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alerts before the blitz proper) escorting fighters came up the river. successful. Then three usherettes came
audiences, impatient at the The audience had taken the warning up of their own initiative and took
interruption, would often shout “Okay. quietly, well used to false alarms. command of the microphone. They
We heard!” as soon as he made his “Better step up the sound two points” started to sing and the effect was
appearance. said the Manager. instantaneous. Three pretty girls in
With the black-out the behaviour A stage show was starting. Some of Granada blue and gold uniforms
of some patrons deteriorated; more the audience began to get to their feet singing “Oh Johnny” in tune and time
cars and bicycles were stolen from the as the din from outside became terrific. rallied everyones spirits. They sang
car parks, seats were slashed, other “It’s all right, only our guns,” shouted everything they could for another half
fittings damaged and windows broken. Boyd Oxford from the organ. A hour.
Tempers frayed and a polite warning juggler went through his act without When the ‘All Clear’ sounded the
to “Mind the steps” sometimes dropping a ball, and the audience, audience walked home quietly through
brought, “They’re your – steps, mind taking their cue from him, moved the fires that raged around the
‘em yourself”. quietly over to the walls to stand and building. The manager and staff
Managers vied to obtain ‘personal watch. The band played on, the acts surveyed the damage. East Ham had
appearances’. Lieutenant Robert followed each other; no one left the suffered heavily. The Woolworths
Montgomery USN spoke from the theatre. store had taken a direct hit with a
stage of the Granada Woolwich. At the Granada Woolwich, exit heavy death toll. The Thames seemed
doors were blown open and the to be alight from Tower Bridge to the
chandeliers left swinging by the blast Arsenal. The Manager sent a runner
from bombs falling on the docks. down to West Ham to find out how
People began making for the exits, they had fared and he came back with

The Granada East Ham snatched the
‘fattest man in the Royal Navy’ from
under the nose of the Granada
Greenford, the suburb where he was
spending survivors leave from HMS
Hardy; though they were not so
successful when trying to feature a
Dunkirk survivor ‘with genuine sand
from the beaches still on his boots’;
last minute enquiries resulted in their
‘star’ being handed over to a military
escort from the Pioneer Corps where
he was wanted as a deserter.

STEP UP THE SOUND
only to see incendiaries burning on the the news that the Kinema had stopped
In August 1940 one of the first
pavement. The street was full of “A Blighty One”. Soon the West Ham
bombs to fall on London landed near
broken glass and clouds of black manager, covered in grime, was
the Granada East Ham. The organist
smoke billowed across the river. drinking tea with them. Nobody had
and some of the box staff on the roof
Some patrons stood in the foyer been hurt.
during this alert heard an ominous
undecided, others went back to their The West Ham Kinema was the first
swishing sound. They dived for the cat
seats, while others stood against the London cinema to be hit during a
ladder and dropped eight feet. The
walls. Children were crying. Manager performance. They were showing On
bomb fell near the East Ham station
Kohn rang down to Organist Cecil Your Toes. The bomb hit the rear and
on to a shelter, killing the occupants.
Chadwick, and asked him to go on, destroyed three dressing rooms. The
One of the second load of bombs to
then rang the box to stop the film and theatre secretary was buried in the
fall on London scored a direct hit on
went on stage himself. Chadwick wreckage but turned up as usual the next
the Alcazar Edmonton. New faces
came up with the organ and Kohn morning. The audience, as soon as they
joined the regulars at the Empire up
suggested to the audience that rather had recovered from the shock, started
the road.
than venture into the street they should singing; they are tough in West Ham,
On September 7 Hitler reduced the
stay put and sing. Chadwick struck up and that was how they felt about it.
tension in a big way by the first mass
in an effort to drown out the racket The staff of the Granada East
daylight raid on the East End. It was
from outside; the manager tried to Ham stayed in the theatre all night
on a Saturday afternoon when the
encourage singing by waving his arms rather than go home to a corner in a
cinemas were full, mainly with
about in what he hoped was time to cold and overcrowded shelter, and
women and children, that the Manager
the music, but with the regularity of with them stayed the hundred or so
and Chief Operator watched from the
the bomb bursts he could not be sure, die hard patrons who had come to the
roof of the Granada East Ham as
and for the first time on any stage he evening performance. They sang
three waves of 40 bombers, with
tried to sing himself. At first it wasn’t through the night while the usherettes
20 2003 CINEMARECORD