There was a special 21st Birthday presentation of the 'Student Prince' on October 15th 1956 which was extremely well attended. However, the same group which had demolished the Clifton at Failings Park so suddenly, Newbold Securities, began to negotiate for the Regal to follow the same fate! Like the Clifton, the end came very quickly. On March 17th 1962, 'Naked Edge' starring Gary Cooper was the final film to be shown at the Regal. There were demands from the local community for a reprieve but within weeks the cinema building was demolished. It was replaced by a Fine Fare (now Solo) Supermarket.

In Bilston, the 50's produced a further series of changes to the local cinemas. The Alhambra's lease passed into the hands of Ken Woodroffe and his wife Doris who set about a major refurbishment of the cinema. They hired Modernisation Ltd. to carry out the work and had a Western Electric sound system installed. There were still major problems for the cinema, like regular flooding, but in general the Alhambra managed to survive the 50's quite well. It was in the 60's that the Woodroffes had to resort to Bingo and Asian films in an attempt to survive.

By 1964 the Woodroffes had given up the battle to provide regular presentations and they relinquished the lease. The cinema remained open for the screening of Asian films on a part-time basis. In 1982 an application was made for the cinema building to become a clothes shop. It is now part of Kwik Save Supermarket.

The Savoy seemed to plod on through the 50's. In 1957 the lease held by C.S. Joseph ended and it passed back to the Wood family. In July 1959 it was put up for sale by Reay Wood, the son of Thomas Wood. It was sold in 1962 and demolished to become a part of the Tesco Supermarket.

What of Wolverhampton's super cinemas during this period?

The Gaumont, like the other super-cinemas, enjoyed a very successful wartime period and it probably expected that a similar situation would continue long after the war.

During the 1950's there were a number of attempts by the management of the cinema to obtain a licence for the showing of live entertainment which was both successful and unsuccessful, according to the feelings of the licensing magistrates or the degree of opposition from the Grand Theatre. During those successful periods, the Gaumont featured a range of popular artists including Bill Haley, Little Richard, Cliff Richard and the Beatles (both pre and post Beatlemania). In the 1960's the Gaumont had a number of late night film shows featuring some of the classics of the cinema and quite regular Saturday morning matinees in an attempt to increase audiences.

However, by the early 70's and a continuing decline in audiences it became quite clear that the Rank Organisation, which controlled both the Gaumont and the Odeon, would be unlikely to keep both town centre cinemas open. Most Wulfrunians expected the Gaumont, as it was the larger and more impressive of the cinemas, to remain open.

In 1973 Rank announced that the Odeon was to be tripled. This meant the end for the Gaumont! On November 10th 1973 the last complete performance took place with the showing of 'The Great Caruso' starring Mario Lanza and the classic 'Singing in the Rain' starring Gene Kelly. In 1974 the building was demolished. It was replaced ultimately by Allied Carpets. It is now the site of Wilkinson's General Stores and Curves Fitness Studio. The building virtually covers the exact ground space of the former cinema.

The cinema celebrated it's 40th birthday in 1977 with the showing of a whole series of cinema classics. This was four years after the cinema had been tripled by Rank. The practice of increasing (doubling/tripling) the number of screens in a cinema had begun at the start of the 70's. The Odeon was the first example in the town.

When Rank decided that the Gaumont would close and the Odeon remain open, the decision to subdivide the cinema seemed logical. The old Odeon closed in August 1973 and reopened with three screens on October 7th 1973. The new arrangements involved Screen 1 with 622 seats (the former circle), Screen 2 with 96 seats and Screen 3 with 111 seats. The first films to be shown at the new Odeon were 'Live and Let Die' (1), 'Fist of Fury' (2) and 'Sleuth' (3).

The tripling of the Odeon did not prevent the cinema becoming caught up in the general withdrawal of the Rank Organisation from cinema and on June 4th 1983 the Odeon showed its final programme of films. The last films were 'Boys in Blue' starring Cannon & Ball, 'Table for Five' starring Jon Voight and 'Nutcracker'  starring Joan Collins. The cinema was converted for Bingo by Top Rank. It officially opened on September 9th 1983. It is still one of the town's major Bingo venues.

The third of the town's super cinemas, the Savoy, had opened on December 20th 1937 with the films 'Let's Make a Night of It' with Buddy Rogers and 'Last Train from Madrid' with Lew Ayres and Dorothy Lamour. Like the other town cinemas the Savoy was very successful during the war and was still drawing the crowds in the years immediately after the war. In 1948 the cinema began its own ABC Minors Club.

In December 1960 the cinema became known as the ABC rather than the Savoy, although many Wulfrunians continued to use the original name for the cinema. In February 1969 ABC was taken over by EMI (Electrical & Musical Industries) and the new owners set about redeveloping their cinemas. In 1974 EMI decided to triple the ABC cinema, in direct competition to the Odeon. On May 13th 1974 the newly tripled ABC opened. There were three screens with 590, 127 and 97 seats respectively. When the Odeon closed as a cinema in 1983, the ABC remained as the only cinema in the town. By the end of 1986 EMI had become Thorn EMI and the new company had sold out its interest in the cinema chain to the American company, Cannon. As a direct product of the change the ABC now became the Cannon cinema. However, the new cinema (at least in name) did not prevent the continuing fall in audience figures.

On October 17th 1991, the Cannon closed. The final programme of films was 'Jacob's Ladder' (Screen 1) starring Tim Robbins, 'Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves' (Screen 2) starring Kevin Costner and 'Out For Justice' (Screen 3) starring Steven Seagal.

The building remained derelict until this year (1996) when a redevelopment programme began. The intention is to develop the premises into a leisure and shopping complex (with cinema facilities) called the Metro Link Centre with a new Midland Metro Station.

The closure of the Cannon did not mean that the town had no cinema. In 1991 the Light House Cinema opened as part of the Light House development at the former Chubb/Baelz building in Fryer Street. The cinema has two screens and shows many of the more popular films of the day as well as some of the minority interest films.

There are currently plans under consideration for the development of a Multiplex cinema in the town. Two sites have been proposed for the new cinema, one near to the former Low Level Station and one in Wednesfield. It remains to be seen which, if either, is selected, although at the time of writing the Wednesfield Bentley Bridge seems the more likely choice of site for the new cinema complex.

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