Coventry Cinemas

I think you mean the Rex Bernard? And it certainly wouldn't count as a 'fleapit' as it was one of the most modern and luxurious cinemas in the country!

Is that the flea pit you meant?

The Crown and Prince of Wales were owned by the same people and strongly resembled each other. The Scala was Far Gosford Street and refitted as the Odeon some time in the 1950s. The Alexandra was the last of the city centre cinemas to be refitted in 1969 and was always known as 'The Fleapit' to us kids.

I always knew it as "The Fleapit" too

Yes, I have to agree with you Dutchman I did go into the Crown once and never again. My father said Gone with the Wind was showing at the Empire too when the blitz started. Were those the happy days?????

Not sure if this has been posted before, are there any pictures out there of the Standard Cinema before it was demolished and rebuilt as the Godiva Cinema?

Here's one!

Dovedale cinema Post copied from topic Longford by Midland Red, 3rd Jan 2014 3:17 am

What an impressive cinema this was! My, but I had quite forgotten the Doric columns, around which we under-age kids would await an adult to accompany us into the cinema to view an A-rated movie. As I recall the begging phrase, it ran thus - Will you take us in with you, mister? (Added, as a sort marketing ploy was - We won't sit with you.) Post copied from topic Longford by Midland Red, 3rd Jan 2014 3:18 am

Let me tell you a thing or two about the storied history of THE ALEXANDRA cinema. What the cinema was before my being old enough (and earning a little cash in addition to my schoolboy pocket money) to go down town on the bus by myself I know nothing, and what it became as I grew older, left school and essayed making my way in the world, I have no idea, for by then the cinema did not figure in my scheme of things. What it was when I was twelve through sixteen or so was the only place at Coventry's centre where a person could see first run American (20th Century Fox) or British (London Films and associates) movies in Cinemascope, the only gimmick-free form of motion picture presentation at the time that was truly astonishing. The Alexandra had a wide screen, truly wide, in - what a considered as a schoolboy - a particularly narrow theatre. The screen truly stretched from wall-to-wall. There was nothing to see on either side of the screen for the screen took up all the space. The cinema's unprepossessing frontage, and its narrow auditorium notwithstanding, it was here that I saw some of the most impressive films of the era, and I cite but a few - D Day the Sixth of June (Richard Todd, Robert Taylor, Dana Wynter, Edmond O'Brien - directed by Henry Koster) Prince Valiant (Robert Wagner, Janet Leigh, James Mason - directed by Hollywood legend, Henry Hathaway) There is a post on this site that has someone's recollection of seeing this movie at the Opera. He did not. River of No Return (Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe, Rory Calhoun, directed by Otto Preminger) A Hatful of Rain (Don Murray, Eve Marie Saint, Lloyd Nolan, directed by Fred Zinnemann) Call Me Madam (Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen, George Sanders, directed by Walter Lang) And the list goes on... As I knew the Alex, it was a modestly situated, unimpressively-fronted, decently-enough equipped in the seating department cinema, but boasting the finest screen and the finest sound in the city. None of the city centre cinemas came close to the Alex from a film-lover's point of view. And, if you failed to catch a movie the first time around, there was no better venue for a second-run than THE REGAL on Foleshill Road. Opposite the Co-op Emporium, a magnificent shopping experience, the Regal truly lived up to its name.

The Alexandra and the Opera House were owned by the same company (Orr & Philpott) so there's no reason why a film shown at one couldn't also be shown at the other.

My earliest memories of the Alexandra (late 60s) are that it was a flea-pit, the most downmarket cinema in Coventry. It seemed to show fairly dodgy films by then and I recall it was not very choosy who it admitted for X films. I can recall that on several occasions a few of us would skive off games from school and spend the afternoon at the Alex rather than on some rainswept rugby field. In the 70s, as Theatre One, it remained fairly downmarket and was an established haunt for courting couples. The staff didn't seem to care what happened in the back few rows, so best not go there!! However, they did still get some decent films there at times. I recall that it was the only cinema in Coventry to show Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979, which still rates as one of the funniest films I've ever seen. The place was packed and people were, almost literally, rolling in the aisles.

I loved Theatre One when I was a student. Dodgy Italian horror movies and obscure films, all for £1.50.

The cinema in Far Gosford street, Was this known as the Paris at one point ?