PATHE NEWS
Associated British Pathe news reel was presented at the ABC Regal. It was positioned between the Pearl & Dean adverts and the trailer line up. The enormous curtains would close at the end of the adverts, with the footlights changing from blue to red as the Pathe News title music started the famous trade mark of the cockerel crowing would be the cue for the opening of the curtains ~ fabulous to watch.
The newsreel was very popular with the public. It was shown from Sunday to Wednesday, then the reel was sent to the Plaza Cinema, Bangor via rail. A replacement reel with updated news was shown from Thursday to Saturday. For a while the ABC Regal shared the newsreel with the Tatler cinema. The two cinemas were but a few buildings away from one another, only the Swan Hotel’s car park divided them at the side. A crude wire pulley arrangement was linked between the two cinemas to enable the newsreel to be sent across overhead, much to the amusement of onlookers from the street as this clumsy method of transporting the reel between the cinemas took place. After the system jammed a few times the line was abandoned.