Ep 5: The Ritz, Belfast - Cinema in flames! Jaws, The Exorcist and the Troubles.

In the fifth episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we go back to the 1970s. This was a difficult decade for cinema exhibitors across Britain and Ireland, but especially so in Belfast, a city that also had to navigate the civil unrest of the Troubles.

 Despite the chaos, big American films such as The Godfather, The Exorcist and Jaws attracted large audiences and queues were seen outside the Ritz (now renamed the ABC) for the first time in several years. Billy Connolly even came to the cinema to provide much-needed comic relief, a performance captured in Big Banana Feet, the documentary of his Irish tour. The Wombles stage show was less successful, resulting in angry complaints and eventual refunds. But all performances came to an end in 1977 when an IRA firebomb forced the cinema to close. 

Links:
Flickr - Army patrol outside the ABC
BBC Rewind - The Wombles at the ABC (1974)
BBC Rewind - Firebomb attack on the ABC (1977)

Written and presented by Dr Sam Manning and Brian Henry Martin
Music by Score Draw Music
https://thewondercinema.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

BHM
Welcome to the Wonder cinema podcast,

Dr Sam
where we wonder about cinema.

BHM
I'm filmmaker and film critic Brian Henry Martin, 

Dr Sam
and I'm cinema historian and author, Dr Sam Manning. 

BHM
We're going to tell the remarkable story of one cinema, but not just any cinema, the wonder cinema of Ireland, 

Dr Sam
A picture Palace from the Golden Age, which showed the greatest films and hosted the biggest movie stars 

BHM
For more than 50 years, it entertained 1000s of people a night, but then floods and flames would end its reign, 

Dr Sam
and where is it now? 

BHM
So join us on a trip which takes us from the Wizard of Oz

Dr Sam
to Reservoir Dogs 

BHM
to the Wonder cinema of Ireland,

BOTH
the Ritz, Belfast.

BHM
It's the early 1970s and sadly, we've entered the dark days of the troubles, a conflict that would engulf Northern Ireland for the next 25 years. Welcome to episode five of the Wonder cinema. And what an extraordinary time this was Sam Belfast City Center died essentially, shops and hotels closed. Cinemas became unsafe. They became targets for bombs. Sam, how did cinema survive during this period?

Dr Sam
Good question, and it's remarkable that it did consider what was happening in Belfast during that that time, cinema was already in a long term decline, and as we've already said, this just really exacerbates that, that trend and makes it even more difficult for cinema exhibitors in the in the city, cinemas aren't free from what's going on around them. The Troubles has very tangible impact opposite the ABC is the classic cinema, and that is actually bombed on New Year's Eve, 1971 a bomb is planted with the intention of destroying a hotel next door, but it also destroys the cinema, which never reopens. A couple of years later, there was a bomb at the rear of the ABC on Grosvenor road. It doesn't impact the cinema's ability to operate, but you can obviously see how that would influence people's decisions and whether they, you know, spend a night out at the at the cinema.

BHM
This is the Belfast that I was born into, and that I grew up in. And 1972 a ring of steel, a metal cage was constructed around the city center, which made you feel like you were entering Jurassic Park, but you were entering just normality. But in a way, it was. It was designed to stop bombs, but it didn't, of course, and sadly, other entertainment venues, as you say, close to the ABC, were also targeted. The Grand Opera House, which had operated as a cinema, closed in 1972 and didn't reopen until 1980 and the Odeon Cinema, next door to the ABC was damaged by bombs in 1974 and Odeon did not come back to Belfast again for more than 40 years. And Sam it was also, how did people get to the cinema at this time? I mean, the train station that was next door. Sadly, it was bombed, and people were killed in that bombing, and it closed. So all of a sudden, the ABC is looking very vulnerable, the wonder cinema stands alone in this desolate landscape, in this war torn environment.

Dr Sam
Yeah, its definitely troubling times. And I think it is testament to ABC, who in the 70s, were taken over by EMI, that they actually stay in the in the market. They continue to operate the cinema. When you think that rank who controlled Odin pulled out, I think it's a real testament to them that they had, you know, faith in the in the cinema to carry on.

BHM
So we've got horror outside and we've got horror inside the cinema. Sam, I mean, this is quite extraordinary to me.

Dr Sam
Yeah, one of the most popular films in the early to mid 70s was The Exorcist, which, if I hadn't researched this, I'd have thought people would want a different type of escapism. We we heard how something like my fair lady was really popular in the 1960s or. Cinema itself is changing in the in the 1970s and becoming more so. It's hard edged, but in my head, I wouldn't necessarily have thought that people would want to come out to the see the exorcist when all these things were happening around them, but they did. It was, you know, incredibly It was incredibly popular.

BHM
You would think people in ordinary life in Belfast in the 1970s would have the bejesus scarred out of them every day, and yet they wanted it at night as well. And we know that the film opened at the ABC in October 19 7400s, of young people braved bullets and bombs to queue up for this film, and they also stood up against a kind of moral panic about this film itself.

Dr Sam
Yeah, absolutely, there was a lot of opposition from from different church organizations in in Belfast, including Elim Pentecostal church, who put an advert in one of the local papers which said, help if you have seen this film and are seriously distressed or mentally disturbed, please feel free to contact the rector of the above church and also clone monastery also reported that people have been coming forward to them with their you know, concerns about How the film had affected them. Religiously speaking, yes, this, this kind of moral panic is happening at the same time. So there were, there were all these different forces brushing up against one another. So you have this, this particular type of cinema that's emerging in the 1970s which is appealing to young people. You have the troubles. Then you also have this religious conservatism, yes, that all these different kind of things coming into the into play.

BHM
Now, bizarrely, Sam, just when you thought 1974 couldn't get any worse or more horrific, a Christmas show on the stage of the ABC causes even greater horror. How is that possible?

Dr Sam
So this is a an immersive experience based on a popular children's franchise. No, this is not the Wonka experience in Glasgow. This is the Wombles on stage at the Ritz Belfast.

BHM
Oh, my goodness. So this was a Christmas show 1974 it was supposed to bring seasonal joy to kids and families. And so what went wrong?

Dr Sam
The idea was that the Wombles would appear on stage. They would sing songs, they would provide entertainment. And this is a time that they were really big. They just appeared on Top of the Pops, they were like the big children's entertainment of the of the moment, but they turn out to be a big, big disappointment. There were lots of complaints that the Wombles they looked shoddy. Firstly, secondly, the audio wasn't working as it should be. Sounds like this podcast to the extent that people went onto the stage and demanded their money back. A BBC reporter even went at the time they interviewed a woman who said they couldn't sing, they couldn't dance, they couldn't act. They're the leanest, most inaudible Wombles I've ever seen.

BHM
Oh, my goodness. So the Wombles of Wimbledon common were famous for collecting rubbish, and their show was complete and utter rubbish. And Sam What a tragedy for kids in Belfast in 1974 with all of the troubles unfolding. And you know those big stage shows that we talked about in the last episode, the pop acts who played the music, the concerts, all of that is fading away as the violence continues. And here we have the Wombles on stage bringing joy. They don't.

Dr Sam
The promoters, at least did offer people a refund, but they couldn't even get that right, because people turned up on Saturday and they said the banks weren't open, so they weren't able to give them their money. So they then had to return. They had to return on Monday to get their get their refund.

BHM
It would have been ironic that it wouldn't be bombs or bullets that would burn the Ritz down, but angry parents demanding a refund from the Wombles. If the Wonder cinema had been vanquished by the Wombles. But what the cinema needed at this moment in time, Sam and certainly, what ABC Belfast needed was a blockbuster, a sure firehead That would have them queuing around the blocks once again, and along was to come a film that would redefine summer, the. Certainly wasn't a summer when it came out, but it would redefine summer. What was that film?

Dr Sam
That film was Jaws, Brian. So this had come out in summer 1975 in the US, and this would have been widely reported on in Belfast, and people would have heard about this film, and it came to most parts of the UK and also in Dublin and Christmas 1975 now, the Ritz could have played it alongside those other venues, but apparently they chose not to, to focus their efforts on Barry Lyndon...

BHM
...yes, Barry Lyndon, Stanley Kubrick, epic that was filmed in Ireland, set in Ireland with Ryan O'Neal. Good, good choice. ABC.

Dr Sam
Well, maybe not commercially, because Jaws, when it eventually did come in april 1976 was a huge success. There was a picture in the local press of a queue snaking around the building. And I think if you'd have shown me this picture and said, When was it taken? I'd probably have guessed the 30s or 40s, because that's where most queues around the Ritz were reported. There were comments in the press that this is the first time we've seen a queue at the cinema for many, for many years. So I think even though people had to wait longer, this sense of anticipation meant that when it did come it was as popular as it was. It played at the cinema for 10 weeks, which is remarkable in terms of the 1970s okay, it's not quite the 16 weeks we saw in the 60s with My Fair Lady, but I think it was the high watermark of that decade in terms of attendance.

BHM
High Water. Indeed, this was, of course, Steven Spielberg's shark thriller, and Steven Spielberg would play a significant role in the future of this cinema, which we will reveal. But it's funny, isn't it, because, you know Jaws. I remember as a kid, I knew everything about jaws, and was terrified to even get into the bath. Let no go swimming in the sea. But this was an extraordinary time in cinema. Sam certainly for American cinema, the new Hollywood. Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, did all of their films, or some of their films play at the ABC at this time?

Dr Sam
A lot of their films definitely would have played at the ABC in the 1970s and bringing things back a couple of of years, the godfather played at the ABC in February 1973 stayed there for four weeks. Again, there are reports of cues for this. For the first time in a in a couple of years.

BHM
There were plenty of godfathers in Belfast, so they were probably in the queue.

Dr Sam
Maybe, maybe there is one quite nice story about a bomb hoax during the screening of The Godfather when people were forced to evacuate the cinema when they were then let in. There were suggestions that some people who hadn't necessarily paid to get in the first time were joining with all the patrons when they were allowed to go back into the into the cinema. So there were some benefits of of what was happening during the troubles.

BHM
Well, my family were certainly partial to a bomb damage sale. This is where, when shops were bombed, they used to sell off the goods, but talking of people going back into films again. I mean, we spoke in previous episode about, this is where we came in, and the continuous programming. So what was the status at this stage? Sam had the continuous programming ended? Is this cinema as we know it now, with single films playing or what was happening?

Dr Sam 
Continuous programming was still happening. But for big hits like the The Godfather, they did introduce two separate performances in response to that popularity, so they shifted to two screenings, one at two and one at seven, so get everyone into the building, come out again, and get a new set of people in. And this is supposed to maximize revenue. And they also did this again for JAWS. And what they did towards the end of the run was to have a mix of the two, where they had continuous programming in the day, but then a separate performance in the evening.

BHM
Just one other thing on jaws. You'll remember, back in episode one, you told us that the Ritz cinema had a fish tank in the foyer. Was it still there, and was there a shark in it for when Jaws played?

Dr Sam
The honest answer is, I don't know what happened to the fish tank. So if anyone, yeah, anyone who went in the 70s, let us know if there was still a fish tank there. I would be surprised, given everything we've discussed about modernization in the in the 60s. I think that will come. Anything would have fallen out of fashion. 

BHM
Jaws sweets. What could Jaws sweets have been? I know jawbreakers, no. But here's the thing is, can you imagine Jaws T shirts? I mean, how cool would that have been?

Dr Sam
Yeah, I don't know if they were personalized to the the ABC. You know, I saw jaws in Belfast.

BHM
It's one of the things that I personally love about cinema is any kind of merch. I mean, obviously posters, lobby cards, and if we could travel back in time, Sam, that's the thing that we would go for immediately.

Dr Sam
Yeah, let us know if you bought a Jaws t shirt in 1976 at the ABC.

BHM
Now. Dr, Sam, we are always drawn to any time the Wonder cinema is captured on film. You know, we saw it with the midnight matinee of 1948 or the Rolling Stones in 1965 and in 1975 October, 1975 the big Yin Billy Connolly is captured on stage at the ABC in Belfast. Tell us about this film Sam and what does it tell us about the cinema at the time?

Dr Sam
So the film, Big Banana Feet is a record of Billy Connolly's time in Ireland. So he goes to Dublin first, and then comes up to Belfast to play at the Ritz. It's very much in the style of the Bob Dylan film. Don't look back. It's kind of a candid look at his yeah time performing those shows. So it's not just footage of the performance. It shows what he's doing backstage, what he's doing in between those shows how he travels, you know, what's happening. You know, shows you backstage at the Ritz as well. So it's kind of a candid look at that tour in 1975.

BHM
So Billy Connolly, at the time, was a kind of folk singer, stand up comedian. He'd been on Parkinson, and this was really the beginning of his career, and he was now becoming a bit of a superstar. You can tell something weird has just happened, because unlike the Rolling Stones, he does not get to train to Belfast, he flies now. I've never heard of anybody flying in a plane from Dublin to Belfast, but that's exactly what Billy Connolly does. Now, of course, this was strange times. The idea of taking a car across the border or a train across the border not necessarily safe at this moment, so I think that's why Billy took to the air. And you know, Sam, it's so strange, isn't it, because the contrast to 10 years earlier could not be any different.

Dr Sam
Yeah, think the days of making a grand entrance have gone. We've seen before The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Cary Grant coming through the front door of the Ritz with this big press entourage that's no longer appropriate for the 1970s.

BHM
So where did Billy Connolly enter the wander cinema? Dr Sam we are exterior ABC cinema as it was, and we're on the trail of the big yen. Why are we standing on this side of the building? 

Dr Sam
We're standing at the other side where the stage entrance was. So this is where performers would enter the building. We know that previously, some of the more famous people entered through the front, probably for publicity reasons, but by this time, and we know from the film big banana feed that Billy Connolly came into this entrance because we can see him, and I'm sure there are security and troubles related reasons for that choice.

BHM
Now, what's quite extraordinary about Billy Connolly's entrance through this stage door is he goes into what seems like some kind of Alice in Wonderland backstage. You mean, what's your sense of it?

Dr Sam
It's difficult to get a sense of where the dressing rooms were. I think from seeing that film, if any of you have seen Spinal Tap, but I think you know the joke of them kind of walking through the building, and it's very reminiscent of that, and he seems to walk through several staircases. So I think there was a bit of. Got kind of a labyrinthine sense to the the building backstage.

BHM
Billy Connolly was here in 1975 he returned in 1977 we can't go in the stage door today. Unfortunately, I would love to see backstage at the ABC Ritz, but I suppose Billy Connolly's film is the best we're going to get. And how important is it to have a record like that?

Dr Sam
I think it's incredible. I mean, it obviously wasn't made for that purpose, but it's actually one of the only kind of extended pieces of footage we have of the interior of the cinema during during that time.

BHM
Yeah. So okay, well, we can't follow Billy Connolly, but we'll, we'll, we'll go this way. And Billy Connolly walks upstairs, downstairs, the long corridors upstairs, downstairs, but he does walk onto the stage and we can recognize it, you know, we recognize, you know, that setup, the very same setup that the Rolling Stones had played. So that's kind of amazing to see that that's all still there and intact in 1975 he does have a problem with tea. There are tea ladies in the building. I mean, that's one thing to mention. I mean, behind the scenes of all of these big entertainment venues, there are so many other people, front of house, back of house, and here we see the tea ladies at the ABC. And Billy Conley makes a lot of jokes about how the teapot doesn't work and it kind of dribbles tea out. 

Dr Sam
You know I think he's part of the reason he's making these jokes is, well, he's obviously a comedian, but I think it's nerves you can I think you can feel his nervousness watching the the film, like he is worried about coming to Belfast. I know I've read interviews subsequently, where he said that he did feel, you know, very scared about coming at this this time, and was worried about what, what might happen. But even if I didn't know that, I think you can sense that from the from the film, that he feels not, yeah, not 100% confident, because he is someone who always feels like so extrovert, extroverted and confident. But it's a slightly different attitude here.

BHM
And he comes out on stage and says, it's great to be in Belfast. Me, makes a joke right away in his big banana feed. But what you do really get a sense of is the entertainment starved audience. I mean fur play to Billy Connolly. I mean the situation has turned so dark so quickly that any kind of appearance like this, certainly by comedian who brings laughter would have been so necessary at this time, you know. And that's what I think the film really captures.

Dr Sam
Yeah, and he also plays twice on that night so well, in a similar fashion to the Beatles and The and the stones. But you know, it shows you how popular he, he was. The tickets were selling faster than for the Bay City Rollers who played later that that year. Yes, so it definitely shows that desire for escapism during these times.

BHM
So things are looking up at this point. Sam, okay, we've had the dark days of the early 1970s but hey, you know there are blockbuster films jaws. We're into 1977 there's a film called Star Wars that has broke all box office records in the USA, you know, and performers are coming back to the cinema. Chuck Berry plays the ABC in 1977 but then sadly, Sam in September 1977 the cinema is firebombed. Tell us what, what happened Sam to our great wonder cinema.

Dr Sam
So in September 1977 the IRA planted firebombs in three cinemas. Firstly, the Curzon, which is more of a suburban cinema on the ormo road in the new Vic, which is right next door to the ABC, as we've discussed, but also as you've said, in the ABC itself. Unfortunately, the ABC suffered the worst damage the Curzon and the new Vic opened very soon after being bombed. There was some damage to the balcony of the new Vic. But that was very quickly sorted. The Curzon famously was able to show Star Wars because of the damage to the the ABC, and it was a massive success there. So I suppose the ABCs loss was, was the Curzons gain in one way.

BHM
It's heartbreaking to read about this. The incendiary device was thought to be no bigger than a cigarette packet, so no security checks would have found this. The fires broke out in the early hours of the morning. 150 firefighters are battling this, and yet Sam when you see photos or the news. Footage for the time, the building looks intact, but inside, it's a very different story.

Dr Sam
Yeah, the only sign from the footage that something has happened is that there is smoke rising out of the top, because the roof has basically collapsed. In this pictures where you can see bits of the roof in between the seating, which is obviously charred. You know, the balcony looks completely ruined. There's no way that they could reopen without substantial renovation of this of this cinema, which I think just it's unlucky that it caused the damage it did compared to the Curzon and the new Vic, which got off relatively lightly. And it's particularly heartbreaking when we look back at the brochure which we talked about back in the first episode, which talked about all the different aspects of the cinema, the lighting, the screen, the sound, but it also had a section called safety first. And in this it said the public have read a great deal lately about the question of safety first in the cinema. This building being constructed, practically throughout steel and concrete is almost fireproof. What? And it's that kind of emphasis on almost which makes it even more tragic, which, when the fire happened, the building didn't turn out to be fireproof.

BHM
No, it's, it's kind of like, it's kind of like the unsinkable ship is almost fireproof. You know, the sadness is the cinema had just perhaps turned a corner at this moment in time. And I was really taken by this Jim Aiken, the concert promoter who had brought many acts to Belfast, even during the dark days. Was asked, you know, was he lining anybody else up? Was it the possibility of other concerts at the ABC? And he said, Three glorious words Sinatra is considering. Can you imagine if the Wonder cinema had survived. We're talking Star Wars and Sinatra in 1978 Sam how incredible would that have been?

Dr Sam
It's a big if. It's a big, big if. I mean also in terms of cinema, the film that was playing when it was bombed was A Star Is Born, and the film that was playing at the new Vic was The Spy Who Loved Me. And there were reports at this time saying it's just a coincidence that these two big films have come out at the at the same time. So that speaks to what we're saying before, like things in one way, were looking up. Yeah, and you had these two huge films playing at the time that the the bombs planted.

BHM
A Star is Born Sam but cinema is dead. And when you look at Belfast at this period in time, I mean, we know that cinema is declining across the UK and Ireland, but Belfast is down to five cinema screens now we talked about 1946 being the peak of cinema going. So in 1946 how many cinema would have been in Belfast.

Dr Sam
Forty to fifty...

BHM
... so, you're talking about 40 to 50 cinema screens, each with several 100, if not 1000 seats. And yet, in 1977 we were down to five screens. I mean, cinema almost disappeared at this point. That's how close it came. It was nearly bombed out of existence. I mean, how do you look back upon that moment Sam?

Dr Sam
Now, it's definitely a low ebb in terms of Belfast cinema. And I think anyone looking at that time would have felt pessimistic, not only because the tenancies were declining, but because these bombs had been planted. Although no one was in the cinemas at the time, no one was was injured, it must have really shaken people's confidence in going to the the cinema, you know, these were no longer safe spaces. You know, we've talked before about cinemas being a safe haven for people to come away from their their own homes, and that idea that they can come away and escape from themselves has just been completely undermined by by this bomb. And the fact that these these cinemas have been damaged, or, in the case of the ABC, almost completely destroyed, at least internally.

BHM
The Wonder cinema has been destroyed. It has been reduced to a charred shell open to the sky. Surely this is all over. Sam episode five. This is the end. Can there really be an episode six?

Dr Sam
Good news, Brian, there can be in episode six.

BHM
Okay, so the Ritz is gone, the ABC is destroyed, but the Wonder cinema will return, but not as we know it. And for how long the. Hey, thanks for listening. You have been a great audience.

Dr Sam
If you've enjoyed your visit to the Wonder cinema, let us know.

BHM
Our theme music is composed by the wonderful people at scored draw music.

Dr Sam
Check out the links below and visit our website where you can see pictures and leave your thoughts and comments.

BHM
So until the next screening, 

BOTH
the Wonder Cinema is closed.