ABC Sauchiehall Street Glasgow 7

and only for long-running bookable films, the titles of which had to be advised to the Chief Constable on a weekly basis!

The auditorium, designed from the ground up in the 60s without the encumbrances of music hall or theatre architecture was modern, streamlined, wide and warm with wall to wall gold drapes and curtains covering one of the biggest cinema screens in Glasgow. The 922 seat stadium seating was on two levels, the lounge and the stalls and the seats were of "the latest individual design with extra width"

Carefully designed sight-lines, a state of the art sound system and the latest 70mm projection equipment married to a 56ft wide screen, at the time the widest in Scotland, completed a superb luxury cinema, the ideal venue for the long-run roadshow films of the day. Following an opening by Glasgow Lord Provost John Johnston on Thursday October 19th, the ABC2s first presentation was John Schlesinger's Far from the Madding Crowd Ticket prices ranged from seven and six to fifteen shillings and in keeping with the "theatre experience" of roadshow films, there were only two shows a day, a matinee at 2.30 and an evening performance at 7.30.

Such was the success of The Regal, Sauchiehall Street that in October 1967 ABC opened the ABC2. Built at a cost of some £250,000, the ABC2 was Scotland's first post-war cinema and was "a cinema designed, equipped and furnished to meet the high efficiency and comfort standards of the space age."

The uninspired box design by Leslie C. Norton and C.J. Foster was finished in brown brickwork relieved by a series of small square windows at the lounge bar and offices areas on the upper level. The entrance, with a readograph above, was flanked by shops and a Wimpy bar, with an aluminium faced canopy running the length of the building. Inside, a short stair led to the pay box and kiosk with the advance booking hall off to the left, wall finishes here were polished hardwood and specially designed mirrors. A few more stairs took patrons to the richly-carpeted foyer.

Leading off the foyer was the lounge bar, the licence for this and other Glasgow cinema bars at The Cosmo and The Coliseum was strictly and bizarrely controlled by Glasgow magistrates. The bar was open only to patrons half and hour before the show, during the intermission,

26 Sauchiehall Street, City Centre

Opened: October 1967
Closed: October 1999

Number of screens: 1

Number of seats 922