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WE NEED YOUR MEMORIES!

We need your memories!

A team of newly trained interviewers equipped with skills in gathering oral history are looking for your memories!

The Thwaites Empire Theatre is celebrating 100 years of cinema and theatre at the site at Ewood that dates back to 1910. As part of the centenary celebrations the theatre is putting together a history of the venue based on the memories of local people. The team are keen to talk to anybody who worked at the cinema or enjoyed visiting as patrons during the heydays of cinema in Blackburn. They would also like to talk to people who were involved in the restoration and renovation of the building during the 1970s, as well as finding memories of the period when the building showed asian films.

Mike Johnson is the 2010 Project Coordinator for the Theatre. He says, ‘The Empire Cinema was an integral part of people's lives before the general availability of  TV etc., entertainment, news, special features, even a place to meet and fall in love!  The ‘living history' of the building is locked up in memories and we want to capture these memories before they are lost forever. Just simply chatting about the Empire can result it gems of information not available through any other means. If you remember the Empire in it's hey day as a cinema then let us come and chat with you.'

Already the team have spoken to Rene Hope one of the original usherettes now in her 80s, and Mr & Mrs Taylor who met at the Empire and have just celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary. As well as talking to individuals we are also looking for opportunities to take a reminiscence team into a community setting, for example a residential scheme or a community venue.

We are creating memory boxes to help prompt storytelling that can be used in outreach events like this.

Oral History Volunteers

 

The oral history team are volunteers. They worked with Andrew Schofield of the North West Sound Archive as part of the theatre centenary project funded by the Heritage Lottery.

If you would like to request a visit from the 2010 team then contact Mike at the Theatre on 01254 685 500 or by email, mike@empirearchive.net

Release Date: Wednesday 6 May 2009