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.
The Wonder Cinema
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 the plush foyer and grand auditorium?
While the Ritz offered entertainment and escapism and screened many of the era’s most iconic films, a trip to the ‘Wonder Cinema’ also provided the opportunity to see stage shows and performances at its mighty Compton organ. Food was a key part of the cinema experience and patrons could also enjoy coffee or a meal at the cinema cafe, which stayed open until midnight. And we also discuss how the onset of the Second World War brought both challenges and opportunities for cinema exhibitors.
Links:
Cinema Treasures - various pictures including the opening programme
NMNI - Ritz exterior (1936)
NMNI - Ritz interior (1936)
NMNI - Ritz projection room (1936)
Written and presented by Dr Sam Manning and Brian Henry Martin
Music by Score Draw Music
https://thewondercinema.buzzsprout.com
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: If you're blue and don't know where to go to why don't you go where fashion sits the Belfast Ritz. Welcome to episode two. It's showtime, folks. But can we afford to go to the Ritz? I mean, there's a major worldwide recession the 1930s Sam. Give us a sense of the cost of going to this wonder cinema?
Dr Sam: Sure. So the price of going to the Ritz really depended on where you want to sit. So you would pay more to go into the what was called the circle, which I think normal people would have called the balcony. I would call the balcony at least the Ritz, uh, called it the the circle. Um, so prices ranged from six pence in the stalls, for the cheapest ticket in the stalls, up to two shillings and four Pence in the circle. Okay, that means nothing to me. What does that mean? However expensive is okay, that probably doesn't mean a lot to most people. We're talking pre decimal currency here. So the most expensive ticket of the Ritz was actually three shillings and six pence, if you chose to reserve it. And in modern money, that's 18p...
BHM: ...What? I thought you were gonna say? 18 pounds? 18p
Dr Sam: Yep, that's right. So obviously we're not adjusting for inflation here. This is just talking in kind of modern post decimal currency. So the most expensive ticket at the strand at that time was one shilling in six months, which equates to 8p and the most expensive ticket at the diamond, which was kind of a down at Hill working class cinema on the Falls Road, was eight pence, which equates to 3p in today's money. So what you basically need to know is that the Ritz was the most expensive cinema, and it cost a lot more, or could cost a lot more if you paid for the most expensive seat to go there than to other cinemas.
BHM: The cinema opened, as we discovered, in November 1936 so tell me about the experience, though, for an ordinary patron, for the likes of you and I Sam, that if we went to the Ritz, what would we experience on visiting this mighty cinema?
Dr Sam: So if you walk in to the main entrance through a set of stairs, you will be in the main vestibule. Still struggling to use that term. This is, this is how the Ritz described it. I'm thinking why this is how the Ritz described it. So your ordinary person coming off the street might not have said we're going into the vestibule.
BHM: They definitely wouldn't have.
Dr Sam: Okay, they're in the vestibule. Foyer, whatever you want to call it. You have chandeliers above you, thick pile carpet. On the right are the pay boxes. You can buy your ticket. If you bought a stalls ticket, you can go straight to on ground level. If you're in the circle the balcony, you would walk straight in front of you. There's a big grand staircase. You go up that staircase, you turn around on yourself. In front of you is the Ritz cafe. If you don't want to go to the cafe, you just go through the doors into the balcony seats.
BHM: Okay, but as we know from the cost of the seats, to go up to be elevated in any shape or form in the cinema costs more money, you know. So the wealthier you were, the higher in the cinema you could go. But Sam in terms of entertainment for the ordinary person, I mean, the Ritz turned us up to 11, quite literally. I mean, live entertainment, strangely, was such a key part of the cinema experience. I mean, talk to us about that. Yes, so in the last episode, we talked about the opening night and how that included a range of different performers at the Ritz.
Dr Sam: It certainly wouldn't have been every week, but that's certainly something that they instilled from the beginning to kind of get people in and tries to sell them this concept of cine variety. You know, it's a real Night Out entertainment.
BHM: Now, that's a term that I'd never heard before. Cine variety now we're talking about, as well as a film, we're talking about comedians, singers, magicians, maybe even acrobats. And this was built into the foundation of the cinema. There were not only a full stage for all of these performers, but there were 14 dressing rooms built in this super cinema. I mean, to me, that's amazing.
Dr Sam: Yeah, absolutely. Like, you know, we said before, it's more akin to what you would think of as a theatre rather than what we might think of as a cinema today. The company that started the Ritz , Union, this was their whole thing cine variety. So yeah, from the very start, the Ritz was built with not just cinema in mind. It was built with various forms of entertainment.
BHM: Now, Sam, where are you on curtains? Because when I look at pictures of the Ritz cinema, I am amazed that the curtains, we're not talking about one set of curtains. We're talking about three or four luscious drapes right across the stage here, and the presentation of curtains. I mean, obviously that began from music hall, from theatre, and yet it's remained a key part of the cinema experience?
Dr Sam: Yeah, absolutely, it's all, I think part of the showmanship, it's sort of having an experience. So if you go to your local neighbourhood cinema, things might not be quite as glamorous. You will pay less, but you might just walk in basically see a film or a program of films. If you go to a Saturday night at the Ritz. You're spending more, but your expectations are also increased. You know, you want that showmanship. You want to see the big curtain reveal. You want to see the organ coming up from the floor. Talk a bit about that soon. You want this kind of interior to take you out of your own world. You want that you know con real contrast between, you know, where you live at home and where you might go out in a in an evening, it's about being transported into another world.
BHM: And in terms of curtains. I mean, I've often thought, do we need curtains and cinemas? I mean, in the 21st century, and yet, and yet, you take those curtains away, and that moment doesn't happen anymore. The magic is gone. The magic is gone. But for the ordinary patron who went to the Ritz, they had continuous performance. Now, Sam, what the hell is continuous performance? I mean, I'm here to see a film, but what does that actually mean?
Dr Sam: Okay, so like I said, if you go to the Ritz, you're not just seeing a single film. You'll see a program. So even if they didn't have live entertainment, what you could expect to see was perhaps a newsreel, a short film, an interlude with the organ and a main film. And what happens is, rather than getting everyone into the auditorium, them seeing all those things and then having to leave those things, just play on a loop throughout the day, and people can come and go as they please.
BHM: Right? So how long am I in there? What time does things start at? And so I can come in basically in the middle and stay. And when do I leave?
Dr Sam: Well, you can choose to stay as long as as you like. So one common phrase that you hear from people that went to the cinema at that time is, this is where we came in. And this refers to the fact that you might come into the cinema halfway through a film. Pick up from wherever you come in. When you get to that point in the film where you came in, you say, this is where we came in, and that's the time to leave. Okay, so you're getting four hours of entertainment here.
BHM: And to me, what makes this even more extraordinary is the number of seats. So you are amongst an audience of potentially 2000 more than 2000 so if there's a comedy, there's 2000 people laughing. If there's a tragedy, there's 2000 people crying. Just to be in amongst that size of an audience watching a film again, is really extraordinary.
Dr Sam: Yeah, absolutely. And I think the Yeah, the size of the Ritz, depending on your point of view, kind of well, if you like the collective experience, then this is definitely the place to go, because you're among 2000 people experiencing the same emotions in an. Other way though, you are divided from them, because, as I say, you pay less to go into the stalls than you do into the balcony. So I think those kind of socio economic divisions still exist. You know, it's not just between smaller neighbourhood flea pits, as you might want to call them, and the grand wonder cinemas such as the Ritz like there are actual divisions within within cinemas themselves.
BHM: But Sam, we all laugh and cry in the same way
Dr Sam: The great leveller.
BHM: Now, one of the great attractions of the Ritz, Belfast was the cinema organ. Adverts for the cinema would say, Joseph sale and his mighty organ. Sam, in the name of God. What was the attraction of the organ? I'm here to see films.
Dr Sam: Yeah, I think to Yeah, to people like us who haven't grown with that kind of entertainment. It does seem perhaps a bit unusual, but it was part of that kind of providing an evening's entertainment. And you know, an organ was a key part of that, at least in some cinemas. So there were only three cinemas in Northern Ireland that had an organ. One was the tonic in Bangor. One was the classic in Belfast, which had opened in 1923 and then when the Ritz opens, it has this brand new Compton organ. I can't really necessarily say what the appeal of west of the people going at the time, you might have to ask them, but we definitely know it was very popular. In fact, it was so popular it was broadcast many times on the BBC. They would broadcast organ recitals from the Ritz.
BHM: Now, this instrument, the Compton organ, it cost 10,000 pounds to install.
Dr Sam: I think there might be a bit of exaggeration, just to show off, you know how, how fantastic this organ was.
BHM: But when we think of this organ, I mean, it's more than just an organ. It kind of replaces an entire orchestra in the space. You know, there's like 1000 pipes housed in two chambers underneath the stage, and the way that the organ would rise in a blaze of light and sound. And it was such a spectacle. It's like a cinematic synthesizer in some way. I mean, it's really hard to explain what it was. It's all instruments at the same time.
Dr Sam: I think when people are imagining the organ in the head, they're just thinking of the console, which is the bit that you play, but there is a whole series of kind of pipes going on underneath the surface, which are all located in the basement of the cinema. And when they were promoting the cinema, when it opened, the rich were very keen to show off how many sounds their organ could create. It was this big new Compton organ. Compton was a brand. They built lots of organs for these new super cinemas that were were emerging, but the Ritz was very keen to show off that, like this was, you know, the organ to listen to.
BHM: And the organists, like Joseph seal were kind of superstars. I mean, they had top billing. And what I can't put my finger on or my fingers on, is there's four keyboards, and he's also playing pedals with his feet, and it's an incredible physical experience. But what I did find quite moving is when you go back and read accounts of people who went to the cinema, words of songs were projected onto the screen. So when the organ played, people sang along a sing song with 2000 people. I mean, you can see the attraction in that. I mean, that's when an audience really bonds together.
Dr Sam: Yeah, absolutely. And the song that was famous at the Ritz, which Joseph seal played was dear Ken John Peel, which is not one that I'm that familiar with, but yeh, not that John Peel, which was an old English hunting song, and I, I don't know a great deal about why that was that was picked. Maybe it was a favorite of Joseph seal, who he was English, and he'd come over to to work at the Ritz. What happened when the first open was they had a series of guest organists over a series of weeks, and then Joseph seal was appointed as the organist who would play every night.
BHM: So the cinema opens. It's the late 1930s we've got the organ, you know, we've got this beautiful cinema, and then the Second World War breaks out. Now, how does this impact the Ritz? I mean, we know in the rest of the UK, cinemas closed. In Northern Ireland, cinemas did not close. But what was the impact of the Second World War on the Ritz?
Dr Sam: Well, it was a great boon, actually, for good cinema. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you can imagine, firstly, there's a real lack of alternatives, lack of things to do. Cinema is already very popular, and it's popular partly because of escapism, and the need for escapism really increases during the during the war, it's an opportunity for people to take them out of themselves. I mean, equally, it's also an opportunity to learn more about what is going on in the war through things like newsreels and, yeah, different bits of propaganda that were presented to people. In fact, lectures were held at the Ritz to inform people about civil defense. So it had a kind of dual purpose in terms of education and entertainment.
BHM: And classic films were screened during this period, the early part of the war. So the war broke out, September 39 and then in the 40/41 /42 so The Wizard of Oz Gone With the Wind later, Casablanca, I mean The Wizard of Oz, to me, what an extraordinary film to see in 1940 at the Ritz. And it puts into perspective, there's no place like home, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I mean, that would have been a completely different watch in those circumstances. So you don't think about the Wizard of Oz as a war movie, and yet it was.
Dr Sam: Yeah, no. It's also interesting. It takes a while for these films to come to Belfast, so films that other people might have seen before the war, people in Belfast are only seeing during the war. So, for instance, Gone With the Wind only comes to Belfast in 1942 which is like two, three years before it's actually released. It's released in America. It has this big run in the West End in London, and then goes to all the biggest suburban cities. So people in Belfast have to wait, you know, years before they get to see this film. And they would have, they would have read about it, they would have anticipated and when it does come, you know, it's really, really popular. It's shown for, you know, a number of weeks. There are, you know, increased prices because it's such a special screening. Probably the bad thing for the cinema is that it's so long, you know, you can only fit two screenings. Have Gone with the wind in whereas...
BHM: Try doing your continuous programming with Gone With The Wind.
Dr Sam: Yeah, ideally you want to keep people coming and going to maximize revenue, which is a bit more difficult with such a long film. But
you can see how cinema would have represented hope, and would have you know, helped with the public morale to go and see these great films at this time.
BHM: But of course, Belfast was bombed by the Luftwaffe in April, May 1941 several cinemas were destroyed on High Street and York Street. The Ritz was not struck by bombs at this point, but it would have been affected by air raid warnings. And I read there was a bit of grumbling, because if you left a film because of an air raid warning, you didn't get your money back and you didn't get to see the end of the film either. So it wasn't perfect, but one of the most significant impacts on the whole of Belfast in Northern Ireland was the arrival of the American GIs in January 1942 and ultimately, 300,000 GIS would come through Northern Ireland, and that would have a big, significant cultural impact. What impact did it have on the Ritz?
Dr Sam: Yes. So undoubtedly, these GIs would have been going to the cinema. One of the big issues at this time was that the Ritz didn't open on a Sunday. What? No cinemas open, open in Belfast on a Sunday. And you can imagine the reasons why Belfast being a very Sabbatarian place. So cinemas in other parts of Northern Ireland did open, but that was the decision of local councils. Special permission was given for certain cinemas in Belfast to open for the forces on Sunday. But that wasn't the Ritz. They could go to the Kelvin, which was just across the road, and the Imperial, which was kind of further towards the center of town. The Ritz did ask the Council on several occasions if they could show films on Sunday for troops and for war workers. They wanted to show films as part of the Why We Fight series, but they were rejected. So unfortunately, the Ritz wasn't able to open on Sunday for those GIs to come in.
BHM: And yet, and yet, Sam one of the most successful. Films during this period at the Ritz was, this is the army, Irvin Berlin's, this is the army. Now tell us about the success of this particular film?
Dr Sam: Well, this broke the box office record at that time, which, I don't have the figures for that. But we know, because the next time it was broken, they said that the previous record was for, this is the army.
BHM: Now, what I think's interesting about that is, it's adapted from a stage musical. Uh, Ronald Reagan stars in it. It's directed by Michael Curtiz, who, of course, had done Casablanca. This was very much a GI propaganda film. I mean, it's a stage musical with GIS performing. So it feels like an American audience would have been at this film. I mean, there's no question they would have went to this film. It was very much kind of appealing to them at the time.
Dr Sam: I agree with everything you said, but I think there is a slightly more practical reason is that this was able to be shown five times a day, okay? Because it was a shorter film. So Gone With the Wind, you can only show twice a day. This you can show five times a day and get people in and out.
BHM: And of course, going back to the beginning of this episode, Irvin Berlin was the songwriter of putting on the Ritz. Okay, so this is the army is a huge hit during this period. What do we know about the the other films that would have screened at the Ritz during this golden age of Hollywood?
Dr Sam: Well, there were, you know, the normal kind of films that would be seen in other parts of the of the UK at this time, there was also the emergence of special screenings, so we're going to talk about these a little more in the next episode. But there were things called Midnight matinees.
BHM: Midnight matinees, but that's a contradiction. Sam, you can't have a midnight matinee.
Dr Sam: Well, exactly. And they didn't even really start at midnight. They normally started at about 11. But for instance, one of these was in which we serve, the great British war film. So they were not just watching American films. They were watching British films about the war as it was happening. That screening of in which we serve also had a performance by Ensor with the organization there to to entertain the troops, so that kind of stage entertainment still carried on through the through the war as well.
BHM: So Dr Sam, we have talked about the experience of attending the Ritz in this golden period and the attractions that were on offer inside the cinema and high even during the war. In a way, all of this was boosted in terms of the hope that it gave ordinary people. But what I'm interested in is, what did people eat in the cinema, and this is not just at their seat, but also in this cafe. And the thing about the cafe is, if you see exterior photographs of the Ritz giant, signs say, cafe open to the public. So it's like you can come to the cafe and not even go to the cinema. So what was the attraction of this cafe?
Dr Sam: Well, according to the opening brochure, Brian, you could have a creamed morning coffee, which is one of the many specialties they were they were serving. They say they have luncheons, teas, suppers and light refreshments served at popular prices. I'm not sure what they mean. At a popular price. I thought a popular price would be a cheap one, but they say they have four course luncheons at two shillings, and short luncheons at one and six. So that's about the same price as you'd be paying for a ticket as you would for these, these luncheons.
BHM: okay, but this is in the cafe, so you would go there and basically dine. They even had a little dance floor, so they had live music in the cafe. I mean, this is like something from a luxury liner or something, isn't it? I mean, it's, it seems, a world away from cinema today.
Dr Sam: Yeah, absolutely. It's all part of this, this experience of going to the Ritz, of spending an evening or an afternoon. They're kind of building it into that routine, going to the cafe and then going to watch a film. Yeah, it was very popular. And also you didn't even, you didn't even have to go and see a film. You could just go to the cafe if you wanted to.
BHM: Now there were two doorways from the cafe into the balcony. What are the chances of you and I pretending to go to the cafe for a cream tea and sneaking through one of the doorways into the balcony, very slim, I would say that would have been an attraction. But Sam, here's what I'm amazed about. The cafe opened until midnight.
Dr Sam: Well, when it first opened, it only opened until, I think, half 10, but in a couple of months, they said the cafe is so popular, we are going to open until midnight.
BHM: Cafes in Belfast, in my lifetime, close at four o'clock. So how this Cafe is open until midnight? I find that extraordinary.
Dr Sam: Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it? I think if you think the program is ending at about 11 o'clock, so people must be coming out of the film, and then there's a desire to go to the the cafe afterwards. And in fact, that experience is something that gets curtailed slightly by the war, because it has to close earlier. So it then closes at half nine during the war.
BHM: And remarkably, if you're in the balcony the circle, you can be served to your seat, tea, buns, I don't know what, but they brought it down on tray to your seat. I mean, that feels incredibly modern.
Dr Sam: Yeah, it does feel like we've gone full circle. So you can go to the Avenue cinema now, and they do, they do table service, and which is something that I didn't think would ever have been in part of the Belfast cinema experience. But certainly that's something the Ritz was doing well.
BHM: In terms of the ordinary punters in the stalls, what would they have been eating during the film?
Dr Sam: Well, mainly sweets, chocolate, ice cream, yeah, those kinds of things, popcorn, probably not. That came much, much later. Those are the kind of Yes, sweet treats. Obviously, the war becomes an issue then, because of rationing, and that kind of means that people are able to consume less of these kind of things that were so central to the cinema going experience at that time.
BHM: Okay? So there was a confectionary shop, a stand, and there were usherettes Who would have come round as well, and you could have bought ice creams and chocolates etc. Smoking would have been prevalent. Could we have even seen the screen with with the fumes of smoke?
Dr Sam: I'm gonna say probably not. Kind of seeing the smoke through the projector beam is something that lots of people who went to the cinema at that time talk about. I'd say most public places in the 1930s would be completely smoke filled.
BHM: Now, the end of the evening, something significant always happened in these entertainment establishments, and certainly in Northern Ireland, and this was quite a divisive moment. So what? What did happen at the end of the evening?
Dr Sam: Well, they played the national anthem at the end of the evening, God save God. God save the king. Later, God Save the Queen, which obviously in Northern Ireland becomes particularly controversial. Now in other parts of the UK, they did this, and it was disliked by many people who tried to run out before it was even played, because if it started playing, then you would have to stand up and wait until the end. But if you could get out before then, then you were kind of free, as it were. But obviously Northern Ireland, being the divided society is it takes on a new meaning. In cinemas. On places like the Falls Road, they just wouldn't play the national anthem for obvious reasons, but obviously in city centre cinemas, they would do this.
BHM: If you were that way inclined, get out of there before that begins. That's for sure. Well, Sam, here's the amazing thing, I have the phone number of the Ritz here. It's Belfast, 22484, and you can call it from 12 noon, so we're past that point. Now I'm gonna give it a little ring here and see if anyone answer. Wouldn't it be amazing if they answered the phone in some kind of all of us strangers, way that the Ritz is still open. So let me give them a call and see if there's anybody there.
The Ritz: Hello, Ritz cinema.
BHM: Oh, hi. I just wondered when I could see your mighty organ.
The Ritz: Well, it's a continuous program. So if you come at 1230.
BHM: And in the next episode Sam, we're going to go to the 1950s and the spectacle of the biggest movie star in the world on the stage of the Wonder cinema.
BHM: 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 Score Draw Music.
Dr Sam: Check out the links below and visit our website, where you can see pictures and leave your thoughts and comments.
Both: The Wonder Cinema is now closed.
