Reflections with Frank Honeywood
click on the pictures to see them enlarged

Hello everyone – it’s great to be back once again. Over the years, ever since I began collecting photographs, I have been asked many times how and where I came to find and get the many pictures that make up my collection. As I thought about this, I suppose my answer would be “There is a story to be told for every picture or group of postcards”.

Take for instance:

Several years ago a friend of mine told me that a builder working in the old Fisher Theatre in Broad Street (he was doing some alterations to the building) found in the cellar, some old glass colour advertising slides that used to be shown in the intervals. They were about 2" x 2" and presumably were shown through a magic lantern.

This builder kindly let me borrow them so that I was able to get them copied on to modern slides. Over the past few months I am now gradually getting them reproduced as colour photographs so that they can be seen without using a slide projector.

Also enlarged copies will be given to the Theatre Trust to be on display in that building. It now gives me great pleasure to show you a few of them and try to tell you where the businesses were.

I have dated them all c.1930

To take the story further, In the early 1980’s when I was a committee member of the Bungay Society, the Society was visited by a bus load of cinema enthusiasts who were on tour in this area from Liverpool way. This group wanted to have a look at the Old Fisher Theatre / Cinema and the New Cinema and also visit old cinemas in Beccles and Lowestoft that weekend.

Before they left the town the Bungay Society provided them with tea and biscuits in the large hall of Emmanuel Church. While they were having tea I did a mini slide show using the advertising slides.

When the show was finished one of the visitors, a gentleman who owned a cinema in Liverpool asked me if he could borrow some of the slides for copying so that he could show them in his cinema at old time film shows that he held once a month in Liverpool.

In return he provided me with a tape recording of music that related to three of the slides I have in my collection. The tunes are as follows:

• Shepherd of the Hills (2 Editions) Twice
• I Wish I Had My Old Gal Back Again
• Sleepy Head

I sincerely hope you have found this interesting and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year

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