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Good picture. Yes, the door with 'Theatre' over it is the one I mentioned in #50. I've scanned this plan of the ground floors of the two theatres (the bold lines showing the Theatre Royal). It sh

Love B&B pudding. My inlaws were amazed when I said not to throw the bread away. Its become a " can't remember how you make that B&B pudding" its never been forgotten. When we were at the rest

  • 1 month later...

I remember seeing Laurel & Hardy at the Empire who were about the most famous stars I saw there. Also remember Lucan and McShane ( Old Mother Riley and her Daughter Kitty), The Ice shows were quite good too Barrel Jumping and badminton on ice etc.

also the circuses that seemed to pay an annual visit. Other names recalled are, Kalanag a magician, Cavan O'Conner, Joseph Locke, Phylis Dixey and Jane of the Daily Mirror who were strip shows, Wilson Keppel and Betty, Ronnie Ronalde, Vic Oliver, The Billy Cotton Band show, Troise and his Mandoliers, Eric Delaney, Two Ton Tessie O'Shea and many others whose names at the moment escape me. We too also used to patronise the Gods, the cheapest seats. Used to go into the Empire Cafe Forman St. and The Robin Hood Milk Bar Sherwood St. have I got the right name? the one that used to have many photographs of of the acts that appeared at The Royal and The Empire.

Dennis

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The Moss Empire, remember it well, saw a panto in the early 60s starring Eve Boswell and Mark Winter , went to the Concert Hall in the 80s to see Motorhead

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my first experiences of theater were at the empire my great uncle jack henshaw was the trombone player in the orchestra for many years and used to get us tickets for shows i think i saw my first panto there and still love panto and live theater and music now in my sixties i have been to five this year and hate the end of panto season. i know my older brother and sisters went to see the rock and roll artists and tommy steel at the empire i was a bit too young mores the pity. but i remember tommy steel being in panto i think that was theater royal buttons in cinderella/

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Izzy Bon, Nat Jackley, Jewel and Warris, Gladys Morgan, Norman Evans, (Panto) Julie Andrews (Panto 'Red Riding Hood') and later Tony Hancock, Alistair Sim (Peter Pan). Irreplaceable and sadly missed!

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Yep Stu, the Barrel Jumping and Badminton on Ice were quite entertaining. I think many of the performers of the Ice shows were Canadian. I used to go ice skating at the old Nottingham ice stadium in the fifties, but I'd learnt to skate at the Richmond Sportsdrome where the atmosphere was terrific, they had a five piece band playing music to skate to and a nice cafe and bar, when I started going to Nottingham ice stadium it was no way as good as Richmond Sportsdrome, an organist supplied the music and the stadium seemed very different to that at Richmond. I did use to enjoy the wrestling at Nottingham ice stadium though, saw a lot of the topliners there Giant Haystacks, Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki,Jacky Pallo among others.

Dennis

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I had never heard of badminton ice though, Dennis! Did they wear skates?

Went to the Richmond Ice Rink once back in the eighties to watch the Panthers play the Richmond Flyers. A proper good old-fashioned rink at that time.

When the original Nottingham rink was built it was based on the blueprint of the old Haringey stadium in London I believe. That stadium itself was based on the great old Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Funnily, when I got to visit the Toronto stadium it reminded me in a lot of ways of a much larger version of the Nottingham stadium. Anyway, I digress, interesting stuff though.

Back on topic, one of the stories from the Empire I heard was of performers descending into underground tunnels in the Empire and the Theatre Royal and coming up on the wrong stage - something like that anyway!

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i know there were tunnells from the empire to the theater royal my uncle who was in the orchestra at empire often told us stories of if the trombonist at the royal was ill or did not turn up he had to run through these tunnels to the orchestra pit between acts to cover both theatres sometimes

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My paternal gramdma was an usherette at the Empire. When it closed, she moved to the Theatre Royal and was working well past her retirement age. She must have been one of the oldest usherettes going!

She was at the Royal when they staged "Hair" with the "notorious" nude scene. Some of the cast members would often bring her a few flowers and she always said they they were all "very nice young people"!

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i know there were tunnells from the empire to the theater royal my uncle who was in the orchestra at empire often told us stories of if the trombonist at the royal was ill or did not turn up he had to run through these tunnels to the orchestra pit between acts to cover both theatres sometimes

...and don`t forget the actors who ended up performing on the wrong stage!

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:biggrin: Saw Lonnie Donegan, together with his wife Jill Westlake in the pantomime 'Cinderella' late fifties at the Empire.

Remember sitting right up at the top in the Gods - and on the back row! The theatre was packed.

Lonnie was riding high at the time - Hit Parade - with his song: 'My Old Man's A Dustman'. The Audience cheered like mad when he sang the song, really brought the house down - well, that was what we were all waiting for.......................... :biggrin:

PS: Brilliant, Colourful Memory...............

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  • 2 years later...

I remember going to the Empire with 2/6d. We paid 6d to get into thee gods then after the show we walked home to Beeston eating fish and chips on the way. Three of the acts I remember were Tommy Steele, Jimmy Young And Carol Levis discoveries. Someone in the audience threw a red rose to Jimmy

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#25 Thanks for the two great photos Cliff Ton. I remember going with a friend and her parents to see a Gilbert and Sullivan production at the Empire. We had to queue for the "gods" by the door at the left hand end and the go up and up to sit on those hard wooden seats. It was good fun. The modern photo puts it in perspective. On the right where the glass building with the round front is was where the old Evening Post office was. My dad worked there. In the background I have spotted the Trent University building where the webcam for the falcons is. It all makes sense now! In the old photo I cannot see the University building. Is it hidden by the buildings or was it built later?

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It was demolished in the early 70's levelled and became a temporary car park.. you could cut through to Watmoughs from opposite the Robin Hood Milk Bar and E.post street. I do recall seeing Sleuth at The Theatre Royal and a scene involved a window..a promo shot in the Post with Richard Johnson shows a rear window to the theatre with no Empire in the background.

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In the old photo I cannot see the University building. Is it hidden by the buildings or was it built later?

You had me wondering there. The Empire was demolished in the late 60s, and according to the University's own website, the Newton building was constructed in 1950. So it was there at the time of this photo, but it's out of shot behind the tall part of the Empire building.

empire-1.jpg

And if you hadn't seen it before, take a look at this thread http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14599

In the centre right, is the open space where the Newton Building would appear a few years later (and the Evening Post building is very clear.)

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Just to put in a few dates:

The Empire closed in June 1958. It was demolished in 1969.

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/37632

I hate to question people's memories, but reading back through this thread I do wonder if some people are actually remembering shows and acts seen at the Theatre Royal. Someone mentioned Lulu, but she would have been only about 9 or 10 years old when the Empire closed.

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Whoever said that the Newton building was constructed in 1950 is wrong. More like the mid-to-late1950s. In the photo above the ground has not yet been cleared for the polytechnic's construction.

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By the way - in the photo at #44, the doorway furthest left with 'Theatre' above it was part of the Theatre Royal. In fact it was the entrance to the gallery ('gods'), an entrance which was still in use, set further back, in the interim between the Empire being demolished and the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal in the late 1970s.

There was a pay box just inside the entrance, and you paid as you went in, followed by a mad dash up the stone steps to try and get a front seat in the gallery - no reserved seats on those benches!

There's a good photo and some interesting details here:

http://www.nottinghampost.com/Imposing-stately-pleasure-drome-styled-like/story-19582110-detail/story.html

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remember being able to see the top of the Newton building from our classroom at Padstow school on Bestwood estate about 1956,and did you know that the old Padstow school was the highest point travelling in a straight line Eastwards until you come to the Ural Mountains............

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#50 Thanks Merthyr. We went in through the door you indicated and paid as we entered so we were going into the Theatre Royal. Also the links you include are very interesting and from what they describe the shows at the Empire in its latter days were not suitable for children!

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I remember being taken to see a pantomime by an uncle and aunt in the late 1950s. We sat in the gods, I remember how high up it was I don't know which panto but I remember there was a large table that changed in a flash from bare boards to a banquet set up, so it might have been Cinderella.

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