THE closure of Darlington’s last small cinema has hit many people hard, and not just because the ghosts inside the Odeon, which used to pinch usherettes’ bottoms, are now redundant (Memories 584).

It is because for more than 150 years Darlingtonians have spent their leisure time in this Northgate site.

READ MORE: THE FULL HISTORY OF THE THEATRE ROYAL AND THE ODEON CINEMA

“I was so saddened to hear the news of this iconic place of entertainment,” says Christina Lupton. “I recall my mum once telling me that when she was a young girl, her grandmother had taken her to the Theatre Royal to see Tod Slaughter in Maria Marten – Murder in the Red Barn, and it had frightened her to death when he emerged with red blood dripping from his hands!”

Tod Slaughter (real name Norman Slaughter) was born in Gosforth on Tyneside and made his name in blood and thunder melodramas, with Maria Marten being his signature role in the 1920s. In 1935, he turned it in his first film – just in time for the Theatre Royal to be converted in the Regal cinema.

READ MORE: THE GHOSTS OF THE DARLILNGTON ODEON

“I always remember it the occasion in the 1950s when the Regal cinema was honoured by the film industry which gave it the world premiere of Life with the Lyons,” says Malcolm Middleton. “The film was an adaptation of a popular TV program staring Ben Lyon, his real life wife Bebe Daniels, and their son and daughter. Why they chose the Regal to show this film for the first time, I don’t recall.”

Life with the Lyons is regarded as the first situation comedy. It ran on radio and then television from 1950 to 1961. Two films were spun-off from it, Life with the Lyons in 1954 and The Lyons in Paris in 1956 – which one was premiered at the Regal?

“Anyone remember the premiere at the Regal in about 1956 of Now and Forever, a film starring Janette Scott and Vernon Grey,” says Cathie Jackson. “It was about a couple eloping to Gretna Green (that’s the one in Scotland and not the one Newton Aycliffe).

“Janette’s mother was Thora Hird and her father was Jimmy Scott. The director was Mario Zampi and he was at the Regal. I ask various people but no one remembers this occasion.”

Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk if you can tell us about any premieres at the Regal.