Recent letters about bygone cinemas in Brighton prompted me to delve into one of the most eventful periods in cinema history, when movies became talkies in the late-Twenties.

At that time, the Regent, which had opened in 1921, was the only super cinema in Brighton and, in fact, proudly claimed to be the first of its kind in Europe.

Built and owned by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres Ltd, it was soon acquired by Gaumont British.

In January 1929, the Regent was showing its last silent main feature, Two Lovers, starring Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky. During the run, there was a serious fire at the stage end which led to the cinema's closure for several months.

Restored and considerably redesigned, the Regent re-opened on July 1, 1929, with Al Jolson in The Singing Fool but the race to be first with sound in Brighton had resulted in a dead heat as, on the same day, the Palladium on the seafront showed the talkie The Doctor's Secretary, starring Ruth Chatterton.

I visited the Regent during the run of The Singing Fool and when the first item on the programme was screened a sound trailer for Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail the audience clapped enthusiastically upon hearing the dialogue.

Programmes were continuous. Immediately before entering the auditorium, a red light would warn you if a sound film was in progress, in which case silence was requested.

A very early convert to sound was the little Tivoli (Embassy) in Western Road, Hove, where the Singing Fool was given a second run after the Regent.

Prior to this, the Tivoli had struggled with Al Jolson's first film, The Jazz Singer, which was only part sound.

Unfortunately, the Tivoli had Sound on Disc equipment, which gave rise to synchronization problems. The Electric Empire in George Street, Hove, had similar sound problems and I recall the operator slowing the speed of projection to enable the sound on disc to catch up with the vision.

Not all exhibitors were keen to get wired up for sound. The Princes in North Street, Brighton displayed a banner "Silence Is Golden" and claimed to have two orchestras, one for each film in a double feature programme. But, of course, the change over to sound became inevitable.

I suppose one would consider the next cinema landmark to be in the Fifties, with the introduction of cinemascope and other wide screen systems incorporating high fidelity stereo sound but that's another story.

-Bert Hobden, manager, Gaiety Cinema, Brighton, 1959-1967