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Leeds is home to one of smallest cinema's in the world
It's one of the smallest cinemas in the world...but it's about to play host to some giants of the big screen.
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The tiny picture house in Leeds's Armley Mills Museum is a far cry from 21st century multiplexes. In fact, the playhouse could probably fit into one corner of the Titanic or the Starship Enterprise!
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With just 25 seats, the diminutive auditorium is pipped by only a handful of others – including a 21-seater in Nottingham and a 22-seater in Australia – to the title of the planet's smallest cinema.
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But now Leeds's own silver-screen 'classic' is getting a full scale revival with the launch of a new family film club.
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The monthly screenings, which will include family favourites like The Goonies, Coraline, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Night at the Museum, are the brainchild of Jane Earnshaw, the woman behind the I Love West Leeds festival.
She said she was proud to be giving the "cutest little cinema in the world" a much-deserved showcase.
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"It's a lovely cinema yet most people probably don't know about it," Miss Earnshaw said.
"It is a proper old cinema with tilted seats from an old cinema which are numbered.
"It has a beautiful 1920s theme, red velvet curtains, replica gas lights and the tiniest little ticket booth.
"It came out of an old cinema in Leeds.
"I love Armley Mills and I just wanted to do something in partnership with the staff and to offer something year round for the family which is affordable."
The cinema at Armley Mills is a reconstruction of the former Armley Picture Hall of 1912.
It runs on two early 'Kalee' projectors which were built in the 1920s and were later adapted for sound.
Although now using modern arc lights, the original halogen lights and mechanics have been retained and to complete the 1920s feel, a piano stands at one end of the screen.
In the early days of cinema it would have provided accompaniment to silent films.
Even the screen itself is authentic – with an 'Academy aspect' ratio and rounded corners from the early days of film-making.
The first screening for the new family film club will be The Secret Garden on Sunday, at 2pm. Future screenings will be on the last Sunday of every month.
The club is being funded by the Find Your Talent project run by Leeds City Council.
Prices are 3, with up to two children getting in free with every adult ticket.
Book now on 07914 4745151.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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