LONDON STAGE AND FILM MILESTONES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27564, 22 January 1955, Page 9

LONDON STAGE AND FILM MILESTONES

Largest Theatre And Smallest

Cinema

[By

L. R. SWAINSON]

Two of London’s tbea tre and It. smallest clnema-li.v“jsX“ I SS standing milestones in their respective careers. J P assed out - “ n Christmas Eve. 8 gai Square, was 50 years old

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When the great British impresario, Sir Oswald Stoll, opened the Coliseum in 1904 it was claimed to be “as worthy of London today as the ancient amphitheatre of Vespasian was of Rome.” Certainly the Coliseum was the latest and greatest thing in music-halls at that time, with a unique auditorium to seat more than 2000 in lush, plush opulence, the world’s first revolving stage and, surmounting the roof outside, a spectacular glass ball containing electric lights, which flashed on and off so that it appeared to revolve. The ball, still functioning, has remained a London landmark ever since, even though the type of entertainment it symbolises has altered and fluctuated with the times. The first Coliseum programmes were designed to make the place a monument of respectability and pre-emin-ently a “family” house. AU sorts of acts appeared. There was a tremendous amount of music. Huge choirs sang under the baton of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Wood and were whirled out of sight. As a climax there would be realistic spectacles, such as the destruction of Pompeii, the eruption of Vesuvius, and Epsom on Derby Day. From the Royal entrance to the Royal box ran a little railway, so that Royal visitors, on alighting from their carriage, could step straight into a rail coach and be taken to the Royal box without fatigue. King Edward VII was an early visitor. On his first encounter with the railway it jammed and he had to walk, chuckling hugely, it is said. There were four performances daily, by two separate companies, each of which appeared twice in its own programme. Audiences could see Eugene Stratton in one and Albert Whelan, newly arrived from Australia, in the other. But the public tired of four shows a day, so the Coliseum reduced the number to two. It then prospered more than ever. People who would never have visited a music-hall m the ordinary way flocked to the Coliseum, that pillar of eminent respectability. You could take your maiden aunt and run into the vicar. There was no fear of vulgarity, as at the nearby Alhambra. Notices were posted in the dressing-rooms, threatening heavy penalties to all offenders, on or off the stage. But the Coliseum had all the stars just the same. Almost every illustrious name in music-hall shone from its bills. To recall them now is to soar in blissful imagination high above the streamlined, microphonic variety of today. Of the older generation Little Tich, Wil- £? e Elliot (still serenading tag Lily of Laguna”), Albert Chevalier, Gertie Gitana, Vesta Tilley, Marie Uoyd, Gwen Farrar, Alfred Lester, Layton and Johnson, dear old Sir George Robey, who died only a short toe ago, Ella Shields, Harry Tate, Hetty King, W. C. Fields, and the adorab}® “Little Miss” Ada Reeve, as much beloved abroad as in her native Britainwhere, a'; 80, she refuses to retire. Of the youngsters, Grade Fields, ' Geely Courtneidge, the Marx Broth- < ers. Bob Hope, Donald Peers, Sid Field. ; the Houston Sisters, Tommy Handley, 1 Vic Oliver, Laurel and Hardy. And then the dancers, from Diaghilev’s ;

.‘The Sleeping Princess” 2°!™- Alicia Markova and Dame Ninette de Valois. n™.. r F cent ._ years the theatre, like the successful . pohey of providing a home in the West newest American musical Plays, and is currently doing fine business with Cole Porter’s ° cL“an j. i,,Qi Story ol the Everyman Cinema that of Vh r °^? a v tic in lta own w ay as cater? 1 2? , Coliseum. The Everyman exclusively for the so-called lush brow cinemagoer. It alwavs wondCT ne th?t n lr,‘ herein lies its chi e* wonaer—that any cinemas specialising with n S ? n ? ng slr5 lr ? s as “ art fornf no regard for popular annual. should have lasted for 21 years. PP han m’iBaa y th bU F t as an Army driu l 1888 - the Everyman’s only essays amusement world for many dri^?= tOOlt lorm of dances, whist 1910 th?°I 1 ™ ts b and boxin & Then, in 1919, the Army departed and the buUdnameHaSthCOl^erted Into a thr eatre Everyman Theatre, with seats for fewer than 300. tr ßyii ng J ? he n ? xt seven years it atrS™ r drscemmg British playgoers from far and wide by the quality and variety of its productions. The Everyman made two notable contributions to drama by staging the premieres of Coward s The Vortex” and Sutton Vanes “Outward Bound.” Then the sands ran out, and from 1926 onward it passed through many hands. Finally i inoo 11 ! 6 dereli ct, but was rescued in 1933 by a group of screen enthusiasts who pooled funds and energies to convert it into a cinema. Sir Gerald du Maurier, who lived flose by, performed the opening cere--2? on y- ’H I6 programme consisted of “ ei } e Clair’s “Le Million,” a Disney cartoon, a Mack Sennett comedy and a newsreel. The policy then, as now, was to conduct the Everyman on film society lines, reviving and presenting the best films, long and short, available from international sources, but with this difference—the Everyman programmes were to be available to the public at large, and not limited to a coterie of subscribers. At first the venture met with little success. Capacity houses—by now a mere 260—were seldom reached. The Everyman survived because of the pertinacity of its management. Then early m 1935, a small, gay little film directed by Robert Siodmak, prophetically entitled “The Slump Is Over," was shown with great success. Thereafter the outlook changed. Audiences grew, and eventually reached a level of constancy which dispelled most financial cares. Bombs and blackout forced the Everyman to close in 1940, but after the war it reopened with new vigour, overcoming the shortage of new films and the loss or destruction of old prints by reviving interesting war-time and contemporary films such as “Citizen Kane” and “The Southerner,” together with older pictures from the Continent. London can be proud of bath the Coliseum and the Everyman. In their own diverse spheres they have catered splendidly for the recreational and cultural needs of the capital, be it with Little Tich or Orson Welles.—Associated Newspapers Feature Service.