Making movies

While Hollywood has taken the plaudits with its glitz, glamour, big budgets and larger-than-life stars, many people aren't aware of the role played by East Lancashire in the world of films.

This part of the world has a rich heritage. It was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, it provided the backbone for modern football and luminaries of the stage and screen first plied there trade here.

But its contribution to the history of films seems to have been lost in the mists of time. Did you know, for instance, that Britain's first ever purpose-built Cinema was right here on our doorstep?

Many claims have been made to this prestigious title but Joshua Duckworth's Central Hall in Colne was the first dedicated picture palace in the UK, opening its doors in 1907. The cinema lasted until 1922 when the building became a spiritualist church, before later being taken over by various firms.

In Blackburn there was a cartoon studio, opened by John Jenkinson in 1924, just a year after Walt Disney began his trade. There is also evidence that the world's first scripted film was made in Blackburn by pioneers Mitchell and Kenyon in 1900, showing Percy Honri's music hall turn O! Mister Moon.

And what about the cinema that boasted "the cleanest show on earth" at the Civic Hall, Clitheroe. It was run by the charming Cullen sisters, who loathed sex and violence.

In Burnley, now without a cinema, the first film showing was in September 1896, just months after the world's first display.

Perhaps it's not surprising the region had so much an impact on the industry. East Lancashire had a thriving population of cinema-goers. In the 1920s there were about 50,000 cinema seats. This year marks the 100th anniversary of film and the occasion is being celebrated nationally and internationally under the banner "100 Years Of Cinema."

Over the coming months, The Lancashire Evening Telegraph will look at the way cinema developed in East Lancashire.

Events in the region are being planned to coincide with the centenary of the moving image and, in conjunction with the town's Celebration '96, Blackburn is hosting dozens of cinema-related events. Organising "100 Years of Cinema: The Blackburn Event" is film enthusiast and historian Peter Worden. "We have two main reasons for staging The Event," he said.

"Firstly, we want to join the festivities of the anniversary of the Lumiere brothers' first moving images.

"More importantly, we want to show the impact this region had on the movie-making industry.

"Mitchell and Kenyon and Pennine Films were both very influential in the early days. In recent years we have uncovered dozens of outstanding films which provide a unique record of life in the area."

Many of these pieces of history will be screened, along with lectures and exhibitions.

The season opens on Saturday with an exhibition at Blackburn Museum on the many local cinemas and film-makers.

There will be exhibits from the Projected Picture Trust and a presentation of early local films.

Updates on the Event will be given in our weekly round-up of Celebration '96 events each Friday.

If you have any memories or photographs of the early days at the movies, write to Movies Memories, Editorial Department, Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Newspaper House, High Street, Blackburn. BB1 1HT.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.