Wymondham legend Les King looks deep in thought 30 years ago on the evening of 28 June 1993, perhaps reflecting on his many years managing Wymondham’s Regal Cinema, for it was the last film show before he closed the cinema. Among the reasons he mentioned for the closure were problems with heating and sound, as well as rising bills and falling attendances. He also said it was increasingly difficult to compete “with television, satellite movies and video games”, as well as those cinemas in Norwich. I remember my wife and I getting the last two seats for a screening of Grease about 1979, but later the audiences dwindled.
Les had employed many ideas to try and attract customers, among them well behaved dog’s nights and courting couples’s nights, where the ladies were admitted free. Once when a Western was screened he led a horse round the aisles! However, perhaps his greatest triumph was when he showed David Puttnam’s Memphis Belle and managed to persuade the pilot of the Sally B, the Second World War B-17 Flying Fortress used in the film, to fly over the cinema when the movie was screening there. He arranged discos in the adjoining clubhouse, with groups like Procol Harum and Slade also playing gigs.
However, in spite of all his valiant attempts to keep the cinema going, the end was inevitable. He chose the movie The Bodyguard, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, for what he termed “Les King’s Farewell Performance” with admission £3, while for another £3 film lovers could keep their seat as a souvenir. Ironically people flocked to the Regal that night with among the audience Kevin Body, the town mayor, and boxer Herbie Hide, that year’s British heavyweight champion.
Les had been employed by Norwich businessman Roy Dashwood as a doorman “to maintain strict discipline” in 1965, but a year later he became manager and when the Wymondham Ex-Service Men’s Club bought the building from Dashwood Les leased the Regal part until he called it a day. With the way he kept the cinema going over many years Les was a true star!
