The Picture House - Historical Context
Local History
After posting a short message in the Picture House section of the Tayport website, I noticed that there was a request for any information concerning the history of this cinema. I can provide a few details.
In 1928 the Palladium Cinema, Alexander Street, Dundee, was purchased by J.B. Milne, a local man, who had worked as both a cleaner and musician in this cinema. He had the foresight to install sound film equipment, the Palladium became the first Dundee cinema to show “talking pictures” and a cinema empire was born.
J.B. Milne’s next aquisition was The Picture House, Tayport. I believe this was in the very early 1930s though don’t know the exact date.
Throughout the next four decades J.B. Milne continued to aquire cinemas all over Scotland. He also built cinemas in Blairgowrie, Macduff and Peterhead. In 1956 he constructed the Capitol, Seagate, Dundee, which in 1958 he sold, under pressure, to Britain’s (then) biggest cinema circuit, Associated Brtitish Cinemas. The Capitol became the ABC, Dundee, until it’s closure a few years ago, brought about by the advent of the multiplex era.
From 1956 onwards there was a huge and continuing decline in British cinema going. Hardest hit were cinemas in smaller communities. In common with cinema owners all over the UK, J.B. Milne was compelled to switch some halls to the new and highly profitable craze of bingo. To his great credit, he only completely closed three cinemas, Auchterarder, East Weymss and Buckhaven.
Sadly, in the 1960s, The Picture House, Tayport, a victim of declining admissions, had become wholly unprofitable. However, during the same period, the Palladium, Dundee (by now renamed the Rex), had been compulsorily purchased and demolished to allow redevelopment of the area in which it was located. The Tayport Picture House was now the earliest surviving cinema in the J.B. Milne circuit.
Despite admissions which were often in single figures and seldom more than double figures, J.B. Milne steadfastly refused to close The Picture House. This can only have been due to sentiment. Economically there were no grounds to justify it’s continuation. Without doubt, any other operator would have closed this cinema, probably around 1960/61.
J.B. Milne died in September 1968 aged sixty six. Within days the management of J.B. Milne Theatres Ltd instructed that the Picture House, Tayport be closed.
The Picture House, Tayport had 453 seats, was equipped with Kalee Model No 8 front shutter projectors, the sound equipment was British Thomson Houston (BTH). The admission prices at closure were 1/6d (7.5p) to 3/6d (17.5p). The cinema had a splendid vertical neon sign.
Photos of both the exterior and interior of the cinema can be viewed on the excellent website scottishcinemas.org. click on Scotland A-Z then select Tayport.
J.B. Milne Theatres Ltd was the biggest privately owned cinema chain in Great Britain. It comprised the following cinemas at the time of J.B.Milne’s death:
Arbroath Palace: Arbroath Picture House: Banff Picture House: Blairgowrie Regal: Broughty Ferry Regal: Buckhaven Globe: Cowdenbeath Picture House: Cupar La Scala: Dundee Broadway: Dundee Plaza: Dundee Ritz: Dundee Royalty: Dundee State: Dundee Victoria: Edinburgh Astoria: Edinburgh Tivoli: Edinburgh Tudor: Galashiels Capitol: Kinross County: Leven Troxy: Leven Regent: Lerwick North Star: Lochgelly Opera House: Macduff Regal: Methil Palace: Methil Imperial: Montrose Kings: Montrose Playhouse: Peterhead Regal: Peterhead Playhouse: Stornoway Playhouse: Tayport Picture House.
I visited the Picture House shortly after it’s closure. It was a delightful little cinema. Though the entrance foyer was tiny, the auditorium was very pleasing, oozing an atmosphere sadly not found in the rather sterile, if more comfortable, auditoria of the modern multiplex. Certainly it was rather shabby and rundown, all the J.B. Milne cinemas were. However, it was very clean, with the wonderful pervading aroma of the perfumed disinfectant used in cinemas of that period.
I do hope some of this information may be of interest.
Glasgow