Glasgow's Cinemas of the Past

So what was Glasgow like before the technology we have today, with the likes of the IMAX, 3D movies and DBox. Glasgow is full of Cinema complexes from Cineworld, to The Grosvenor to the IMAX complex. Glasgow is full of variety. So what was it like before?

02 ABC Academy/ABC Regal - Many of us now know the 02 ABC as Jellybaby or Propaganda depending on whether you go on a Thursday or Friday.It has cheap drinks, massive dance floor and good music, what else can you ask for? It was not always a popular club though. It was once a cinema and opened in November 1929 as ABC's Flagship Cinema. It is situated on Sauchiehall Street which is one of Glasgow's busiest both during the day for shopping and at night for the night life. When it open in 1929 as a cinema, it had the main auditorium above the car park. The interior was modernised in 1955 and then renamed in October 1967 with the main building named ABC1 and the second screen imaginatively named as ABC2.It was first new cinema to open in Scotland since the war and it was designed to be up to date in newly modern designs and also had a fully licensed bar. Weekly reported the opening of the £250,000 building as being "one of the biggest showmanship events in Glasgow's history."

Paramount Theatre/Odeon - The theatre opened on Reinfield Street on the 31st December 1934 and was one of the later cinemas built in the Paramount chain including Newcastle and Manchester. In 1939 the cinema like other paramount cinemas was sold to Odeon. Under this name, it continued successfully until 1970, with live shows being more popular than the film presentations. Most famously, both the Rolling Stones and the Beatles played at the Glasgow Odeon. The building was sold in March 2003 along with Odeon Edinburgh, and was taken over by Historic Scotland and gave it B-list status.