Following a series of press ads highlighting the comfort and strength of the building, with its "huge raft of rock-like foundations 27ft below street level", Green's Playhouse, Renfield Street opened on September 15th 1927 with the Monty Banks film Play Safe, a comedy famous for its runaway train scene.

That first performance was the culmination of nearly four years' work and a remarkable achievement for the Green family.

Originally from Preston, the Greens were showmen who had moved their fairground to Glasgow in the late 1800s, shortly afterwards George Green became one of the pioneers of cinema exhibition in Glasgow, making and showing films at his showground in Gallowgate in the East end of the city.

Such was the success of these shows that in 1908 Green's purchased the Whitevale theatre in Gallowgate, the start of a chain of local cinemas which included Gorbals, Possil, Tollcross and Rutherglen.

To secure the best films, Green's needed a city centre venue and after buying up properties, by 1924 they owned the city block bounded by Renfrew Street, West

Nile Street, Renfield Street and Renfrew Lane and were ready to build what would become at the time the biggest cinema in Europe.

For one of the major circuits, The Playhouse would have been a major project, for a small family firm like Greens it was a massive undertaking, demonstrating great confidence in the future of cinema in Glasgow, something that was appreciated even by Green's competitors.

The architect of Green's Playhouse was John Fairweather, whose speciality was cinema design and who had already designed Green's Picturedromes in Tollcross and Rutherglen and prepared for his most important job to date by touring America in 1922 to study their cinema design ideas.

His plans were approved in 1925 and construction began of a venue which would boast a 4000 seat cinema, a ballroom, tea rooms and a golf range.

126 Renfield Street, City Centre

Opened: September 15th 1927
Closed: June 16th 1985

Designed by: John Fairweather

Number of screens: 1

Number of seats:
Green's Playhouse: 4368
Apollo: 3500