The programme changed weekly and films were shown from Monday to Saturday.  Although there is a record that shows that the programme changed in on Thursdays prior to the war. In the 1940/50's there were no shows on Sunday. 

 Interior - similar to the Empire Cinema Neath
Two isles with the centre and two side seating sections.
There was no circle - just an elevated section with
a simlar layout to the lower one shown above.

An evening's entertainment consisted of a supporting film (known as the 'B' movie), an interval when ice cream was served by smart girls with trays supported by a neck strap (pictured below), The News reel,  Pearl and Dean adverts, and a cartoon followed by the main feature film - the 'A' movie.  At the end of the last performance the national anthem was screened.

Performances were continuous from 2:00pm until around 10:00pm., which meant that you could come and go at times to suit yourself.

For years the price of admittance remained the same, from one shilling (5 new pence)  in the front rows to half a crown, (twelve and a half new pence) for the best seats at the rear of the hall.

The main ticket box was near the front entrance on the ground floor. A staircase, or the lift, provided access to the foyer (left) where tickets were presented before entering the auditorium.

There was also a smaller entrance at the side of the building with its own ticket office for the front stall seats - with access doors to the left of the screen.

The main entrance to the auditorium was from the foyer and lead to the middle of the two tier seating layout, which meant that patrons had to walk up one of two the carpeted isles for the higher priced seats or down the isles for the cheaper ones.  Steps were illuminated by unobtrusive downward facing lights.

Four usherettes, two for the lower end and two the upper section, were equipped with torches to escort patrons to their seats - there were 1,300 seats in total.

Film Releases   In the Menu we list the milestones when changes took place at the Neath Empire cinema and the films released during those years.   These are listed to give an idea of what cinemas goers in the UK were seeing at the time.

And a flash from the past.... 

Many cinemagoers will remember the certificate below which was shown before the start of a film.