Big screen makes a fightback over telly

MANY people bought their first television in 1953 especially to watch the Coronation.

The knock-on effect was that they stopped their twice-weekly trips to the cinema. A family night at home around the TV became the norm.

Americans already had the TV habit and Hollywood film studios responded to falling audience numbers by introducing movies made for a giant panoramic process – CinemaScope. Films became bigger, if not better.

Dunstable’s Union Cinema caught up with the times in 1955 when it proudly showed off its huge new screen. Dunstable people were then able to see, in the proper format, films like The Student Prince, with Edmond Purdom’s voice dubbed by Mario Lanza, and The Black Shield Of Falworth, with Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.