UKs last ABC Cinema abdandoned in BOURNEMOUTH

ABC Cinemas was established in 1927 by solicitor John Maxwell[1] by merging three smaller Scottish cinema circuits. It became a wholly owned cinema subsidiary of British International Pictures when it was merged with the production arm of British National Studios, which had been formed by Maxwell in 1926.[2]
During the 1930s, it grew rapidly by acquisitions and an ambitious building programme under the direction of chief architect W.R.Glen, who had been appointed in about 1929[3] and maintained a distinct house style. Existing cinemas which could not be re-modelled were usually operated as separate circuits. In 1937, the parent company, BIP was renamed Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). ABC also ran cinemas under the Ritz brand such as the Ritz Cinema, Muswell Hill.
After his death in 1940, his widow Catherine sold a large number of shares to Warner Brothers,[4] who eventually became the largest shareholders and able to exercise control, though ABPC was separately quoted on the London Stock Exchange. By 1945 it operated over 400 cinemas (usually called the Savoy or Regal) and was second only to Rank's Odeon and Gaumont chains. By the close of the 1950s ABC had started rebranding most cinemas as ABC and dropped names like Regal. Uk exhibition was characterised by alignments between distributors and exhibitors. ABC had access to Warner Brothers, MGM and its own ABPC productions, whereas rival Rank had 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Walt Disney, Columbia, Universal, United Artists and its own productions. Rival ABC, Odeon and Gaumont cinemas in a town showed their own releases and barred each other from showing the same film.
Television led to a sharp decline in cinema audiences after 1952 though with the coming of commercial television from 1955 ABPC had expanded into the new medium with the creation of ABC Television Limited, which gained the Independent Television contracts for the North of England and Midlands at the weekend. ABC-TV lost its franchises in 1968, and was merged with Rediffusion to become Thames Television.
As a result of the decline many suburban ABC theatres closed. Most of those remaining began, from the late 1950s to lose their individual names and were simply branded "ABC". In 1959 Rank abandoned the separate Odeon and Gaumont release and put the best cinemas from each circuit onto a new Rank release. The remaining cinemas were given a new "National" release but this was unattractive to distributors and in 1961 Paramount switched to ABC after refusing a "National" release for the Dean Martin comedy "All in a Night's Work". The "National" release soon ended entirely and there were in future just ABC and Odeon release patterns. In 1967, Seven Arts, the new owners of Warner, decided to dispose of its holdings in ABPC and subsequently EMI launched a successful take-over bid for the company. Associated British Picture Corporation was later to be renamed Thorn-EMI Screen Entertainment Ltd, although the cinema chain retained its name. In 1986, this was later divested by EMI to the Australian businessman Alan Bond who sold the chain a few days later to the Golan & Globus "Cannon Cinemas" Group for a reported £50 million profit in seven days. EMI retained ABPC's lucrative television interests. Eventually, the advent of largely American owned multiplexes led to the end of barring and the old distributor alignments, which had in any case been rendered largely irrelevant by cinema closures often leaving only one cinema in a town, which had access to all films but usually had to give precedence to its traditional alignment (so an Odeon might have a poor "Rank" release in its biggest screen and a big "ABC" release in a small cinema and vice versa).

[@barriegilbert1315]

As an ex projectionist have you never heard of "Sprockets" ~ "Inching Knob" ~ "Gate" ~ ACOP was a safety feature that shut the system down in emergency and was also known as (in the box) Automatic Call Of Projectionist..When you know how much love, time effort and pride that projectionist took in the maintenance and cleanliness of the box all over the years and in whatever cinema, it's heart breaking to see the destruction done to these buildings, and done in such a short time after closure and now the job of projectionist doesn't really exist! Its just a 12 year old sausage seller pushing a button No presentation...no tabs..no non-sync..just get em in after ripping them off at the kiosk first Thank God for the Independents...at least they seem to care about their patrons(there's an old fashioned word!)

[@Liam.P1983]

Well done Matt Sam & Jess , Enjoyed this explore , Keep up the good work , Thanks.

[@sockpuppet877]

Excellent work Matt, Sam n Jess. Very interesting vid with lots of interesting stuff to have a look at. Great work.

[@unigateman]

After the Gaumont adventure many memories of the ABC, the ABC B'mth became Canon during the 80s and then reverted back to ABC. During the 1970s there were only 2 screens I remember another screen was added during the 1980s, the gold curtain was used in ABC 1 until late 1980s, a bubble projector was used after. I remember seeing The Sting and Kellys Heroes as a boy here, there was a super bar next to ABC 1

[@thecleanerg3358]

that drone footage shows some real hidden history another great job guys AWESOME.

[@dennishudson9723]

Thank you Matt awesome as always! I like your longer videos because when I want to sit down and watch something I don’t wanna watch 10 minute clips of stuff in addition I remember before digital they had the beginning of the film you could hear the click click click winding up before there was sound started and you actually see them adjusting the gates and everything live. I also remember when film would get stuck and you would watch it burn from the center out followed by a bunch of booze and somebody yelling will be back up in a minute and then it would get started again and everybody would forget about what just happened

[@paulvamos7319]

Another great explore, thank you for taking me along. Shout out to Sam & Jess, did they see the arches with the artwork? I love your long play footage, saves me switching videos to get the whole thing. Saw some new stuff this time, shame you couldn't get to the roof. On to the next one.

[@hahomy]

Matt I love these old cinemas and yr cinema 🎥 lessons another great explore thanks for sharing 👍 love Sam and Jess too, brilliant video 👍🎥💖

[@paulsealey2822]

love the video and the insight into the workings of the cinema

[@simonfairclough641]

Great video ! Worked as a projectionist for nearly 10 years and also have owned many 35mm projectors as an interest. Sad to see these cinemas and equipment rotting away. The projectors on the film are Philips DP75 machines. I rescued two of these machines out of a skip many years ago with a friend which had been in a Leisure Centre. Sadly a bygone era ... keep up the good work with the videos !

[@valerianleforge]

Not sure what microphone you use but the spatials on the sound are incredible. Listening through headphones and every time Sam or Jess speak from behind you it sounded like someone was talking to me from behind. The other half thought I was mad keep turning round to see what he wanted.

[@nathanjones6501]

Great to see inside the building it’s so huge can’t believe so much stuff is still left it was fantastic to se the film projectors and film reels and still working by hand when turning the dials etc 👍😊

[@SionynJones]

Was having a bad day this cheered me up. Few things: That burnt stuff looks like burnt film matt bloody vandals. Xenon arc lamps do indeed have a limited life time 2000 hours sounds about right running for longer you risk the blub exploding because of the high heat and vacuum its pretty nasty mix. Did you notice the discolouring of the shutter on the arch lamp that was caused by UV emitted from lamp very dangerous lamps. Typically these cinema lamps have a vacuum of 25 atmospheres you need this to increase the efficiency. The electrodes are also doped with thorium to enhance thermionic emission of electrons. Xenon arc lamps work by passing electricity though ionised Xenon gas. The light produced is closest you can get to sunlight with a artificial light. Very good colour rendering index. Light is produced when ions (emitted from the lamps anode) which collide with Xenon gas atoms. These atoms transfer their electrons to the ions. The atoms, having lost an electron during the collisions, ionize and speed toward the cathode while the ions, having gained an electron during the collisions, return to a low energy state while releasing energy quanta in the form of light or photons. Interesting stuff matt.

[@AdventuresWithJay]

Well done it’s a good find this video

[@sarahxxx482]

Poor ABC cinemas 😥 there is one in Maidstone Kent which still has power running through it from the Bingo complex next door, so she is in good nick!!

[@RadiopodUk]

Both the Odeon and ABC here were definitely ran together as one. Because of where I worked at the time, in the mid-2000's, I was given a personal behind the scenes tour by the manager (Spencer).

[@exploringmetaldetecting5989]

thank you matt and sam and jess in joy watch .....stuff about the old cinma dont make like that any more ,,,did work in one years ago in bristol top rank ordon .......jy

[@VacantHaven]

Secret vault notification 👍 brilliant stuff ✌️

[@leedavies9309]

great video matt.. thought u would never get out

[@shupshekitty]

I used to love going to the theater. Collecting pop bottles along the way. 5 bottles was the entrance fee to see two serials and a B movie. Usually something like Abbot and Costello meet the Wolfman. It was great fun for Saturday mornings.

[@mrcrazyjonpresents4312]

The ABC cinema in Plymouth closed its doors on November 2019 The floor at 12.56 is painted in the two main colours of the old ABC design Blue & Red I'd say most of the rooms off the stage were dressing rooms The Beatles did the ABC circuit back in the mid 60s so could of been in them rooms Shame to see the old ACB curtains still hanging there they were worth top money one time Apparently above the pay booths there is a way into what used to be the old ABC lounge area which has been sealed off to the public for over 40 years

[@Momus21]

I SMASHED the like button. As always.

[@philipsim4601]

Nice one cheerd me up mate

[@jayewaters3921]

The ZX 8000 H lamphouse can use horizontal Xenon bulbs from 2.500 W to 8.000 W . Is is designed to illuminate large and very large screen up to 30 metres (100’) Wide. It is supplied complete with blower/exhauster. Heat filter and cylindrical beam spreader for 700 mm. are supplied as options.

[@matthewbanjomanwalker]

I used to work in both locations. You seemed to have missed the staff room and main office? Also screen 3 I believe. Anyway, if you have any questions I may be able to answer them for ya

[@dominicsidaway1930]

Matthew Walker I’m looking to enter them- but how? I’m really interested in collecting old film reels and reel wheels- also is there still complete film prints there? Hidden somewhere perhaps? Would love to know 🙌🏻

[@dennishudson9723]

Ahh 40 minute tape lengths that’s why we always had the intermission for 10 or 15 minutes to go get popcorn supposedly!

[@stu0053]

Nice one Matt,, Lost count how many times did you say Slush Puppy 🤔😂

[@Neo-luke]

lol at the start on the drone i thought their no sound thats unlike matt checked everywhere then i remember i turn dan on mute off youtube last night as i had you both on a live lol but as allways matt great video loads of info and this place not to far from me as well

[@thecleanerg3358]

intro music is epic dude

[@selbino]

I’m pretty sure the Beatles played here in 1963 and 1964.

[@DarrenJCalvert]

That was the odeon, the gaumont. Just up the road.

[@dawnfalvey6766]

I know I’m late to this video- but we do have slush puppies in the States. 👍 There’s slush puppies, slurpees, or icees. It’s all the same - just different manufacturers. 😁

[@ChefBenG]

At one hour and one minute, that's a Bonzer, an industrial sized tin opener, they probably used it to open novelty size cans of hotdogs. This is the only reason why I can think why you'll hear chefs say "Bonzer" all the time!

[@robdedrick2052]

Matt Have ever read about Boris Karloff in Manitoba during the Floods ? Pretty Cool .

[@trouble1600]

you say everything twice, once to try it out, second time to affirm it. it's entertaining

[@kennethbarker852]

1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth❤‍🩹❤‍🩹❤‍🩹👍

[@colinpurchase8101]

I think that pidgeon wanted to come on the explore with you :-)

[@Cjbx11]

This cinema wasn’t a converted theatre and was built by ABC cinemas in 1937 and was always primarily a cinema. It wasn’t unusual for larger cinemas to be built with stage facility’s to allow them to put on stage shows from time to time.

[@grahamhansford2055]

I think I saw Star Wars in that in the 70s. round the block queue I did.

[@UnderTheRadar1976]

Can't believe there's cameras in there now lol

[@mariataif]

We are the boys and girls well known as Minors of the ABC And every Saturday we line up To see the films we like And shout aloud with glee We love to laugh and have a sing-song Just a happy crowd are we We’re all pals together We’re minors of the ABC. Yes I have many memories of Saturday Morning Matinee at the ABC Cinema in Broad Green Croydon (now demolished) the above song we sang our hearts out to.Then to my Nan and Grandads afterwards for breakfast with Chop Sauce. Thank you Matt. (Matt saw your video when you went to Croydon looking for a Bunker)BTW you havent changed much in looks LOL!! atb Mike Skegness

[@Blanks22]

U know if it's still possible to get in?

[@Stylingsid]

Morning 👍🏼😎

[@user-fw9zu2wh8y]

Great videos as they always are. You sam and jess make great team, also love exploring with fighters and dark arts tv. Whats frustrating is 'how proving demons seems to get all the credit as he uploads first i mean it does all you guys a dis service. You should be the one with 12.k subs. Thanks keep up great work

[@robdedrick2052]

Come on Matt It's not that far . Starkey n Hutch would run and jump that little thing . I bet Ally Law would do it . Ha Ha Ha . Really enjoying the Drone Intros . The Architecture you Folks have is Awesome . The oldest building's we have here are from the mid to late 1800s . Made of logs . The Trees were 800yrs old . But that doesn't mean the building History is . Tks

[@eltonbadham]

At least you're not exploring the beach.

[@deedoor30]

1:01:08 Tin opener :-)

[@dennishudson9723]

On a sidenote getting old sucks I really miss the days of taking a girl I liked to the drive-in Being nervous with butterflies in my stomach for the first quarter of the movie and then never actually seeing the last 3/4 of the movie! Man I miss those days I hope drive-ins come back for kids now.

[@jeremywilcox]

Sorry, this just makes me sad after having worked for ABC in the early 60's and responsible for fitting 70mm kit to some of their sites after being a projectionist. Traveled the UK doing that; and fitting the PA systems for the live shows aki the Beatles as mentioned. Have done Cardiff with it's ground floor 70mm suiet.

[@ilveverythingdaft]

No more abc were I am either been turned inti holiday inn ☹️☹️

[@signal98]

❤

[@thedim900conf]

Yes we have slush puppy in the USA but they are not very popular anymore ICEE is taking over

[@roamer2u2]

Pigeon are blind and can only see in the day time

[@BOARDMAN16456]

i now a guy would but all this for good money