IN August 1927, audiences at the Birkdale Picture Palace were treated to ‘a picture of magnificence and splendour’ starring matinee idol Norman Kerry.
Now, 80 years on, a poster advertising the silent movie with that immodest tag-line, ‘The Love Thief’, has been added to a growing collection of local memorabilia.
The poster, listing the weekly showings at Birkdale’s first – and long-since gone – cinema has been framed and mounted on the wall of June Marshall’s Cherry Road home for the last 20 years.
It was printed on the Southport Visiter’s old presses in the resort, and is among pieces loaned to Birkdale Civic Society in their Visiter- publicised drive to curate exhibits for their anniversary display.
The exhibition will be held at the Botanic Gardens Museum in the last week in September and the first fortnight in October, following this summer’s 25th anniversary of Birkdale Civic Society’s creation.
June, 66, used to live in Upper Aughton Road in the village, only doors away from where Birkdale Picture Palace showed silent films between 1913 and its closure in 1929.
But it was a relative of June’s, the late Brian Church, who discovered the poster in the 1980s in what had been the Palace’s projection room. Mr Church had opened a car repair business in the old Palace premises opposite the Air Training Corps HQ.
“He gave it to me as he thought it was something I would be interested in,” said June, a retired caretaker at Woodvale Primary school, now Kings Meadow Primary. “I just thought it was something different.”
Ralph Gregson, chairman of Birkdale Civic Society, explained the Palace had “quite a chequered history”.

Its move to Bedford Road in 1929 – where it was renamed the Bedford – followed intense pressure from nearby residents angered by “the constant noise coming out of the premises”.
“It certainly wasn’t like the cinema we have now in Ocean Plaza,” said Mr Gregson.
After the Palace’s desertion, its premises were used by the sweet manufacturers White Hudson.
Mr Gregson said: “The recent article on our anniversary in Look Back has created tremendous new interest and offers of memorabilia.
“The poster is a piece of Birkdale history, unknown to many people, and we are pleased to have it in front of us.”
l If you have any items which you think may be of interest to Birkdale Civic Society, call Ralph Gregson on 01704-566254.
l To find out more about Birkdale Civic Society visit their homepage on our new website: www.southportcommunities.co.uk

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