CINEMA SILENCE ZONE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 6

CINEMA SILENCE ZONE

Where Talkies Are Banned

Silence still reigns supreme in “The Sun,” a little picture house in the East End of Newcastle, which has steadfastly resisted the "talkie” flood-tide. All around super-cinemas have sprang up with the sound apparatus, but “The Sun” keeps on showing silent films.

It is one of the only two silent public cinemas in Britain, the other being in the Orkney Islands. Surprisingly enough, the Newcastle silent house is making better progress since the talkies started than it ever did in the silent era.

“The Sun’s” proprietor, Mr. Benjamin Spoor, who is 80, has owned it since it opened in 1010. "The staff never changes”, Mr. Thomas Varley, the manager, who has been at the hall for 23 years, told a correspondent recently, and he is the last of the “old gang.” While the silent films are on he plays the piano—a job he has had for

more than two decades and still he does not tire of it.

The cinema operator is also one of the old gang, for he is the only operator of silent films in the North, and he has been at the hall for seven years—just before the "talkies” arrived. Many ghosts of the past still flit across the screen, as do many people who are still great stars. The only difference is that they don't, talk, and many people call It a blessing! Prices are 2d and 4d and the place which holds 800, is packed almost every night.

For the deaf and dumb “The Sun” is a picture paradise because sub-titles and conversation pieces are.still shown on the screen.

“SUenf pictures are still made, especially in Germany, and we are able to get a plentiful supply,” said Mr. Spoor. “I don’t think the supply is likely to fail for a long time to come.”