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The 1920s saw a rush of cinema openings in the Derby area and around the country. Towards the end of the decade, Allenton residents no longer had to trek into the centre of Derby to see the latest movie releases – their own cinema opened on December 17, 1928, on the corner of Stamford Street and Osmaston Road.

Top of the bill that first night was Syd Chaplin in Charley’s Aunt. It was the sister cinema to the Rex, at Alvaston. It showed three different feature films a week and, as with many cinemas in those days, was an ideal place for teenagers to do their courting.

The venue changed its name to the Broadway cinema in 1939.

The Broadway cinema, Allenton

Jane Tranter (nee Brown) recalled the Saturday picture shows at the cinema which cost 6d in the morning and 9d in the afternoon.

She said: “I was only allowed to go to the afternoon shows as my mum thought it was too rough in the mornings!” The Broadway was an important source of entertainment in Allenton during the pre-television era. Catherine Lings (nee Jones), now of Spondon, used to live with her family on Osmaston Road.

She said: “My father visited three times a week, every time the films changed. He felt so at home there that he made the journey across the road in his slippers.

“The films were all black and white and the more risqué ones even had couples kissing! More often than not they would have an X certificate and the posters advertising the films were inside the cinema rather than on the outside wall.

“For us children, apart from trying to catch sight of the X-rated pictures when people went in or out, the slope in front of the cinema was great for bike and scooter riding – and sledging in winter. Round the back, the huge iron fire escape was the venue for many games.”

Fellow cinema-goer Dave Thomson’s memories of the Broadway centred around what he called the “tanner rush” at 10am on a Saturday in the 1950s.

He explained: “We started queuing at 9am to get a decent seat as the cinemas were packed most Saturdays but, as soon as the doors opened at 10am, the ‘local mafia’ walked straight to the front and were first in.

A poster for the last show at the cinema in September 1960

“It was mayhem inside with paper pellets being fired everywhere using elastic bands – ‘dobbers’ we called them. The usherettes used to run round like headless chickens with their large chrome torches trying to pick out troublemakers. “The one thing that guaranteed silence was when the policeman, who stopped the traffic after the show to allow the children across Osmaston Road, came in 30 minutes before the end.

“The sight of the bobby’s helmet at the back scared everyone so much that the manager asked the policeman if he could borrow his helmet to push it up above the partition at the back.

“It kept us quiet for weeks before we discovered there was nobody underneath it!”

After some 32 years and thousands of screenings, the cinema showed its last movie on September 24, 1960. Tommy the Toreador, starring Tommy Steele and Janet Munro, supported by a B-film, Up in Smoke, was the main event. The evening also included 60 minutes of bygone comedy – Bashful Buckaroo, Charlie Chaplin in Charley at Work and the Little Rascal Follies.

The final curtain came down at 10.45pm. The building was knocked down to make way for a supermarket.

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County:  Derbyshire