The Penistone Paramount Cinema

Compton Theatre Organ
This item is also on the Town Hall Tour and Town Hall History pages. The picture shows the Manager, Steve Tales, standing by the organ console in the auditorium:

The 'Mighty Paramount Theatre Organ' had originally been built for the brand new 3,000-seat Birmingham Paramount cinema which opened in 1937 (Cinema Treasures). The Birmingham Paramount would be renamed the Odeon in 1942. The organ was restored in the 1950s but removed in 1988 to The Oswestry Regal (Leg Street and Oswald Road, see Cinema Treasures), where it gave good service until the cinema closed in 1994.

The well-known Blackpool Tower Ballroom organist, Kevin Grunhill, bought the organ from Oswestry and set up Penistone Cinema Organ Trust. After careful restoration, it was installed in Penistone Town Hall in 1999 with due ceremony. This led to a new name for the Penistone theatre, now to be called the 'Penistone Paramount', replacing the generally unloved name of 'The Metro Cinema' imposed by BMBC in 1986.

Beginnings of the Organ at Penistone
On 1st March 1999, an agreement between Penistone Town Council and the Penistone Cinema Organ Trust was signed to install the former Paramount/Odeon, Birmingham Compton cinema organ into our Town Hall cinema. The Penistone Cinema Organ Trust was formed at the same time. The founding committee members were organists Kevin Grunill (Chairman), Ronald Dickinson (Vice Chairman), Frank Wensley (Treasurer), Barry Metcalfe and PTC Councillor Maureen Harrison (Chairman of Penistone Town Council’s Cinema Management Committee). Trustees on the committee were Barry and Georgina Grunill.

The 'Mighty Paramount Organ' was installed in the Town Hall with due ceremony that same year. The organ performances soon proved to be a popular attraction on Market Day afternoons (Thursdays) as mostly grey-haired music lovers pack coaches from far and wide to visit Penistone. As part of the same organisation, organ concerts were also held in St. Andrew's church, next to Penistone Library but these were discontinued. Another outpost at Barugh Green is part of the Penistone Organ Trust.

Steve showed me the Compton organ console and I was very privileged to see the secrets behind the scenes in the pipe room. The brilliant white organ console gives no real impression of how elaborate are the marvelous workings in the pipe room. The whole under-stage area is filled with row upon row of pipes and other instruments to give the organ its wonderful wide range of voices and special sound effects.

Organ Concerts
The first organ recital at the Paramount was in November 2001 with Kevin Grunhill tickling the ivories. Penistone's weekly organ concerts proved to be hugely popular from the start and can easily pack the town hall with mostly elderly music lovers. What they call 'the toy box' finds particular favour when the occasional silent film is being shown. Kevin G continued as the main organist for the Market Day organ concerts. The Organ Trust went on to provide a second venue for organ concerts at the Astoria Centre.

The organ has proved to be a very worthwhile asset to our great hall of entertainment. Everything is electrically controlled from the keyboard, which can be unplugged and moved about but the sounds come from air-driven pipes and a few solenoids. In its original setting at the Birmingham Odeon, the solenoid-operated console could also have controlled the theatre lights.

Under the Stage
The workings are installed under the stage, with rectangular grills just below the front of the stage allowing the sounds into the auditorium. There is a surprising array of pipes, instruments and sound effects. There is a wide range of instruments including a drum kit, xylophone and klaxon.

Air pump, under auditorium	Thin pipes	Percussion section, the 'toy box'
Big pipes	Electrickery	Swell control (flaps)
Tall pipes	Stylish pipes	Fat pipes
Xylophone & wooden pipes	High pitched pipes	Close-up of keys

Each bank of instruments is laid out rather like an old-fashioned telephone exchange, which is not surprising as it had been designed by an ex-GPO engineer. The air pump with air reservoir runs silently beneath the auditorium floor. The air pump motor also drives a generator to provide a low-voltage electrical supply for the organ's electrickery.

The special effects machinery ('the toy box') is very useful for when the occasional silent film is being shown. The organ swell (loudness) is controlled by a bank of solenoid-operated flaps at the front part under the stage, nearest the auditorium. As they are progressively opened, the volume increases, no doubt to rattle the loosest of dentures.