| Description | Includes administrative records [1911]-1980s, financial records 1944-1957, Ernest Symmons' film productions records 1921-1946, publicity records and programmes 1913-1991, photographs and scrapbooks [1886]-1980s, Playhouse Film Society records 1972-1985, articles relating to the Picture Playhouse 1910-1998, and other cinema records [1897]-1980s.
Previous Beverley Local Studies references Y/791.43/BEV and Y/796.43/BEV |
| AdminHistory | On 20 Feb 1911 Ernest Symmons and Leslie Holderness exhibited the first moving pictures at the Corn Exchange, later re-named 'The Picture Playhouse'. As well as being the founder and proprietor of the Playhouse Ernest Symmons was well known for his film making, and for a long time his 'Playhouse News' was the only locally made newsreel in the country produced on a regular basis. He died in 1957. During the Second World War the Playhouse was also used as a church. In 1962 the Playhouse Bingo Club was formed and in Sep 1963 the 'Beverley Guardian' carried the headline 'It will be Bingo only at the Playhouse'. From 1972 the Playhouse was the venue for the Beverley Film Society. In 1973 the Playhouse was threatened with re-development but reprieved. In 1982 the Picture Playhouse under new ownership began to show films to the paying public. However the Playhouse, which had also become a performance venue, was forced to close in 2003. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council exchanged contracts for a 125 year lease with a local business man in 2004 and eventually a local department store, Browns of York, took over the premises.
Information taken from the book 'The Home of Beautiful Pictures' by Peter H Robinson, published 1985. |
| CustodialHistory | These records were originally part of the Beverley Local Studies Library collection |