Thursday 25 February 2010

The ABC Cinema.(The Ritz)

Old pic taken at Hereford's A.B.C. Cinema (the Ritz) Commercial Road sometime in the late 1940s early 1950s.The cinema was opened in January 1938 on the site of the old city gaol by "Associated British Cinema's" and had a capacity of 1000 seats.I'm not sure what is being marked on this occasion.The lady front left holding the piece of paper is Aida Harris who worked at the cinema at the time.As you can see the Commissionaires and Usherette's were a very smart bunch as was the case in all cinemas in those days.

Unfortunately in the mid 1970s with the decline of cinema the "stalls" were sold off and turned into a Bingo Club and some years later converted into a Nightclub.

Picture; Mr.Keith Harris.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

my mother was born in Hereford and lived there for 4 years.She moved to wales since work was scarce and brought up by her grandmother and aunt.We visited every year and can remember waiting 2hours to see gone with the
wind at the ritz cinema.
colin.

denise barrett said...

my nan Winifred cynthiajones worked in the ritz as a cashier and there was a man who worked as a projecter in the ritz and my nan and him got to geather they had a daughter Teresa born 1942 but this man died in 1944 as stateted in my adopted paper work can some one help me please. denise

MR ROBERT BURSELL said...

MY DAD WORKED IN THE ABC (THE RITZ)MR ARTHUR LESLIE BURSELL AFTER WW2 ENDED.AWARDED A SILVER ABC BADGE FOR LONG SERVICE.,WHEN HE RETIRED AGED 65.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Colin James said...

My mother also worked here as an Usherette in the 50's and early 60's. (Emily James also know as Margaret James as she preferred to be called by her middle name Margaret when she was younger)