THE SAVOY CINEMA

by Tom Kenny

In 1933, plans had been completed and passed by the Galway Urban District Council for a new cinema to be built on Eglinton Street by the famous baritone, Mr. Walter McNally. “The building will be beautiful and imposing, designed on the most up-to-date lines. The theatre will have seating for over 800 on the ground floor while the balcony will be capable of holding over 300”.

Walter O’Flaherty was the contractor, he had a yard next to College House in Market Street. The foreman was Martin Duggan, the father of the great hurling and camogie family. The architects were Robinson & O’Keeffe, cinema specialists of the time. The façade was finished in art deco style, the screen was 16’3” x 21’ and the projectors were Simplex with RCA sound. There was a spacious foyer on the ground floor with a staircase, lined with posters, leading up to the balcony and a tea lounge on the first floor. Four shops were included in the façade, one of which, “The Magnet” supplied confectionery, chocolate, cigarettes, minerals, ice cream and fruits, and was also accessed from the foyer. The estimated overall cost was £18,000.

It was originally to be known as ‘The Corrib Cinema’. It opened in style on St. Stephen’s Day, 1934 with a grand concert given by John McCormack. There were occasional concerts and other events like ‘Question Time’ held there afterwards but it functioned almost exclusively as a cinema with three showings daily, at 3.30pm, 6.00pm and 8.30pm. The main film was preceded by ‘shorts’ such as cartoons, The Three Stooges or Pathé News, with advertisements shown on screen in between. While these ads were on, usherettes would go around with trays selling ice cream and chocolate. The cinema was unusual in that it was on an upward slope. Frank Devlin used to paint the posters and Ned Joyce, the bill poster, would put them up around town.

The men’s toilet up near the screen on the right hand side had windows that tempted many a young fella to try and get in for nothing. The front stalls cost 4d and were known as ‘the foars’. You might get a creak in your neck sitting there. There was a rope across the aisle between these seats and the ones behind which cost 9d. Like all cinemas, it had its characters in the audience – a lady called Kate used always sit on an aisle seat and if you tried to get in past her, she would start shouting and hitting you and kicking up a rumpus; “Shoots” had eventually be barred from going to cowboy pictures as he always felt the need to loudly plug all the gunmen on the screen. There was a Tarzan film on once where Tarzan was knocked unconscious. When he came to, he was surrounded by pygmies with shields and spears who got excited as he woke up. They started jumping up and down and shouting “Póg mo Thóin”. Seán McGlory from Fr. Griffin Road was in the film. It packed out after the first showing.

The last film was shown there in 1976. Our thanks to Seán Stewart for our birds-eye view of the cinema which was taken c.1960.