We’re enjoying the research process for our forthcoming exhibition – Lights! Camera! Action! 120 years of Cinemas and Films in Bath. Have you ever looked up above The Works store in Westgate Street? On the other side of the blocked-up windows on the first floor was the ‘operating box’ (projection room) of The Vaudeville cinema, pictured below.
The Vaudeville opened in December 1911 and was Bath’s third cinema – The Electric, directly opposite, had opened in April 1910 and The Picturedrome in Southgate Street in June 1911. So three cinemas had sprung up in Bath in less than two years. This demonstrates the surge of popularity of the new ‘kinema’ experience. It is hard for us to imagine just how exciting it was to sit in the dark in front of the huge screen and to see moving images of real people for the first time.
What were people watching? Programmes at this date were a mix of very short films, some straightforward entertainment, comedy and drama; some more educational such as visiting a historic city; and sporting events such as highlights of the football Cup Tie Final in 1914 and the Derby. These were of course silent films, and The Vaudeville had a pianist who improvised an accompaniment according to what was on screen (what would you play for the Cup Final? there’s a challenge for you).
When it opened in 1911 The Vaudeville was managed by the magnificently-named Horace Lisle Lucoque and it seated 330. In 1915, now managed by Arthur Vaughan, it increased capacity by adding a balcony and the following year their advertising announces:
“The House of Refined Family Entertainment. Questionable subjects of every kind rigorously excluded.”
And quite right too – this is Bath, after all – and perhaps this is Mr Vaughan’s slur on the Electric on the other side of the street? Notably in 1916, The Vaudeville showed the ‘Battle of the Somme’ film (which we will be showing later this year with the Little Theatre Cinema). Not surprisingly, it had a profound impact on those who saw for the first time the conditions that soldiers were enduring in the trenches of northern France and Flanders.
The picture shows the blocked-up aperture of the ‘operating box’ (projection room) still visible on the first floor, now used as The Works’ stockroom (a big thank you to The Works who kindly allowed us to access this area and take photographs).
Arthur Vaughan was by now the proprietor as well as the manager and things seemed to be going well. The Bioscope magazine of 3 August 1922 reports that The Vaudeville had been re-decorated: “the hangings are emerald green and the wallpaper is black and gold” – wow!
But in June 1923 The Vaudeville closed very suddenly, never to re-open, and its equipment was auctioned off shortly afterwards and the lease put up for sale. What had gone wrong? It transpired at Mr Vaughan’s bankruptcy hearing that he had over-stretched himself financially (it was, remember, a very competitive market for cinemas) and had possibly been trading while insolvent, although it was found that he had not done so with any fraudulent intent.
In 1924, the premises became Rivlin’s Toy Fair & Bazaar store, selling toys, homewares, drapery and hosiery, pushchairs and prams and other fancy goods. Rivlins was owned and run by Joseph Rivlin and you can read more about him in the book Jews of Bath: 1700-1945 by Christina Hilsenrath (available from Friends of Bath Jewish Burial Ground https://bathjewishburialground.org/bookorder.aspx and local bookshops).
On the first floor of the building there remains an extensive system of pneumatic tubes (pictured) which used vacuum pressure to transport cash from the ground floor retail area to the first floor where it was counted and bagged-up for banking. It is impossible to know whether these were installed at the latter end of The Vaudeville’s life, or by Rivlins – I think more likely by Rivlins (given the financial difficulties of the cinema in its last few years).
Ann Cullis
Museum trustee and also a trustee of Friends of Bath Jewish Burial Ground
