An amateur film produced by Geoff Stafford about the last day of the Royalty Cinema on Gosforth High Street taking place on the night of Friday 30th December 1981. The film looks at the cinema's history and talks to staff about their experiences. The end of the film includes some 8mm footage showing vandalism inside the building following its closure and its final demolition in 1984. In her office the manageress of the Royalty Cinema Henrietta Eastlake states that she is hoping for...

An amateur film produced by Geoff Stafford about the last day of the Royalty Cinema on Gosforth High Street taking place on the night of Friday 30th December 1981. The film looks at the cinema's history and talks to staff about their experiences. The end of the film includes some 8mm footage showing vandalism inside the building following its closure and its final demolition in 1984. In her office the manageress of the Royalty Cinema Henrietta Eastlake states that she is hoping for miracle and the cinema can be saved, if not it would be a great loss to Gosforth and surrounding area. Title: Last Reel at the Royalty On the evening of the 30th December 1981 traffic moves along Gosforth High Street, in the distance the white domed building of the Royalty Cinema. A door at the cinema opens and a member of staff comes in. Around the cinema members of staff go about their business setting up for tonight’s performance, the cinema’s last. In the Projection Room Projectionist John Tessa sets up the first reel on the projector for tonight’s first feature. Outside the neon lights of the cinema are turned on lighting up the evening sky. Mabel Chappellhowe opens the front doors and patrons come inside to purchase their tickets. While Mabel sits in the Cashiers booth selling tickets, a colleague tearing them in two as the customers make their way into the auditorium. A long line of people extends outside, the usher explains it is the last night the cinema will be open. The Royalty during the day with traffic still moving along Gosforth High Street. An advertising billboard provides details of the double feature that has been playing for the last three days of the cinema: Disney’s ‘The Longest Journey’ and ‘Dumbo’. Exterior views of the cinema changing to that of what was once the ‘Globe Cinema’ on Salters Road in Gosforth, now a bingo hall. Inside the main auditorium of the Royalty the ornate white and blue plasterwork. The manageress Mrs Eastlake greets patrons as they come in to take their seats. At the front of the auditorium the stage with long red curtains covering the screen behind it. In her office Henrietta Eastlake speaks with Maxine Rudd with regards the reasons behind the cinema’s closure. She explains that she was trying to get a full live performance licence so the cinema could keep going, but it was turned down due to local residences objections. Mrs Eastlake talks about her staff beginning with Mabel Chappellhowe who is seen on the telephone and John Tessa who checks over the projector in the Projection Room, other members of staff follow including usherettes, an assistant projectionist and the cleaners. Mabel Chappellhowe takes filmmaker Geoff Stafford on a tour of the now closes upper stalls. Standing in the upper foyer Mabel remembers what the place looked like in its heyday. Back downstairs they both come into the auditorium and take a seat in the stalls. Mabel talks about children’s matinees and tells a funny story about throwing peas down on people walking along Gosforth High Street from a balcony on the roof. In the Cashiers booth Mabel puts back into its envelope a letter from the Royalty’s owners regarding her redundancy, at the nearby concessions stand a customer buys a hotdog. As another member of staff begins to clear out a cupboard, upstairs Projectionist John Tessa watches over a 35mm print running through the projector before rewinding another reel on a winding-bench. He reflects on his 52 years working at the Royalty and the importance of cinema as he sets up another reel. He, like the rest of the staff, are sad to see the cinema closing. As he talks about his time at the cinema, he reflect's how his job as a Projectionist is the last link in the chain of a film being made, he holds up a section of the 35mm print to the camera. Back downstairs in the foyer an usher fills a small freezer with ice lollies, she remembers a screening of the disaster film ‘Earthquake’ that just at the moment when buildings were collapsing in the film part of the foyer ceiling also collapsed. A couple head upstairs changes to Mabel Chappellhowe in the Cash booth telling a funny story about decimalisation and about the old telephone system for the cinema before the new headsets set up on the table in front of her were installed. Two usherettes wearing vending hawker trays count their change before heading upstairs to sell their various Lyons Maid ice creams and ices. Back in an office a metal plate for a ticketing machine is uncovered. In her Cashiers booth Mabel Chappellhowe explaining how the ticketing machine works. A man comes downstairs and heads over to a concession stand, in her office Henrietta Eastlake is asked about her time being a manageress for the past three-and-a-half years. As she continues to speak about her close relationship with her staff, she is seen speaking with one of her usherettes in the main foyer. Back in the Cashiers booth Mabel Chappellhowe counts the nights ticket sales, around the cinema members of staff prepare to close for the last time cleaning and packing away their respective areas. As John Tessa puts away the film reels, he explains that it is the lack of comedy that is killing cinema. Back in her office Henrietta Eastlake believes that cinema won’t go out of fashion, she says there is no comparison to seeing a film in the big screen to a television screen. John Tessa talks about the quality of the Royalty’s Cinemascope screen and the loss of what he called the ‘super cinema’. As he speaks he is seen collecting a reel of film and leaving the projection room for the last time. As the evenings screening come to an end people begin to leave, as they do so usherettes give out free sweets to the children. Several patrons are asked about the cinema’s closure, all are disappointed and saddened. One older man explains that it is only 50p for pensioners to see a film, going into town is too expensive. Back in her office Henrietta Eastlake is asked why she is so attached to the Royalty, it’s the friendliness of both the patron and staff she explains. Other members of staff are asked why they like working at the Royalty, all give similar remarks. The exterior of the Royalty at night with its neon lights lit up changes to the building in the day and views inside the cinema a few months after its closure having been badly vandalised. The film changes again to show the cinema in May 1984 following a major fire and demolition work underway. Signs out the font warn pedestrians of the work taking place, on the roof workmen dismantling the building. Inside seats have been removed or destroyed in the auditorium, one of the projectors stand broken in the Projection Room. Filmed over several days or week the Royalty slowly being demolished leaving just part of a front wall and part of the steel frame. The film ends on a photograph of Henrietta Eastlake and her staff outside the Royality. Credit: Interviews Geoff Stafford, Maxine Rudd A film by Geoff Stafford End title © R.G. Stafford 1985