The Golden Age of Cork Cinemas by McSweeney John

Author:McSweeney, John [McSweeney, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE RITZ

Cork’s Unluckiest Cinema

Rumour has it that the portion of Washington Street on which the Ritz was located had at a time in the past been a fairy fort. Irish legend dictates that anything that is built on such sacred ground will bring bad luck to the owner. It seems as if the Ritz may have fallen foul of this misfortune. Masquerading under several different names, the Ritz, as it was best known, was one of the mainstays of Cork’s cinemas for over seventy years. Although it had to endure a fire, a rebuilding, and a few periods of closure, it survived until August of 1989, and was the last of all the old single screen cinemas to close. Yet despite its longevity, it changed hands on four separate occasions and to each of the owners it brought a degree of bad luck.

In January of 1920, the Washington was the first cinema to open on that site. Although the street on which it stood was still formally known as Great George’s Street, it was in the process of being changed to Washington Street and it was from this the cinema took its name. The Washington Cinema was small and squat, housing just over 300 people, yet uniquely it was heated by a coal fuel fire gate which was situated under the screen. It developed the reputation for being ‘Cork’s Cosiest Cinema’, and made a point of advertising itself as such. However, like many picture houses of that era, it was frequented by as many fleas as paying customers. In the early 1930s, a young boy named Frankie Hayes from Albert Road sneaked into the Washington and sat down on one of long wooden benches that made up the cheaper downstairs section. Everyone knew when the film was about to start as a dot appeared on the screen, but before the beginning of the show an usher came into the auditorium with a can of Jeyes Fluid disinfectant to kill the fleas or the other germs that were floating about. “Your man came along with the disinfectant and poured it all along the floor and over everyone’s shoes and anything else that might be there.”

Despite the smell of the Jeyes fluid and the presence of fleas, the Washington drew crowds from all over the city who were hungry for some big screen entertainment. They showed a lot of popular films of the day, including those of cowboy heroes Tom Mix, Buck Jones and Ken Maynard, and comedy legend Charlie Chaplin. However, their biggest draw was Hollywood’s greatest lover, Rudolph Valentino. His films The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse , The Sheik and Blood and Sand were always guaranteed to attract thousands of admiring females. Such was the appeal of his pictures that there was scarcely standing room available for many performances. In stark contrast to Valentino was Hollywood’s scariest monster, King Kong . Made in 1933, it was one of the most spectacular films ever produced. The great ape stunned and terrified the audiences of the Washington when he stormed in there on his first visit to Cork.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.