Fairweathers, one of whom was the father of a family friend and whom I met on a few occasions and managed to get mixed up with John Fairweather – much to my embarrassment!”
Looking back on his home city’s powerful big-screen heritage, Peter says he well remembers spending time in the magnificent Green’s.
He says: “I have always been a keen fan of the cinema, starting with the Odeon Club on Strathmartine Road on a Saturday morning – sixpence and nine pence admission, free on your birthday with a friend.
“I visited many cinemas in Dundee – when many existed – and that included Green’s Playhouse whose cafe could also be visited on a Sunday evening when there was not much else to do in the town apart from wander around what was known as the ‘Monkeys Parade’. I recall that the tower which was a prominent feature of the frontage had the words ‘Green’s Playhouse’ displayed vertically and illuminated, the ‘u’ being slightly inclined off the vertical.
“If I remember correctly in the list of entertainments featured on the inside of the back page of The People’s Journal, Green’s advert had a cartoon of two elves pushing the ‘u’ into place – hence the slogan, ‘We want you in’.
“Speaking of The People’s Journal, when I worked for a spell down in London, my mother used to send me every week The People’s Journal and The Sporting Post.
“Once when I was reading the Journal an Australian colleague asked me if it was a Communist newspaper! I told him that nothing could be further from the truth!”