Cinema in Kirkcaldy: the golden era of the Rialto, Roxy, Gaumont and ABC

The Lang Toun was once home to a host of movie houses, each with names evocative of the past - the Regal, the Palace, the Rialto, the Gaumont, to name but a few.

Movies played to packed houses back in the day when you could barely see the screen for the cigarette smoke, but the memories of those days have been allowed to fade badly.

The last man standing was the ABC in the High Street.When Odeon took it over, it closed the doors and relocated to a shiny new multiplex at Halbeath That was 23 years ago. The building still stands, but in a dreadful state of disrepair - one that will take millions of £s to bring it close to being operational again.

It’s a sad state of affairs for a building with a remarkable history.

A lot of work has gone into making the building wind and watertight, but the decay inside is all around.

Just 40 years on from becoming a three screen cinema, the dividing walls between the two downstairs cinemas is now reduced to rubble.

The main cinema, which once sat 547 patrons - that’s more than the capacity at the Adam Smith Theatre - is a huge pigeon coup. The seats have all gone, but the distinctive outline of the venue remains, with a huge stage standing silent and empty

At the peak of its popularity, the old ABC had seating for 1000 people, and its projection rooms featured the latest in automation.

EMI, the owners, brought in state-of-the-art technology which meant an end to re-winding the film after 20 minutes – each cinema had a single projector, enabling a full programme of up to four hours 20 minutes to be put on the plate.

The automated system brought up the house lights, switched on and dimmed the lighting; tasks previously done manually by projectionists. Today some of that machinery remains, covered in dust.

The competition to launch the new cinema - known as ABC1-2-3 - included a ‘charm girls’ pageant which offered local women a trip to London and a tour of Elstree studios.

Each entrant not only listed their work and hobbies, but also their measurements - a sign of the times.

The Ollerton Hotel hosted the cinema’s launch and announcement of the winners who were Shelley Dales, who worked at Hughes Microelectronics; Roz Sibbald, a teacher, and Yvonne Whitehill, a special constable.

The judging panel included some weel-kent faces – including Malcolm Burness, editor of the Press, Sandy Clark, editor in chief, and Douglas Adams, the cinema manager.

Douglas was ’Mr ABC’ – a long-serving figure within the company, he was a genial, welcoming man, well known to cinema-goers as they queued outside.

Douglas worked all over Scotland with EMI, serving in Edinburgh, Dundee and Falkirk before gaining his first managerial position in the Lang Toun.