Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 19 August 1932

Young Miner’s Theatre

Cinema in a Wombwell Council House

Ingenious Model

There is no accounting for hobbies. Here is a young miner who has devoted his leisure for nearly two years to the construction of a picture theatre!

Now he has a show of his own, and exhibits whenever the fancy takes him. The pictures are on a small scale, but both the screen and proscenium are perfect in detail, and he uses a projector which has been used at a large theatre in Barnsley.

The young man is Arthur Newton, son of Mr. and Mrs, James Newton, 23. Wright’s Crescent, Wombwell. He is employed at Darfield Main, but his ambition is to be policeman and he has made application join the Metropolitan Force. He told “South Yorkshire Times” representative that he has always been passionately fond of moving pictures. He has taken the stage front of the Empire Theatre, Wombwell, as his model, being convinced that in design and construction it is the finest proscenium he has ever seen. His model was constructed entirely from memory, no measurements being taken, but he has copied the original with remarkable fidelity even to the figures which he has worked in plasticine and coloured with gilt. The colour scheme also is a perfect reproduction.

At the foot of the stage are twelve coloured lights working in series of three, in four different colours. The clock advertisements at each side of the siege cast a ruby shade when illuminated and the footlights are worked on the resistance system from accumulators. The screen upon which the pictures are actually projected measures twenty by fifteen inches.

In one sense Mr. Newton’s model is by no means a toy. The films are the genuine article and are his own property.  He has sufficient of these to put on a programme of nearly three hours’ duration.

His projector, which stands six feet iron the ground is of the Gaumont type, and was purchased second-hand in Barnsley. This has actually been used for a number of years at a Barnsley theatre. His films are of a wide range, comprising news, Eve’s pictorial, and “star” pictures. One is “Lady Godiva.” The films are all complete, to title, certificate, and cast, and some of them run for nearly an hour.

It is his intention later to join a film library, so that he can obtain a frequent change of programme. The projector is fitted  with an acetylene lamp of 350  candle-power.

Anyone inspecting Mr. Newton’s model would be amazed to learn that he has constructed it by hand and with inadequate tools. He has worked upon it continuously for 18 months, but he says that he could construct another in less than three months.

He has designed it purely for his own entertainment, but he never misses his weekly visits to the Empire and Pavilion. The model reveals a remarkable degree of ingenuity.