Coventry Cinemas

Yes, the Crown was refurbished and reopened as the Paris Luxury Continental Cinema on 1st March 1958. The name was later shortened to just Paris.

I remember going to The Paris a few times in the 60's the manager would often invite people to have coffee with him in the foyer.

I saw The Song Remains the Same at Theatre One, Led Zeppelin, good and loud

Many years ago my wife went to Theatre One to watch The Towering Inferno with her friend and her mother. They were sat down in anticipation ready to watch the film when they realised they were surrounded by an all male audience wearing dubious long coats or macs. Realising they had entered the wrong cinema room they very quickly left to find the right cinema room. It's a good job they realised when they did as her friend's mother was a lovely innocent devout catholic lady. I`ve had a lot of mileage about this over the years - happy days, lol

And me, a great film, mad Led Zeppelin fan in those days - still am, my son gave me the O2 arena reunion dvd for my birthday last year - talk about rolling back the years, great

Dear Dutchman, That's not the way film distribution worked/works. The cinemas didn't/don't buy films, they rented/rent them as exhibitors from distributors. The exhibitor may not show the movies rented wherever the spirit advises. There is no way a movie shown at the Alexandra might have been shown later at the Opera, unless the common owner of the two cinemas entered into a second/further contract with the distributor, and all such would/will have additional payments incurred by the exhibitor, and the distributor would have been guided by such considerations as to the value of the product to second-run cinemas (such as the Forum, the Regal, the Standard), at which cinemas - exhibiting the movie for the first time in the catchment area - the film would attract a higher rental price. For sure, a further run in another city centre cinema would have devalued the worth of PRINCE VALIANT to other exhibitors in the region. My experience dictates that such would not have happened. It would not have been advantageous to the distributor, which would - like the exhibitor - have been under time constraints - in his case from the title holder (producer) of the film; specifically, 20th Century Fox. Whatever new media have become open to film producers (the "back end", as they are called), the system works today in much the same way as it worked in the 1950s, in much the same way as it worked from the earliest days when production, distribution and exhibition became separate ventures. And what I outline here is the simple procedure, not taking into account any number of other considerations. As ever, and in all matters, I stand to be corrected.

The Roxy was the Redesdale, both before and after it was the Roxy, in the same way as its sister cinema, the Rivoli/Ritz was the Dovedale before and after its Rivoli/Ritz incarnations. Incidentally, I have read on this site - this simply superb site - something of what the Redesdale became after ceasing to be a cinema, but - unless I simply missed as much - I did not come across its after-life as the St Finbarr's Social Club, a hive for Irish people in need of a little exposure to the "showbands" of their native land. When last I lived in my birthplace, when last I rode into town from Longford on the 20/20A bus and passed that edifice (mid-60s), it still was St Finbarr's.

"The Longest Day" was also shown at the Palladium, another Orr-Philpott cinema and only a stone's throw away from the Alexandra. I know this because I found the title sequence from the first reel on a bonfire on waste ground behind the Palladium after it was converted to an Asian cinema. It could not have been a CinemaScope print though as the original Palladium was not equipped to show them.

Not St Finbarr's, I don't think Located on the corner of Foleshill Road and Edmund Road. The Redesdale Cinema was opened on 31st January 1933. Seating was provided for 1,073 in the stalls and 500 in the circle. It was built for W.H. Bassett-Green. In 1934 it was leased by the local Philpot chain and was re-named Roxy Cinema. In April 1954, the cinema was taken back by Bassett-Green and it reverted back to its original name. It continued to operate for two more years, and was then closed and the contents were auctioned off on 3rd September 1956. The building was converted into the Bambo Club, then became the Hibernia Club and in 1973 became the Tree Tops Club. It was closed in April 1978, and the building was put up 'For Sale'. There was talk of conversion back to cinema use with a restaurant, but this came to nothing. A Sikh group purchased the building in November 1979, and it was converted into the Nanaksar Gursikh Temple. Source : Cinema Treasures It was The Prince of Wales Cinema on Stoney Stanton Road which became St Finbarr's Club

and Finbarrs is now apartments

You got it MR, it was the Roxy when I was a kid, I always had a headache when I came out, probably because I always sat in the front row and had to look up to see the films on Saturday mornings

NormK - What a beautiful cinema this Dovedale/Rivoli/Ritz/Dovedale cinema was. "Picture palace" was the descriptive term back then, and how right it was. Yes, by the time it was a regular "hang-out" of mine, it was a tad less impressive, but for a cinema that specialized in my day as a third-run house - features Mon/Tues/Wed, changing for Thurs/Fri/Sat, a "Chums' Club on Saturday morning, and a gamble (maybe an ancient movie, maybe a post-war movie) on Sunday afternoon-cum-evening, there was a majesty to this palace that I never quite found in Coventry's city centre, never quite found - later - in Toronto. The Redesdale - its sister cinema - was equally grand on its opening (from a similar image posted), and - I imagine - for many years thereafter. However, I have to say that THE REGAL on Foleshill Road, notwithstanding its unprepossessing entrance, also was a palace when once one was inside. Those entrepreneurs of an earlier time really gave value for money. My sixpence of a 1950s Saturday morning at the Dovedale - in its Rivoli incarnation - gave great value for money, and I have to say that the cinema staff's attention to the children's care, the children in its charge, could teach volumes to today's social workers. Of course, on the science fiction side of things, the FLASH GORDON serial, with its rocket-ship landing on Mars after several bounces, did not accurately foretell man's first landing on the moon. But, oh, those palaces of delight!

Longford Lad, you made me chuckle when you mentioned Flash Gordon and the rocket ship, instead of blowing the smoke out the back it just went up and it looked suspiciously like a sparkler going off at the back. When we got to watch a cowboy film there were goodies and baddies, when the goodies came on everyone cheered and when the baddies came on everyone booed and we couldn't wait to see the next episode.. Happy Days..

Places of delight. That is a novel description. The old Hertford Street Empire on a Saturday morning was like doing a day in St Trinians. Many of the kids were still shouting 'We want the film' a good five minutes after the start.

My goodness, ABC Minors, that takes me back, utter mayhem