THIS week’s Nostalgia takes a look at an old theatre and cinema complex which was a popular hub of entertainment in Colwyn Bay for half a century.
The building, at the junction of Marine Road and Conway Road, opened in 1936 as one of the original cinemas in Oscar Deutsch's chain of Odeon Theatres Ltd (which would become ODEON).
Its first screening, on April 25 that year, was “The Ghost Goes West".
Externally, it had a slender fin tower, clad in cream faience tiles and carrying the name ‘ODEON’ on top, with a rounded single-storey entrance.
At this point, there was seating for 1,706 people - 1,128 in the stalls and 578 in the circle.
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The theatre became one of the first casualties of the Government’s refusal to exclude cinemas from the Entertainment Tax, and with competition from television increasing, the building closed in 1957.
The building then lay derelict for 10 years, until its purchase by the Hutchinson Organisation of Burnley and subsequent conversion into a bingo club and single-screen, 700-seat cinema.
Now known as the Astra Entertainment Centre, it reopened on June 10, 1967 with a showing of the acclaimed film Doctor Zhivago.
The complex remained a popular place for moviegoers in the area, as well as those who were feeling lucky, before the bingo club and cinema both closed in 1986.
The Astra was demolished between 1987 and 1988, making way for the development Swn Y Mor, a home for the elderly, which remains there to this day.
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