70 years for Quinton picture house (From Halesowen News)

70 years for Quinton picture house

12:50pm Tuesday 4th August 2009 in News

A QUINTON cinema is set to mark its 70th anniversary tomorrow by giving away free film tickets.

The Reel Cinema, on Hagley Road West, opened its doors on August 7 1939 and - with the exception of the week after Hitler’s troops rolled into Poland triggering World War II - has been screening films ever since.

Built on the site of the Apsley House manor owned by Black Country boilermaker Edwin Danks, the first film screened by the-then Danilo was Charlie Chan in Honolulu.

The cinema was followed by another Danilo in Stourbridge in the days when the Black Country was awash with cinemas, recalled Jack Spittle, projectionist in three spells at Quinton.

“There were four cinemas in Stourbridge and two in Lye when I started in Quinton in 1958,” said Jack.

The Quinton picture house - which had been followed by another Danilo in Stourbridge, which Jack had a spell at - had changed its name to the Essoldo by that time and would go on to be The Classic and then an ABC and an Odeon before the independent Reel group took it over.

“I worked at the Essoldo for 12 months and went back there in 1960 for a year and then again in 1977,” said Jack, “On the third occasion I stayed there until I retired in 2005.

“I remember we used to have a Sunday showing at Quinton and I didn’t work Sundays so they got a couple of part-time lads in.” One Sunday we had been installing new equipment for the Sunday showing. We found out on the Monday that the manager had to apologise because the last reel of the first film of a double bill was missing. He said ‘we’ll just have to get on with the second feature’ only to find the last reel of the second film was missing too!”

Jack explained that although he is a cinema buff - and cites Lawrence of Arabia, El Cid and similar epics among his favourite features - there was rarely chance to enjoy the movies during his 47 years in the trade.

“When we went triple screen at Quinton in 1973 there were only two projectionists so we had to be in two places at once,” he added, “if there was a film I wanted to watch I used to go into Birmingham and see it in cinerama at the old Bristol cinema on the Bristol Road.”

To celebrate 70 years of screening films in Quinton the managers of the Reel cinema are giving away free tickets with a balloon release.

A helium balloon for every year since the Danilo opened in 1939 will be released tomorrow night.

Each balloon will have the cinema’s details and be coded.

The first balloon returned to the cinema will win its finder a family ticket and any other returned balloons will win free entry for one person at the Hagley Road West picture house.