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[Home] [Start of Tour] [Rembrandt Cinema History] [West Ewell] [Hogsmill] [Local History Discussion Forum] |
| The Rembrandt was not equipped with full stage facilities. There was no fly
tower and the stage was only 14 ft deep. The only lighting appeared to be
the footlights and maybe a spotlight from the Box. Having said that the footlights
had manually controlled four circuits and could be so they must have been quite
impressive.
Stage dressing consisted of three sets of side ‘legs’, with two top drapes. A festoon curtain was raised to reveal a second set of curtains, which opened to expose the screen, which had a fixed aspect ratio of 1:1.33. A set of main curtains (tabs) could be drawn across the entire stage. The orchestra pit, in front of the stage had an adjoining instrument storeroom. Three dressing rooms were provided backstage.
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THE news that the former Rembrandt cinema in Ewell has closed
its doors for the under the last time reminds me of a Sunday at the beginning of
the war when I spent eight hours inside the building, by far and away the
longest time I have ever spent in a cinema.
R J Heathorn The Herald Wednesday May 13 1998
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A staff photo of C1945. It must have been hard finding space for that grand piano when not in use. The occasion on the right is not known, the lady is Mrs Long the Manageress. |
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In 1988 it looks a bit bleak when lit by camera flash, the plain tabs were not designed to be seen in white light. The orchestra pit had been boarded over and the front stalls area (known as "the Pit") empty. Nice fresh paint up the side of the proscenium arch though!
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Immaculate service records were kept......! Note the space vacated by a winch;
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Although taken for the purpose of demonstrating how NOT to clutter up an area; this picture shows a number of features of interest. We can see the screen frame of the original screen and the unpainted area that was behind it. A chamber behind the screen housed the loudspeaker, which was accessed for maintenance from a door on the outside. The banner lying against the back wall of the stage was for the film "Can't Stop the music" and had been fixed to the front of the cinema earlier in the year the picture was taken (1981). |
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From the point of view of Health & Safety things don't get any better at the other end of the stage. It is likely that the screen frame was the one installed in 1954 for Cinemascope. Unfortunately when the cinema was twinned the screen had to be lifted to give better sightlines for the audience. As this was not budgeted for in the plans the screen was lifted by a team of projectionists onto a couple of old loudspeaker cabinets. A new screen frame was not fitted until 1984. The extra height always made it hard to stop the picture hitting the top of the proscenium arch |
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