IN 1939, Darlington had more cinema seats per head of population than any other town in the country.

In view of the opening of Vue, in recent weeks we’ve been running through all of the town’s seven purpose-built cinemas, plus the five or six other film-showing halls, which came to a crescendo with the opening of the Regent in Cobden Street on June 5, 1939.

But Darlington’s record was short-lived. The first to close was the Central Palace in Central Hall which had been where the very first flickering movies had been shown back in 1896, and which had screened the first talkies back in June 1927.

Yet come the Second World War, the hulking hall – also known as the Lopey Opera due to its flea infestations – was being outclassed by the modern supercinemas.

It closed on March 30, 1946, with a showing of Tarzan's Desert Mystery, starring Johnny Weismuller.

Its departure took 700 cinema seats out of Darlington. Its balcony and projection box were removed, and it went back to being an assembly hall.