Memories of Athlone cinemas
by Patrick Mannion
The coming of cinema to Athlone made a huge contribution to the life of the town's inhabitants. Unlike other forms of entertainment such as dancing, theatre and live music, costs were relatively low.
The first venue to house the showing of motion pictures was part of the building which at present is the Luan Gallery. It was originally the Father Mathew Hall and in the 1920s and 1930s was managed by the Gallagher family. This was the silent era of cinema. Later in the 1930s it was run by the Knight family and became known as the Savoy.
The Garden Vale Cinema came on stream in the 1930s. It was located opposite where the Sheraton Hotel now stands. Prior to its conversion to a cinema it had been a warehouse. Part of the building can still be seen, including one of the exits. It was managed by Ms Nellie Farrell.
The Ritz Cinema opened its doors in 1940, it was the first purpose-built cinema in the town. It was located at Custume Place. On the site of which is now a restaurant, a café and a brewing company. The Ritz was a complete new experience for cinemagoers.
It could cater for 1,100 patrons. The area on the ground floor nearest the screen was where the cheapest seats were located and it was known as the pit. It has a series of long benches which were padded and was a mecca for young people who could get into an afternoon matinee for four pence. Behind that area were the stalls complete with tip up seats. Upstairs had two balconies, a front and a back, the latter a happy haven for courting couples!
The Ritz also had its own shop which sold sweets, chocolate and cigarettes. There was also a uniformed staff of ushers, who were required to show people to their seats in the darkness if the performance had started. They also had to keep order and ensure that no one was talking loudly during the film. There was also a person employed to sell refreshments in the seating area from a container which was suspended from a shoulder harness. Shortly after the arrival of the Ritz the Savoy closed. The Garden Vale Cinema continued for a few more years but with dwindling audiences, eventually closing and being replaced by the Adelphi in 1946.
The old Garden Vale Cinema was demolished to make way for the new cinema, while not as large as the Ritz, its single balcony being much smaller. However, it did have an interesting feature which was a very large stage which was suitable for live entertainment. It was possible to stage variety shows there from time to time. The manager was a Mr McKenna who proved to be a great showman. In those days there was a considerable wait for a film to reach the country until it finished its run in Dublin.
Mr McKenna changed all that, recent releases quickly found their way to the Adelphi much to the dismay of the Ritz directors. These films included period dramas such as Ivanhoe, Macbeth and biblical dramas such as Ben Hur and Quo Vadis which in English means 'Where goest thou?' This was adapted in the promotional advertisement, which, of course, included the reply 'To the Adelphi of course.' On some occasions the staff was dressed as the characters of whatever period drama was showing.
Each cinema carried details of the coming weeks films in the Westmeath Independent and for patrons there were a limited number of monthly programmes available.
The type of film usually determined the length of its run in the cinema and there could be three different films between Monday and Saturday. There was usually a different film on Sunday, this was usually what was known as a B movie and was rated less of a major production as one in the A category. Sunday was the busiest night of the week and the owners knew a full house was assured regardless. In order to be sure of a seat on a Sunday night booking was essential. The cinema was great value for money at the time when work was scarce and money was tight.
More than thirty minutes before the film started recorded music was played. This was very welcome on a cold winter's evening. As well as the main feature there was what was known as a 'full supporting programme.' There was usually an hour of short films of 20 to 30 minutes duration. They were usually comedies and sometimes animated films were shown. There would also be trailers of films that were coming in the weeks ahead. They also showed a newsreel which showed recent events of interest. The newsreels were either Movietone or Pathe. Later Gael Linn produced its own newsreel 'as Gaeilge'. All newsreels were discontinued when television news became available.
The halcyon days of the cinema were the 40s, 50s and 60s. The mid 70s brought a steady decline in attendances. In an effort to counteract this, new developments took place with widescreen productions including cinemascope. Also introduced were 3D films which needed special glasses to be worn to get the effect. The experiment was short lived and the coming of colour televisions and wider screens were further blows to the viability of the cinema.
The Ritz reduced its capacity, all of the ground floor was closed. The Adelphi was divided into two cinemas Oscar One and Two but the 90s saw the demise of both cinemas.
Athlone was without a cinema for many years and people had to wait for films to come out on video to see them, there was a short-lived cinema above the old shopping centre in the early 90s but it wasn't until the opening of Golden Island Shopping Centre in 1997 that Athlone once again had a cinema. IMC opened its cinema which had all the best sound, picture and comfort that audiences expect.
Today the cinema faces new challenges with the availability of Netflix and other streaming services where in some cases it's possible to view new releases on the same day as the cinema release. It is hoped that the cinema can survive this competition.
From a personal point of view, few things are better than enjoying a couple of hours in the cinema. There, one can temporarily forget the cares of the day and enjoy what the silver screen has to offer.
Patrick Mannion is a long-time resident of St Francis Terrace, Athlone.