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Cumnock Picture House Cumnock Picture House was opened in 1913 when 1800 people could be accommodated at a film show. The first film shown was Monte Christo. There were two shows per night and a children`s matinee on Saturday morning; and the occasional vaudeville show. The building served as a cinema until the advent of television when people could see films in their own homes. It became a Bingo hall and continues as such today.
CUMNOCK PICTURE HOUSE
By John MILLIN
Cumnock Picture House was one of two owed privately by Mrs WARD – passed down from her father. The other cinema being in Auchinleck. Cumnock Picture House had 400 seats on a single level and was originally opened c1910 and was the oldest in the area. It finally closed as a cinema around 1980 (see note at end of article) after a trial period of different days for bingo and cinema. By 1974, Bingo accounted for 5 days a week – the other two (Tues & Thurs) were cinema.
I was projectionist in Cumnock for more than 16 years before moving south. Cumnock’s projection room started life as a separate add-on room on the roof of the original entrance frontage. A neat three sided shaped sandstone façade with two circular windows one either side and a large curved top window at the front. Access to the projection booth was up a ladder through a hatch in the ceiling of the foyer.
In 1920 the Picture House was updated with two all-electric projectors, and the Spider (a series of strings that opened and closed the picture gates at changeover to allow continuous projection). The Picture House had their own electricity generator situated at the back of the building. During the 1930’s the mains electricity supply was installed and its arrival led to the final demise of the generator at the back of the cinema.
It was around the 1930s that the building underwent a major overhaul and, at the same time, sound pictures or the “Talkies” were becoming available so were the new true-colour films so the Picture House closed for a short time for a refit and rebuild. The frontage was raised to cover the barn shape of the auditorium and extended outwards towards the road enclosing toilets and introducing more space in front of the foyer. This “buried” the original projection box inside and gave the place a completely new look. The large window with the circular top was removed and a new door put in for access to the projection room, the hatch from the foyer was sealed up.
The old projectors were replaced with new ones which could handle sound, at first using disc sound projectors. It is more than likely these were Kalee 11 type projectors. They were able to show all the latest films newsreels and gazettes as well as the old silent films.
In 1949 as things improved after WWII when cinemas hit their highest takings, the projectors and sound system were re-equipped this time with the Kalee KT21 the fully enclosed projector with total fire fighting ability. In 1956 the projectors were modified to handle Cinemascope, but the building was not suitable for stereophonic sound. The Kalee Projectors lasted till the end of the cinema shows in 1980.
In the early 1960’s, when the façade started showing its age and with audiences still good enough, a complete new three coloured vertical stripe asbestos type cladding was put on the upper half of the façade the lower half being painted horizontal stripes. The 1975 Fire Act that stated all cinemas were to be cleared of old nitrate film, projection booths to be cleaned out etc. saw the old generator room emptied of equipment that had been stored there. The oil fired heating was replaced with gas boiler and oil tanks were removed as well as other updates and minor changes to the building.
SEATING
The interior changed little over the years and was all on one level. What was called the balcony was the top 12 rows of seats above the cross aisle and separator towards projection room. Access was from two side door entrances whilst the two hallways continued into the stalls. The stalls were two blocks of seats with central aisle and separated from balcony by wooden separator and row of seats. The front stalls were 6 rows of seats with wooden backed separator. By the late 1960’s, a modification was made to the seating to try to keep income up. The balcony separator was opened up and another 6 rows were called Front Balcony. At the same time the front stalls were abolished. In 1973 more seats were removed as bingo equipment was installed at front of the house, the Front Balcony unit was opened up to give access to all seats from the bingo caller. The interior had fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling for bingo but all other original décor still exists
FILM SHOWS
The programme was varied from one film for a whole week or it changed Monday and Thursday. Many shows were twice nightly or one “B” film, ads and newsreel and then the main Picture. The last film to be shown twice was Batman the movie around 1969. The Saturday kids matinee at 10am ran until 1972. Then came the beginning of the end – in 1973 all this changed, as it became half bingo and half cinema. Ending up as cinema only on Tues and Thurs with bingo at all other times. Bingo took over completely in 1980.
SPECIAL EVENTS
In 1953 television sets were in the Picture House to show the Queens Coronation. In 1968/9 a film crew used the building for a film. After they left there were burn marks on the doors and walls from their floodlights. During the 1973 miners’ strike and electricity rationing some films were shown late in evening, sometimes starting at 10pm or later. In an effort to try and bring in more custom late night adult only matinees were run but patrons got up and walked out disgusted(well it was a small town of only 5000 people).
PROJECTORS
In 1975 the No 1 projector changeover mechanism failed and it was replaced by one of Auchinleck’s GK19 mechanisms. The arc lamp started to fail by 1978. It continued to deteriorate to the end by which time was literally falling apart. The No 2 projector was still in peak condition giving flawless projection and in immaculate condition. She got a new motor in 1971 after blowing a fuse, nothing wrong with original motor, just an old fuse.
Note Kris COCHRANE remembers going to the Picture House to see ET which came out in 1982 - so he feels that the closure must have been after that date.
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Cumnock Cinema 1930
Cumnock Cinema 2003
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