Limerick Athenaeum - Athenaeum Permanent Picturedrome

Athenaeum Permanent Picturedrome

The Athenaeum Hall began to double as a theatre and cinema in the early 1900s, a common trend in theatres with the advancement of silent films, newsreels and 'talkies' into the 1930s. Control of the Athenaeum had been passed to Limerick Corporation and the Technical Education Committee (later the Vocational Education Committee) in 1896. In 1912, the Technical Education classes and part of the Limerick School of Art moved from the Athenaeum building to newly constructed premises in O'Connell Avenue. The now vacant lecture hall was leased out by the Technical Education Committee of the Corporation and reopened as the Athenaeum Permanent Picturedrome. It operated successfully until the effects of the Second World War began to take hold in the early 1940s. The first newsreel shown at the Athenaeum was in 1913 with a film of the Garryowen v University College Cork rugby match, which created intense excitement in the city. Notably, the Athenaeum opened its 'talkie' programme with the Al Jolson musical film Say It with Songs to celebrate St Patrick's Day in 1930.

In October 1930, the Athenaeum installed the ultramodern Western Electric Sound System, in time for the newly released Juno and the Paycock, an Alfred Hitchcock adaption of Seán O'Casey's play. However, the film only received one showing before members of the Limerick Confraternity raided the projection box and stole two reels of the film which were later burnt outside the cinema by a mob of at least twenty men in Cecil Street. Outbreaks of moral condemnation from Limerick's pulpits saw "filthy" cinema posters removed by lay vigilantes, including 1932's Blonde Venus, starring Marlene Dietrich, and Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 version of Cleopatra. The Sunday Times previewed Sotheby's Spring 1996 auction of old cinema posters in which their investment analyst stated "(they) have become an art genre in their own right" and placed an estimate of £6,000 and £10,000 on the posters respectively.

The effects of the Second World War became too much for the tenants, and they gave up their lease in 1941. Attempts by other interested parties, including theatre groups, to negotiate a lease with the VEC proved unsuccessful, with only sporadic openings over the next few years. The last films in the Athenaeum Cinema were shown in November 1946.