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The Peoples Theatre, Staniforth Rd.


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Guest tsavo

The People's Theatre, Staniforth Rd. -

This industrial building was converted to a theatre and opened on Boxing Day, 1896. Within a year it would be renamed The Theatre Royal, Attercliffe, staging dramas, pantomime, comedy and even vaudeville until May 1899. In this year a major reconstruction of the auditorium closed it for six months. The balcony, stalls, pit and stage were all extended. Seating at this time was increased from 750 to 1,100. Although operating as a theatre, throughout the summer of 1906, films only were presented frequently with the addition of a singer appearing on stage. From 1909 onward, a variety act or comic replaced the singer.

For three months, in 1913 it was one of the few cinemas in Sheffield to screen Kinemacolor, and early type of colour process.**

During the years of WW1 the Royal continued to book variety artists at a time when most cinemas had dropped them. By 1919, live performers were only occasionally presented. Sound came to the Royal in 1927 when musical shorts were introduced to support the main silent feature. This was repeated at Christmas of the same year.

Full sound finally came in 1929 when the theatre screened the full length feature "Movietown Follies." It was only the fourth Sheffield hall to change over to sound, and the first in Attercliffe. The Royal continued for another four years and finally closed in June of 1933.

Info: Sheffield Cinemas / Tsavo

** Kinecolor was a process that involved two coloured filters using black and white film and a special sync'd two colour filter on the projector.

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History will never make things better, but one day may stop someone making things worse.

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