The Royal Cinema opened with a fanfare of publicity in November 17, 1947. The building was completely reconstructed by Messrs J.J.Murphy & Sons, Building Contractors, Mount Kennett. The electrical contractor was Mr Dan O' Sullivan also of Limerick. The seating for 600 patrons was supplied by Messrs Elleman of Dublin. Carpets and curtains were supplied by Todds of Limerick. The sound system was supplied by the famous Western Electrical Company under the supervision of local representative, Mr R. Montgomery. The Limerick Chronicle noted that "Miss Maureen Collins of 9 Glentworth Street was responsible for the dainty nigger and gold costumes of the usherettes". The newspaper commented on the "clever treatment of the three domes in the ceiling which with the aid of concealed lighting are shown up in most artistic colouring". Interestingly the musical traditions of the "old Athenaeum" were maintained in the new cinema. The first film shown in the new Royal Cinema was Cole Porter's smash hit musical NIGHT AND DAY with Cary Grant, Jane Wyman and Dorothy Malone. The advertisement for the opening in the Limerick Leader on Saturday, November 15, 1947 is splashed on the front page where an interesting poster depicts the film STALLION ROAD with a cast including Ronald Reagan, an actor proud of his Irish roots who was elected President of the United States of America for two terms between 1981-1989.
Denis Hayes (Commissionaire),
The staff of the Royal Cinema were carefully chosen by the new owner, Mrs Mary Collins. An essential pre-requisite for a job was an interest in cinema. One applicant, Denis Hayes, had even featured in a film. His story began in wartime London in 1943 where a brilliant English actor turned film director, Lawrence Olivier (1907-1989), whose first major film, WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939) had been a big artistic and commercial success, was faced a major casting problem for his next film, HENRY V. The Agincourt film scene called for hundreds of horses and riders. The word spread like wildfire amongst the horsey crowd in Ireland. At Punch's stable yard at Crecora in early 1943, a young horseman, Dennis Hayes, got his photo taken and sent it off with his job application to the film director. There were few horses in wartime England; food shortages had critically depleted the stock. Olivier solved the problem by locating the battle scene at the Powerscourt estate in neutral Ireland. A popular choice with fellow actors who were happy to leave London which was then under heavily bombardment from the Luftwaffe. Undoubtedly, the cast and crew relished the prospect of hearty Irish dinners with fresh meats denied to them in a food rationed England.
Denis Hayes (1914-1966) was a big man standing at 6' 6'' already had two Irish Boxing Championships with the Irish Army under his belt. He had a good seat on a horse; a man who rode to hounds with Limerick packs, the best hunt country in the world. Lawrence Olivier was impressed and hired him without hesitation. Months later he wrote to the equestrian - stuntsman:
The film was released after the war and Olivier won a special Academy Award "for his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing HENRY V to the screen." in 1946. HENRY V is a film classic. The opening scene is set in a deliberate "stagey" Globe Theatre which gradually opens out into the intensely cinematic battle scene at Agincourt later in the film.. In 1947, Lawrence Olivier was knighted by a grateful England. The following year he produced another classic, the film version of Shakespeare's play, HAMLET, for which he received Academy Awards for best actor, best director, and best picture of the year. After his 1940 marriage to the actor Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND).ended in divorce in 1960, he remarried the actor Joan Plowright who remained his partner until his death in 1989.
Lawrence Olivier and Denis Hayes never met after filming HENRY V. Both followed different careers in the film industry. Dennis Hayes joined the staff of the grandly named Royal cinema when it opened in 1947. Years afterwards, he took two of his young sons into a Limerick cinema to see the film. One son, Joe Hayes, recalls bursting into tears as saw on the big screen his father tumble from his piebald horse, fatally wounded by a 15th century arrow. "But it's only a film!", Dennis said. It took hours of persuasion and lots of Cleeves toffee sweets to convince the boys that the "pictures" were make believe. Dennis Hayes as the elegant uniformed Commissionaire of the Royal cinema became known to everyone in Limerick and was the city's leading authority on all matters relating to cinematography. One local kid in particular pestered him with questions. Matinee shows at the Royal were bedlam. Dennis Hayes found it impossible to prevent the wild youngsters in the upstairs balcony from pelting sticky sweets down onto the patrons below in the stalls. Supposedly grown up adolescents were far too busy to bother to control their younger siblings. They were busily engaged in that universal teenage practice of "shifting" or courting their latest date in the back rows of the darkened cinema. Even the clergy had conceded defeat on that score. It was a nightmare job, enough to drive any adult to distraction. Dennis Hayes, always resourceful, did a deal with the inquisitive schoolboy. " You can guard the balcony, young man, for half an hour while I slip out for cigarettes". "For half price next Sunday?" demanded the youth. Dennis agreed and gratefully slipped out via the fire escape of the cinema across the street into the snug of Collin's pub. Half an hour later and with his spirits much restored he returned to his battle-post. All was quiet on his western front. He could even hear the projector hum with just an occasional sob from a red-eared kid. Their arrangement worked a dream. Dennis never regretted his deal with that "young pup" who quickly grew up into a man called Harris.
A Man called Harris...
Another Harris...
Hot Air
The Munster News of May 27, 1868 reported that M.Chavalier "ascended at 3.30pm to-day from Mr Harris' yard and was last seen heading for Castleconnell". The following day the Limerick Chronicle has a story about the successful flight by M.Chavalier and his assistant Mr Baker. In a separate story the newspaper noted M.Chavalier had attended a concert at the Athenaeum the previous night and that "on entering and again on leaving the Hall, he was loudly applauded". ( see p.?) James Harris was a Liberal in politics and a keen supporter of the colourful Limerick businessman, Sir Peter Tait, the Scots born, Limerick textile magnate, ship-owner and thrice Mayor who went from rags to riches and back to rags again within the space of thirty years. James was Secretary of the Harbour Board, a Markets Trustee and a shareholder in the Limerick Race Company and in the legendary Citizen's (Catholic) riverboat tugboat "Commodore" which engaged in riverboat wars against the rival tugboat, the "Privateer" owned by the old Protestant ascendancy families of Russell and Spaight and Bannatyne in the late 1870s. James Harris told friends, weeks before his death, that one of the happiest events in his life was to be present at the laying of the foundation stone of the boathouse of the Shannon Rowing Club. In an obituary, the Limerick Chronicle noted that he was "kindly and genial [who] gained for himself hosts of friends and enjoyed the best wishes of all who knew him". James Harris died in 1895 aged 70 years.
Richard Harris was not cut out for business. In the Limerick of the early 1950s he began, perhaps wisely, to think about a new trade. His practice sessions with the air gun in the mill showed promise, perhaps even flamboyance. Combined with his rugby exploits at the Thomond Park Rugby grounds, a definite pattern was beginning to emerge that would find cinematic expression in his later life. Clearly Richard Harris would never make bread in the family bakery. He was a local character , a "show-off" some said, who dreamt of becoming a famous actor. Meanwhile he fell in with a local amateur theatrical crowd and attended their acting workshops. The College Players saw his potential immediately during his rehearsal for the part of Ellis in their production of the play EASTER by Swedish dramatist August Strindberg. Kevin Dinneen, actor and producer with the group, remembers those days with fondness. "Working with Dicky Harris was a delightful experience", he recalls. "We could all see that he had a big future on the stage. Suddenly we heard that he was gone. He'd just taken off to London". Richard Harris arrived in London in 1955 to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. By all accounts times were tough financially for the young man. But he stuck it out and soon got his stage debut in 1956 and his first film appearance in 1958. Film parts came quickly. In 1963 he became an international name with his gritty performance as a professional rugby player in the film THIS SPORTING LIFE directed by Lindsay Anderson and co-starring Colin Blakely and Rachael Roberts for which he won the Cannes Film Festival acting award and received his first Oscar nomination. In 1972 he made his debut as a film director with BLOOMFIELD which he celebrated by holding the premiere in the Savoy Cinema in Limerick. The premier was in aid of local charities organised by his childhood friend and fellow hell-raiser, Dermot Foley, President of the Limerick Lions Club.
GARBO
In the Spring 1965 the film critic of the Limerick Chronicle, Earl Connolly wrote that the Royal Cinema were having a Greta Garbo Season of four of her films. The films shown were NINOTCHKA (1939), CAMILLE (1937), MARIA WALESKA and ANNA KARENINA (1935). The original silent version of her film ANNA KARENINA, (also titled LOVE) which was made in 1927 when she acted with John Gilbert played at old Athenaeum Cinema in Feb. 1930. The talkie version of 1935 is considered much better. MGM actually filmed two endings-one happy, one sad. In January 1931 the old Athenaeum showed the Garbo film ROMANCE.(aka Anna Christie (1930), from a play by Eugene O'Neill which was famous for its poster advert "Garbo Talks!" and in 1933 her film AS YOU DESIRE ME (1932) was shown at the Athenaeum. Although there is no mention of the fact, someone in the Royal was paying tribute to the 75th anniversary of the film industry.
In 1973 there is a report in the Limerick Leader with the heading !Royal Rent" which said that the "City VEC has granted a new 25 year lease for its property, the Royal Cinema at an annual rent of £1,250 yearly".
The Last Picture Show :
Cinema Posters
There is money in old film posters. The Sunday Times in December previewed Sotheby's Spring 1996 auction of old cinema posters which their investment analyst says " have become an art genre in their own right". Top money is expected for the 1932 Marlene Dietrich film Blond Venus which is estimated to fetch £10,000 plus.
These "filthy" cinema posters provoked an outbreak of moral condemnation from Church pulpits in Limerick in the 1930s and were forcibly removed by lay vigilantes.
Cecil B De Mille's 1934 version of Cleopatra is expected to fetch up £6,000! The film played to packed houses at the Athenaeum in February 1935.
(L - R)
Kay Mullane (Manageress),
Seamus Houlihan (Second Projectionist),
Nora Hanley (Cashier)
and Sean Mulcahy First Projectionist).
Image #148 of Film Set of Henry V film.
Two City Films Ltd.,
Powerscourt,Co. Wicklow.
23rd July, 1943.
Dear Mr Hayes,
I am pleased to take this opportunity of thanking you most
gratefully for your fine work for 'Henry V'. It has been a
great joy to me to work with such fine men and such grand
sportsmen as you and indeed all the horsemen have been. I
do hope that the future may hold in store for you all that
you most wish for in life. I hope that we shall have a chance
to meet together again one day. Please accept my best wishes,
my grateful thanks, and my kindest thoughts.
Yours sincerely
LAWRENCE OLIVIER
Ray Milland presents Olivier with Oscar
for Henry V film on the set of Hamlet film
Sir Lawrence Olivier with wife,
Vivien Leigh, 1947
A man called Harris became a legend in Limerick in the early 1950s. Richard "Dicky" Harris, actor, was born October 1, 1932 and went to school at the Jesuit College where he showed some promise in literature and a distinct flair for rugby. Fellow pupils recall "mitching" school with him to sneak into the "flicks" at the Athenaeum (later The Royal), Astor, Carlton, City Theatre, Coliseum, Grand Central, Savoy, Tivoli, and Thomond cinemas. Crescent boys were unashamedly catholic in their choice of picture houses. On leaving school, he joined Garryowen Rugby Club where he learnt the art of "hard" ball local rugby and won a Munster senior cup medal with the club in 1951. During the week, he worked in his father's flour mill at Mount Kenneth where he was instructed to study the strains of grains and master the intricacies of double entry book-keeping. According to local tradition, he passed the time shooting rats with a pellet gun.
That Harris mill first became famous in 1868 when another Harris, a Mr James Harris, grandfather of Richard, gallantly rescued a French aeronaut, Monsieur Chavalier whose balloon "L'Esperance" was punctured whilst attempting an ascent from a yard in Roche's Street. James Harris offered the use of his more spacious yard at Steamboat Quay to help the beleaguered Frenchman. The tickets for the flights were 2/- and 1/-( shillings). Limerick was thrilled at the prospect of yet another balloon ascent over the city.
The previous hot air balloon flights in Limerick had taken place during the Famine when Mr Hampton Russell ascended over the city in his balloon Erin-go-Bragh from Marshall's Great Yard in Upper Cecil Street in 1846 and again in 1849. Most Limerick people were familiar with the engravings and prints of Mr Crosbie's balloon flight over the city in April 1786 just three years after the Montgolfier brothers made the first ever flight over Paris in 1783.
courtesy of Terry Miller
Harris gave an unknown young Limerick musician, Bill Whelan his first big break with a commission to write the music score for the film. Twenty years later, Whelan proved his mettle with a brilliant composition for the RIVERDANCE sequence which took Europe by storm at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and became a hit musical in London in 1995 and Broadway in 1996.
Throughout his early career, Richard Harris kept himself in the gossip columns of newspapers throughout the world with his hell-raising bar-room "fisticuff " exploits with fellow actors. Neither the "hard-man" image or his marital vacillations prevented him from hard work. His output of 47 films in 37 years is prodigious. The film CAMELOT (1967) and his performance in it were trashed by the critics despite winning Oscars for Art, Costume Design, Music Score and Nominations for Sound and Cinematography. In an astute business move, Harris took the advice of his brother and Manager, Dermot Harris, and purchased the full rights to the film. In 1990, he received his second Oscar nomination for a brilliant performance as the "Bull" McCabe in THE FIELD directed by Jim Sheridan. In the world of popular music, Harris had a surprise international hit in 1968 with his single MAC ARTHUR PARK . A neat "up yours!" retort to those critics who had earlier slated his singing in the film CAMELOT. Harris was so delighted with the success of the record that he immediately went out and purchased a Roll Royce car which he presented to the 22 year old composer named Jimmy Webb whose earlier composition Up, Up And Away performed by the Fifth Dimension was already a runaway hit and later became a famous TWA television commercial. That music track became part of history as it was the song that astronauts Edwin Aldrin, Jr., Neil Armstrong and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Collins played as they orbited the moon on Apollo 11 prior to becoming the first human beings to land there in 1969. The whole world listened with them.
- Neil Armstrong on the Moon. July 20, 1969.
Jimmy Webb, born at Elk City, Oklahoma in 1946 is a gifted composer and performer who wrote hit songs for Joan Baez, Glen Cambell, Johnny Cash, Cher, Joe Cocker Thelma Houston, Kris Khristofferson, Joni Mitchell, Willy Nelson, Johnny Rivers, Linda Ronstadt and Frank Sinatra). Harris and Webb collaborated again to produce A Tramp Shining and The Yard Went On Forever. On stage, Harris' performance as Hamlet in London in the early 1990s stunned the theatre critics. But in his home town nobody was at all surprised, least of all the College Players. They always knew that he would soar to the top of his profession.
Films of a Man called Harris
1959 ALIVE AND KICKING. Performer
1959 SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (Ireland). Performer
1959 THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE.. Performer
1960 NIGHT FIGHTERS/A TERRIBLE BEAUTY. Performer
1961 THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (UK/US). Performer
1961 THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL/JUNGLE FIGHTERS. Performer
1962 MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. Performer
1963 THIS SPORTING LIFE. Performer
1964 RED DESERT/IL DESERTO ROSSO (Italy/France). Performer
1965 THE HEROES OF TELEMARK. Performer
1965 MAJOR DUNDEE. Performer
1965 THE THREE FACES OF A WOMAN/I TRE VOLTI (Italy). Performer
1966 THE BIBLE/LA BIBBIA (Italy/US) as Cain
1966 HAWAII. Performer
1967 CAMELOT as King Arthur
1967 CAPRICE. Performer
1970 CROMWELL. Performer-title role
1970 THE LADY IN THE CAR WITH GLASSES AND A GUN/LA DAME DANS L'AUTO
AVEC DES LUNETTES ET UN FUSIL (France/US). Co-screenwriter
1970 A MAN CALLED HORSE. Performer
1970 THE MOLLY MAGUIRES. Performer
1971 MAN IN THE WILDERNESS. Performer
1972 THE HERO/BLOOMFIELD (Israel/UK). Performer, director
1973 THE DEADLY TRACKERS. Performer
1974 99 AND 44/100% DEAD. Performer
1974 JUGGERNAUT. Performer
1976 ECHOES OF A SUMMER/THE LAST CASTLE (US/Canada). Performer, co-executive
producer, co-songwriter.
1976 THE RETURN OF A MAN CALLED HORSE. Performer and co-executive producer
1976 ROBIN AND MARIAN . Performed as King Richard the Lion-Hearted
1977 THE CASSANDRA CROSSING. Performer
1977 GOLDEN RENDEZVOUS/NUCLEAR TERROR. Performer
1977 GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (UK/Belgium). Performer
1977 ORCA. Performer
1978 THE WILD GEESE. Performer
1979 GAME FOR VULTURES. Performer
1979 THE NUMBER. Performer
1979 RAVAGERS. Performer
1980 HIGHPOINT. Performer
1981 TARZAN, THE APE MAN. Performer
1983 TRIUMPHS OF A MAN CALLED HORSE/
1984 MARTIN'S DAY. Performer
1988 MAIGRET. Performer
1989 MACK THE KNIFE. Performer
1990 THE FIELD. Performer
1992 PATRIOT GAMES. Performer
1992 UNFORGIVEN. Performer
1993 WRESTLING ERNEST HEMINGWAY. Performer
1994 SILENT TONGUE. Performer
[ Source: Filmography from Katz's Film Encyclopedia. Cinerama '95. Microsoft Inc 1995]
End of Royal Cinema
The Royal Cinema closed in 1985 with the last picture show of the film POLICE ACADEMY 2. The opening of video rental shops accelerated the decline in cinema audiences. In February a Limerick newspaper had a story by Jim O'Connell titled "A Royal Finish" about the imminent closure of the cinema. He interviewed Mr Liam Ward, of the Ward-Anderson Group, owners of the cinema, who cited the 23 per cent VAT tax rate on cinema admissions as an "intolerable burden" and the reason for the closure. In March the Limerick Leader journalist, John O' Shaughnessy, noted that Limerick which once had 4,600 cinema seats and was now reduced to one cinema, the Carlton. The same paper in August reported that "there was much disappointment that the Royal Cinema failed to reopen last month as announced." Efforts by Alderman Jim Kemmy, TD and others to save the cinema had failed. The closure was mourned by cinema lovers in Limerick. Earl Connolly recalled his first visit there in 1928 and remembered the introduction of the first talkies. It was, he said "the flagship of Paramount Pictures in this city." Jim Kemmy said, "I hope that the Art Deco style of the [Cinema] building can be preserved". In November, the Limerick Property News reported on possible redevelopment plans for Royal. The rumours circulating in the city were that (1) The Arts Council were looking over the premises as a site for a theatre, ( 2.) It was a site for a possible shopping centre, (3). It was a site for a possible Enterprise Centre and (4) It was a site for the new Labour exchange. Happily none of these rumours were true as in all likelihood the building would have been demolished. And with it, the history of this remarkable building would most probably have been lost forever. In February 1986 Limerick Leader reported the death of Mrs Mary Collins, founder and former owner of the Royal Cinema. The following week the newspaper carried the following story: " It was disclosed at Friday's meeting of the city VEC that negotiations are going ahead for the purchase of the former Royal Cinema in the city. The CEO, Mr Maurice O'Kelly, told Alderman Tim Leddin that negotiations were continuing for the purchase of the premises. However, he could not say more in public. The meeting then went into committee. Earlier at the meeting, it was disclosed that the VEC are to take a second floor at Bruce House, Rutland House, which will be used by the Limerick School of Art and Design. The VEC will now be paying a total of £20,000 per annum for the rent of the facilities there". [The Art School library vacated Bruce House in December 1995] The Royal Cinema fell into dereliction. Everyone in the city assumed that the building was doomed to fall under the demolition hammers. Former patrons of the cinema kept an eye out for old film posters as mementoes and souvenirs. If it was the end of an era for the Royal, it was just another chapter of history for the Athenaeum..
Image #156 Dereliction of a Famous Theatre. (photo from Limerick Observer).
THE SUNDAY TIMES
worth £10,000!
