Cinema Ephemera

This is something rather unusual. Fred Fullerton used to be the Chief at the Empire Leicester Square and he had a passion for presentation. About twenty years ago I visited the Empire to see their new laser show that preceded the feature. It had three variants and we were treated to all three. Fred has documented it along the way on a YouTube video which you can watch below. (You also get to see his cat!)

The current Empire was a rebuild of an old theatre and was an early conversion with a Club in the Stalls area. What you can't see from this is that the Empire had three colour neon cove lighting in the auditorium and that was also controlled as part of the show. The contour curtain was something special, the only other place I knew had one was the Talk of the Town and Radio City Music Hall (New York). You get to see it rise during the third laser routine. Also look closely at the canopy above- it was fitted with twinkling fibre optics.

Photo from Cinephoto.uk, lots more at the other end of the link.