The Story of The Bump (The Alexandra) Cinema

The Bump in retirement Further to our previous article (click here), the information below has been obtained, with the kind permission of the author, from 'Cinemas of The Black Country' by Ned Williams, which contains further details of The Bump and many other local movie theatres. It has been out of print for many years, but Gornal library has a copy. In 1912 a Pensnett engineer named Ernest Arthur Grenville Jones, along with fellow directors D. Jones and C.F. Webb, formed a company called Alexandra Halls (Midlands) Ltd., evidently with the intention of operating a number of cinemas. They chose Redhall Road as the site of their Gornal picture house, and the building was constructed quickly from corrugated iron around a timber frame. Opening around the middle of the same year, the 500 capacity cinema was an immediate success. It gained the affectionate nickname 'The Bump' from the sound of the Crossley engine that drove the generator in a shed at the side of the building. Well known characters at the time included drunken piano player Uncle George, Ada at the till, and Arlo the chucker out. One customer, Jack Pugh, was generally admitted free as his constant laughter encouraged others to attend! The silent era was about to end at The Bump in August 1931 with the first scheduled 'talkie', when tragedy struck. On the 27th August a fire broke out in the operating room and projectionist Francis Danks became trapped. Rescue efforts by owner Ernest Jones and an assistant named Davenall failed and, though a heroic neighbour called George Ball eventually reached Frank Danks, the poor man died that night at the Dudley Guest Hospital. Though badly burnt himself, Ernest Jones was undeterred and rebuilt the Alexandra, this time a more solid construction which opened for the 'talkies' around 1933. However, in 1939 it was sold to a Ken Jones and W.H. Smith, and in effect became part of the Clifton circuit. In the years that followed, refurbishments at The Alexandra were infrequent and minor, yet the largely unchanged cinema survived the general decline in movie attendance far longer than many of its local rivals, and even took delivery of seats from the larger Regal in Wednesfield when it closed down. However, eventually it too succumbed and on the 24th September 1966 the last film was shown, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. For a while the theatre was home to the Throstles Club, then it lay boarded up and neglected until demolished a few years ago for housing space. Please send us your memories of the cinema; the staff, customers, memorable films, we want to know everything - well, almost everything, depending on whether your courtin' conquests are rated PG or X. If you have a photograph of The Bump while it was still showing films we would be very grateful. Email us at admin@yampy.co.uk. Ned Williams was born in London in 1944, but has lived in the Black Country since 1962; twelve years in Dudley, and ever since in Wolverhampton. Since 1969 Ned has written thirty books about different aspects of the Black Country with some specialising on the worlds of entertainment, transport, and retailing. He is available for talks on Black Country topics and regularly leads several WEA Local History classes in the region.