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Red
Red

Roses
Roses

Tonight
Tonight

BY GUY MORGAN
BY GUY MORGAN

A priority air-raid warning will be given to cinema managers when enemy aircraft are sighted
over the North Sea. You will not on any account pass on this priority warning to your audience.
You will merely give the warning ‘RED ROSES’ to your staff so that they will be prepared…
Memo to managers of the Granada Group August 1939.

ive and a half years of cinema were totally destroyed by bombs, 60 in to be replaced by SORRY WE’RE
Fgoing under war conditions London. This account is based on the CLOSED, FOLKS, HOPE TO RE-
showed the essential part that cinema experiences within the Granada Group OPEN SOON, GOOD LUCK TO
had come to play in the life of network of 20 London cinemas. They YOU ALL.
Londoners. Through discriminate and were involved in 60 incidents of direct As a first step to re-opening,
indiscriminate attack, cinemas were hit or near miss; one was destroyed theatres had to be blacked out. From
only closed by the government or by a and nine others were closed as a result then on black paint and black
direct hit. Though attendances dropped of damage for periods from one day to curtaining helped to darken the
at first, soon audiences queued months. The others never missed a day managers’ outlook. A cinema, designed
patiently in the dark while aircraft nor curtailed a performance. Of the to shed the maximum possible light on
droned overhead; they sat through millions of Granada patrons who paid its surroundings, is not an easy place
films while the building was rocked by for admission throughout the war, only to black out.
near misses and glass and plaster ten were killed and 35 injured in a Detailed plans in the event of
showered the auditorium, the film Granada theatre. All casualties were in closure had been sent from Granada
jumped or the spotlight beam careened one cinema on the occasion of a direct Head Office. They included the
from the stage to the ceiling. They put hit on an audience of 500. instruction that staff should be
out incendiaries in the stalls and went employed in spring-cleaning the
LIGHTS ON – LIGHTS OUT
back to the show; they came with rugs theatres. Staff turned to with a will,
The official announcement that
and blankets and hot water bottles cashiers and usherettes beating seats,
Britain was at war brought an over-
when the heating failed, and when part making blackout curtains, sticking
reaction. All theatres, music halls,
of the roof was blown off and rain gummed strips on windows and
cinemas and other places of
came in, they moved under the balcony scrubbing floors. Operators were busy
entertainment were ordered to close.
where it was dry. When their homes painting lamps, taking down and
The memo explained that there was a
were hit they came back the next storing bulbs; doormen were repairing
possibility of re-opening after the
morning with bomb dust still in their and filling sandbags and building
experience of air attacks had been
hair, and when the cinema was hit they watch-towers on roofs while managers
assessed. The conditions of re-opening
climbed over the rubble in the street to dealt with an army of inspectors.
would be dependent upon staff training
ask when it would re-open. Far from Usherettes at West Ham demanded
in first-aid and supplying premises
subscribing to the pre-war official view
with additional fire fighting equipment
of a cinema as a potential death trap,
and medical supplies. The change at
patrons came to regard their local as a
the Granada Greenwich was typical: Above: Still from London Can Take It
refuge, a strength and an escape.
down came the canopy program words (Crown Film Unit) 1940
Of 4,000 cinemas in Britain, 160
18 2003 CINEMARECORD