A view of the Plaza Theatre on Bishop Street and some derelict buildings on Thistle Green, Stockton. Date unknown.
Taken by Roz Prichard, courtesy of Carole Prichard.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A view of the Plaza Theatre on Bishop Street and some derelict buildings on Thistle Green, Stockton. Date unknown.
Taken by Roz Prichard, courtesy of Carole Prichard.
They went round with flit sprays over the audience between films.
It specialised in what we call re-runs, that is films that had been shown a few years previously. They must have been in a chaotic state towards the end as I was told that they had thrown out the reel of a film called “Towards the Unknown”. Which I had taken my brother to see in the late fifties or early sixties. This was a very good colour film about American test pilots who were evaluating jet and rocket powered aircraft. To some extent it was based on reality as the centrepiece of the story, the Bell X2, tended to go out of control at speeds around Mach 3 ( 2100 mph).
For many years, how I wished I could have got my hands on this real of film, never remotely thinking that in 2017 I would be able to order and buy it on something called a DVD, on something called the internet.
I recall The Plaza Theatre in pre-war years (oops! pre-WWII) as a place to go with only a penny or tuppence in your pocket to get you in for a western or Laurel and Hardy et al. Even in those days, it was a kind of seedy location to frequent.
Correct Ronald, and even then we called it the flea pit. We kids got parked there while Mothers did the shopping on the Market but not very often, it was more usually the Avenue Cinema at Norton again two pence for two hours of cowboy, Roy Rodgers, Pearl White always ending up about to be horribly killed only to be rescued in the nick of time next week. A couple of Cartoons and the Pathe news.
We went upmarket when the Moderne Cinema at Norton opened, it was four pence, same pictures and cartoons, a bit more refined in that the Usherettes did not have long wire bound whips, you just got your ear clipped.
Frank.
With reference to the Plaza having a reputation of being a flea pit, my father always said: You go in with a pullover, but you come out with a “jumper”!
The Grand Hotel I believe it was called.
No the Grand Hotel was next door to the Plaza. The last film I saw there was one featuring Eddie Cantor and that is going back a long way.
Ronald I am David son of your cousin my grandfather was Percy.
I vaguely remember the Plaza, was that a pub next door?
One of the linked pictures shows “The Grand” (Hotel?) as being the pub next door.
The Plaza (1930-59) was previously called “The Grand Theatre” (~1891-1930), prior to that it was called “The Star Theatre” (1874 – (rebuilt)1883 – ~1891 ). The pub was previously called “The Star Hotel” to match the theatre.
(http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/StocktonTheatres.htm)
Thanks for the link