Entertainment

French Cinema in Brighton (2) 1907-1914

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Until early 1909 there was not one single hall or theatre in Brighton dedicated to moving pictures.  Patrons could see “exhibitions” of animated images as part of a variety performance or as a novelty on the Palace Pier or the Alhambra on Kings Road.

The first “cinema” in Brighton was the Electric Bioscope Theatre in Western Road, just a few yards from the corner of Montpelier Road (where Waitrose stands in 2023). It opened on Saturday 13 February and was immediately successful.  The Pathé film of the disastrous 1910 floods in Paris was one of the myriad of French films shown in Brighton before the outbreak of the Great War.

800px-ND_141_-_PARIS_-_La_Grande_Crue_de_la_Seine_-_Rétablissement_de_la_circulation_par_passerelles_au_Quai_de_Passy_inondé

A postcard showing an image that might have been seen in an early version of the Pathé newsreels which were a staple of British cinema until the 1970s. Wikimedia Commons

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French cinema in Brighton (1) 1896-1907

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School-friends Jemima and Annabel are swapping their experiences of a new invention.

Albion House,

135 King’s-road,

Brighton,

Saturday, 4th July, 1896

My Dearest Jemima,

How I love being on holiday in Brighton!  We’re staying in Mr Hockley’s boarding house on the corner of Preston Street and my room has a view of the sea and the West Pier. Everything is so exciting but last night was really special.  I cut out the advertisement for you from the Brighton Gazette on Thursday.  Mother, Father and I just had to go and see what it was all about.

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Dansez français

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Jan Mulreany shares her passion.

You might not think you would ever encounter a full set of cornemuses Auvergnates or cabrettes [bagpipes from the Auvergne region] in a Sussex pub, nor hear the wail of a French hurdy-gurdy as you come round the corner in Shoreham, but for the last thirty years someone has been doing this in Brighton, and dancing to it too.

IMG_4747

Dansez Français demonstrate their skills at the Centenary celebrations of the Brighton and Hove French Circle. Her Majesty the Queen gazes benevolently at the Breton flag. The Hove Club, 2015. Image: Suzanne Hinton.

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Brighton’s French Music Festival, 1881 (2)

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Just a year ago, in my blog about Brighton’s 1881 Music Festival, I stated: “A great part of the success of the Festival does seem to have been due to the excellent organisation by Chérifel de la Grave.”

Should I have been more alive to this newspaper report?

The national press went a little further in criticism of the practical arrangements of the Festival:

Were there flaws in the organisation?  Well, the chief conductor of the participating Orphéon from Châlons-sur-Marne certainly thought so.  His 50-page account of his band’s trip to Brighton is very revealing.

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Brighton, 14 November 1827

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On this day, exactly 193 years ago, a dapper 46-year-old Frenchman attended an elegant ball in the Assembly Rooms of the Old Ship Hotel, Brighton. What a splendid affair.  The rooms had recently been redecorated by Frederick Crace following his successful work at the Royal Pavilion.  The officers of the 52nd Infantry and the 7th Hussars were in their dress uniform (although the latter disgraced themselves by dancing while wearing their swords).  The ladies were magnificent in their ballgowns and jewels.  Even elderly Mrs Fitzherbert graced the event with her presence.

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Hospitality is the fertiliser of the soul

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In 2002, when the organisers of the Golden Jubilee Party in Regency Square (of which this blogger was one) invited the Orchestre d’Harmonie de Dieppe to play, they did not realise that they were following a long tradition.

In 2002, when the organisers of the Golden Jubilee Party in Regency Square (of which this blogger was one) invited the Orchestre d’Harmonie de Dieppe to play, they did not realise that they were following a long tradition.

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Brighton’s French Festival of Music (1)

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Imagine the grand sight of two thousand musicians and choristers in “a daylight procession [starting] from the Pavilion at six in the evening and having marched with music and banners along the Kings-road to Brunswick-terrace, will return by the same route to the Pavilion grounds.” (Daily Telegraph and Courier).

Grand festival of music

What the advert above does not highlight is that almost each one of these two thousand performers was a Frenchman (with a few French-speaking Swiss and Belgians in the mix for good measure).  Conference delegates descending on Brighton en masse is nothing new, for this event took place in 1881.

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The Laughing Onion

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In 2014, the following announcement appeared in The Argus:

J-J Jordane death notice

Jean-Jacques Jordane

The Stage Thursday 20 April 1967 (c) British Newspaper Archive

The announcement is deceptively bland.  It gives very little clue to the life of this charismatic man, chanteur and chef/owner of the Laughing Onion Restaurant in Kemp Town.

If you read no further, watch Stephen Matthew’s wonderful short video about Jean-Jacques

Jean-Jacques looked every bit the French pin-up ‘boy’ of the time and spent 18 months in the early 1960s performing in Britain. Continue reading →