When the Lights Go Down

Much has been recorded over the years about cinema and its golden years, but what of the temples in which this entertainment phenomenon took place – the cinemas. How did they emerge and why? This book attempts to illustrate this, taking an average manufacturing town and describing the rise – and fall – of its cinemas over the period of one hundred years. Beginning with the first ‘living pictures’ brought to the public of Kettering, When The Lights Go Down describes the entrepreneurs, showmen, and operators of the town’s five cinemas and other buildings where films were exhibited. How the cinemas coped with the developments in cinema and how they changed, the periods of war, how the talkies came and the cinemas grasped it – and those who held out. The myths and legends that surround the cinemas are clearly described with many contributions from those who experienced working in and going to the cinema through the years. Did Chaplin really visit the town? An attempted murder in the dressing room? Indian Chief holds pow-wow. These are just some of the anecdotes found in this entertaining story. The author, born in Kettering and growing up in the town, has vivid memories of the cinemas he loved and describes their particular character and the people who managed them. Although this is a story about cinemas in a particular Midlands town, it is one that can be replicated for almost every settlement in the country where cinemas were established, from the supers down to the little independents. For those readers who love a bit of nostalgic history of cinema, spiked with a slice of social and entrepreneurial narrative, this story will evoke memories of the cinemas that were part of their lives – and maybe still are .