{"id":312,"date":"2019-11-11T19:02:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T19:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/archives-alive\/?p=312"},"modified":"2020-03-27T17:28:28","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T17:28:28","slug":"10-the-astoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/10-the-astoria\/","title":{"rendered":"10. The Astoria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"audio-style\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-312-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Backrow-Backstage-10-V2.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Backrow-Backstage-10-V2.mp3\">https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Backrow-Backstage-10-V2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The Astoria<\/strong> operated from 1933-1977. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first film screened was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Private Life of Henry VIII <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by Alexander Korda. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its prominent position at the hub of Brighton\u2019s tramway system on the Level ensured that it drew large audiences from a wide area despite being the ABC chain\u2019s second cinema in the town. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Astoria was notable not only for its decor, but also for its record of technical innovation, particularly after TV viewing began to affect cinema attendance in the 1950s. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLike so many other kids in the pre-TV age I went there every Saturday morning between about 1957 and 1963 for the wonderful ABC Minors children\u2019s film shows. The shows commenced with a sing-along to various pub standards \u2013 My Old Man Said Follow The Van, etc. \u2013 accompanied by bouncing-ball prompt on screen. This invariably culminated with We Are The ABC Minors sung to the tune of a well-known military <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">march.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u201cIt was a fabulous cinema, on the Steine by St Peter\u2019s Church, that had terrific character. I think the Astoria used to have CinemaScope. I saw Dr Zhivago there. The last film I saw there was The Exorcist. Well I had to come out because I felt violently sick , I actually felt faint, so I never saw all of it. It wasn\u2019t until about 10 years ago I actually saw all of it. My nephew got it on video and it\u2019s still horrific, even now.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_554\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-554\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-554\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/The-Astoria-1933-Royal-Pavilion-Museums-Brighton-Hove.jpg?resize=300%2C227&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Astoria, 1933 - Royal Pavilion &amp; Museums, Brighton &amp; Hove\" width=\"300\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/The-Astoria-1933-Royal-Pavilion-Museums-Brighton-Hove.jpg?resize=300%2C227&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/The-Astoria-1933-Royal-Pavilion-Museums-Brighton-Hove.jpg?resize=768%2C581&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/The-Astoria-1933-Royal-Pavilion-Museums-Brighton-Hove.jpg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-554\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Astoria, c.1933 &#8211; Royal Pavilion &amp; Museums.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Following the route to <strong>The Theatre Royal<\/strong> and New Road, you will pass the old site of The Coronation Cinema at 104 North Road. Further along the route you will pass The Komedia at 44-47 Gardner Street. When you reach New Road, you will pass the site of The Paris Cinema\u00a0 at 16-17 New Road. To your left, at the entrance to Pavilion Garden, you will pass the statue of Max Miller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The Astoria operated from 1933-1977. The first film screened was The Private Life of Henry VIII by Alexander Korda. Its prominent position at the hub of Brighton\u2019s tramway system on the Level ensured that it drew large audiences from a wide area despite being the ABC chain\u2019s second cinema in the town. The Astoria &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-back-row-and-backstage-brighton"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/The-Astoria-Royal-Pavilion-Museums-Brighton-Hove.jpg?fit=1000%2C760&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2203,"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/2203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queensparkbooks.org.uk\/discover-brighton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}