in fibrous plaster, and hand-painted ceiling". The dimensions of the stage were also recorded as "Its width is 74 feet, the distance from the curtain line to the back wall is 40 feet, the distance from stage to grid is 50 feet, and the proscenium opening is 30 feet in width. Use as a cinema In November 1901, less than a year after opening, the theatre began showing films and in 1913 it was granted a cinema licence. The owner/managers, Messrs J. P. Moore & Montague Beadyn, also increased the capacity in 1910 from 2,000 to 3,000. However, from 1917 to 1919 the venue became a theatre once more. In 1919 the theatre consultant Mr. Watson redesigned the auditorium with interior paintings and a Tudor Café and the theatre became predominantly a cinema again under H. D. Moorhouse, and remained a cinema until its closure in July 1958. The owner/managers from 1945 were Broughton Cinemas Ltd. 1958–1971 Following the cinema's closure in July 1958 the theatre was used as a clothing / furniture store with some performances by repertory groups, including Venture Productions, and pantomimes being staged during the 1960s. From the mid 1960s until the summer of 1971, the theatre was owned by a Salford businessman, Councillor Sam Goldberg. Goldberg allowed repertory groups such as Venture Productions to put on productions rent free. He also used the theatre as winter headquarters for his own Southport Repertory Company. Goldberg tried unsuccessfully to sell the freehold to Salford City Council, in the hope that they might operate the building as a civic theatre and arts centre. Talks stalled after it was estimated that the cost of modernising the building could be about £80,000, the theatre was running at a loss at the time of Goldberg's death. Councillor Cecil Franks, the chairman, said it was hopeless to try to maintain a "Victorian relic" of this size in its present form. Goldberg died prior to the North Manchester Amateur Operatic Society's production of "The Quaker Girl", May–June 1971, (music by Lionel Monckton, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank), the theatre then lay dark. Use as a bingo hall After a brief unsuccessful attempt to run the venue as a bingo hall in 1973 the theatre closed again. It then remained dark until the 1980s when a second attempt was successful and the bingo hall remained open until 2008. The theatre became a