Coliseum

The fly-tower of the Coliseum, a legacy from its live theatre days, rises above the entrance. The crowds are leaving a special children's matinée of the Warner Bros epic film version of the Sinclair Lewis novel Main Street on Saturday 5 April 1924. At this time children's matinées usually offered the same films that were shown to adults
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342 Brighton Road, Shoreham
1920 Cinema opens in the Shoreham Theatre, a former garrison theatre operating since 1917 or earlier; owned by M J H Browne and managed by Queenie Millard. Proscenium 28ft wide, stage 30ft deep; one show nightly, three weekly changes, prices 5d-1s 10d.
1923 March 5 Taken over by Blue Flash Cinema Company, formed by ex-officers of the Royal Sussex Regiment, which also builds the Capitol cinema at Horsham. Used for both cinema and live shows. Films are accompanied by a six-piece orchestra.
1923 October Frederick George Ellis, proprietor of the New Kinema at Southwick, takes the lease at £200 a year.
1924 January Ellis sells on the lease to Walter L Mullinger. [First Mullinger and then Ellis are declared bankrupt at Brighton Bankruptcy Court within the next two years.]
1925 The licensee (for cinema, theatre, music and dancing) is now Miss Florence Tyrrell. It is now mainly used for live shows with some film shows.
1930 Proprietor is now Hugh Riley.
1931 One show nightly, Saturday children's matinee. Prices: 4d-1s 6d.
1933 Now owned by Sussex Theatres Company.
1935 February 19 Licensed to F J Freeman, who also runs the Norfolk Cinema and the Scala, Burgess
Hill.
1936 November 17 Licence is taken by Louis Halpern; 808 seats, continuous performances evenings, matinées Saturdays, Sundays and holidays; prices 9d to 1s 9d.
1941 July 12 Closed.
• Still listed in local directories and in the Kine Year Book until 1948 as being owned by United British Cinemas (London) Ltd, which may have leased to Halpern, with the same details as for November 1936. It appears from local accounts to have re-opened, although it is not clear how long it remained operational as a cinema.
• The building was later used by an engineering firm until the early 1960s. It was eventually demolished and became part of the site for the Adur Civic Centre.
Brighton cinema directory
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