The Wonder Cinema
Take a trip from The Wizard of Oz to Reservoir Dogs in the Wonder Cinema of Ireland, the Ritz, Belfast. Join hosts, filmmaker Brian Henry Martin and cinema historian Dr. Sam Manning in a new six-part series exploring the remarkable story of a long lost super cinema.
Podcasting since 2024 • 5 episodes
The Wonder Cinema
Latest Episodes
Ep 4: The Ritz, Belfast - 1960s Pop Invasion, The Beatles and the Biblical Flood
In the fourth episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we look at how the Ritz responded to the explosion of youth culture in the 1960s and hosted some of the world's biggest musical acts.As audiences continued to fall in the 1960s, cinema...
September 15, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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30:46
Ep 3: The Ritz, Belfast - 1950s Spectacle, Spectacles and Cary Grant's Shillelagh
In the third episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we look at how the Ritz coped with the challenges of the 1950s using spectacle, spectacles and even a Shillelagh.Cinema attendance peaked after the Second World War, but the 1950s brough...
September 08, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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30:18
Ep 2: The Ritz, Belfast - It's Showtime Folks! Cinema Food, WW2 and the Mighty Organ
In the second episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we explore what it was like to go the Ritz during the height of cinema attendance in the 1930s and 1940s. How much did it cost and what awaited visitors when they moved from the pay boxes to t...
September 01, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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31:55
Ep 1: The Ritz, Belfast - 1930s Cinema Boom, the Grand Opening and Gracie Fields
In the first episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast we go back to the 1930s to discuss the cinema boom and the grand opening of the Ritz, Belfast’s largest and most upmarket cinema.Cinema attendance grew rapidly in the 1930s and the Ritz, ...
September 01, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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30:57
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