Savoy Cinema-Theatre (1930-1963)
ABC Cinema (1963-1986)
Cannon Cinema (1986-1995)
Virgin Cinema (1995-1997)
ABC Cinema (1997-1999)

75 East Street, Brighton 17
operated 1930-1999

The Savoy Cinema-Theatre at the time of its opening in 1930

[The site was that of Brill's Baths, one of the focal points of Regency Brighton, demolished January 1929.]

1930 August 1 Opened by Associated British Cinemas Ltd, designed in Art Deco style by William R Glen, faced with white glazed terracotta tiles tiles (hence known as the 'white whale'). Its interior was in a Japanese style and had 2,300 seats. It cost £200,000. Westrex sound system, underground car park with 300 places, two restaurants, two cafés and a dance hall. In the opening programme was a promotional introduction by the mayor of Brighton, Wilfred Aldrich, shot at Elstree. Prices, 1s, 1s 6d and 3s. During the final phase of construction, on 12 July, Ernest Smith, a 43-year-old electrical engineer from Mapperley, Nottingham, fell through the doorway and down the shaft of the console lift he was installing and fractured his skull. He died from his injuries at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
1948 2,630 seats, continuous performances
    January 8 midnight World premiere of Brighton Rock
1950s The manager is Councillor Alfred James Sadler (60 Florence Road, Brighton), who was mayor of Brighton 1958-59.
1957 2,560 seats
1958 March Refurbished for wide-screen presentations. Re-opened by the mayor of Brighton, Charles Tyson.
1963 Name changed to the ABC Cinema
1964 May 17-18 Mods and rockers smash windows during the Whitsuntide riots (the cinema is seen in some scenes of the film Quadrophenia)
1968 2,306 seats. Café, Wimpy Bar and ballroom
1968 Acquired with other ABC cinemas by EMI.
1975 November Closed for conversion
1976 April 3 Re-opened by Brighton mayor William Clarke as a four-screen complex with 820, 346, 284 and 231 seats. This soon led to the closure of the Astoria.
1986 the ABC chain is acquired by Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond, who soon sells it to Cannon. Renamed the Cannon Cinema
1995 summer Acquired by Virgin Cinemas
1997 Reverted to being the ABC Cinema, after being sold off by Virgin in a package of 238 screens/90 cinemas acquired for £68m by ABC Cinemas in a management buyout by former MGM managers who had run the chain until 1993.
1999 Closed.

The shell of the building has been preserved and converted into bars and restaurants.

Photo courtesy of Brighton & Hove Libraries' Brighton History Centre

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