Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Cinema Reminiscences at Westcliff

I recently made my stage debut at the Palace Theatre at Westcliff!

As part of the Southend Film Festival, I was invited to take part in a discussion on stage involving reminiscences of Southend`s cinemas, with of course questions from the audience afterwards.

In the 1970s I was General Manager of the Classic Twin Cinemas at Westcliff,. Some years before, I had been Assistant Manager at the Ritz in Southend, and a little later Deputy General Manager of Rank Cinemas Southend (Odeon, Ritz and a retail shop).

Also involved was Ron Stewart. Formerly Manager of the Regal Rayleigh, he joined me at Westcliff as my Assistant, and succeeded me when I left to go to Cosham.

And Roy Dilley, cinema historian, has written an excellent book entitled "Southend`s Palaces of the Sliver Screen".

It went down very well, and I wouldn`t object to doing something similar next year!

My wife Anne and I managed to have a restful couple of days in and around Southend afterwards,