When it all began - 1925
Building started in 1925 but the The Empire Cinema Neath was opened on 19th October 1926 by Alderman Richard Jenkins the Mayor of Neath.
It was built by W.H.Snow & Sons (Neath) Ltd. In charge of the building was Vincent Snow pictured right (aged 26) - it was his first big contract.
The Neath Empire was founded the firm: Hedge and Sons (established in 1889). Mr N C Hedge, founder and director of the firm, was one of the town's foremost business men. His example of enterprise and business was emulated by his three sons, of which Cecil and Ivor Hedge went on to manage the Empire Cinema.
The cinema had a major refurbishment in 1936 - see menu for Milestone 1936.
Films released in 1925
The year the cinema was being built
U.S.A. unless stated
Are Parents People?
The Battleship Potemkin (Bronyenosyets Potyomkin), directed by Sergei Eisenstein - (U.S.S.R.)
Ben-Hur, directed by Fred Niblo, starring Ramón Novarro, Francis X. Bushman and May McAvoy
The Big Parade, directed by King Vidor and starring John Gilbert and Renée Adorée
Braveheart, starring Rod La Rocque
Chess Fever (Шахматная горячка) - (U.S.S.R.)
The Circle
Cobra, starring Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi
Corazón Aymara, directed by Pedro Sambarino; first Bolivian fiction feature film
The Dark Angel, directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Vilma Bánky and Ronald Colman
Don Q, Son of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Astor and Donald Crisp
The Eagle, starring Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky
East Lynne, starring Edmund Lowe
The Everlasting Whisper, starring Tom Mix
Le fantome du Moulin-Rouge (The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge), directed by René Clair - (France)
Fifty-Fifty, starring Hope Hampton, Lionel Barrymore and Louise Glaum
The Freshman, starring Harold Lloyd
General Nogi and Kumasan (Nogi taisho to Kumasan) - (Japan)
Go West, starring Buster Keaton
The Gold Rush, a Charlie Chaplin film
The Goose Woman, directed by Clarence Brown and starring Louise Dresser
The Heart Breaker
His People
His Supreme Moment directed by Marshall Neilan and starring his wife Blanche Sweet with Ronald Colman
El Húsar de la muerte (Hussar of the Dead), starring and directed by Pedro Sienna - (Chile)
Isn't Life Terrible
Joyless Street (Die freudlose Gasse), directed by G.W. Pabst, starring Greta Garbo - (Germany)
The King on Main Street, starring Bessie Love & Adolphe Menjou dir. by Monta Bell
A Kiss For Cinderella
The Lady, starring Norma Talmadge
Lady Windermere's Fan, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Ronald Colman and May McAvoy
Little Annie Rooney, starring Mary Pickford
The Lost World, starring Bessie Love and Wallace Beery
The Lucky Devil, starring Richard Dix
Madame Behave, starring Julian Eltinge and Ann Pennington
Master of the House (Du skal ære din hustru) - (Denmark)
Men and Women, starring Richard Dix
The Merry Widow, directed by Erich von Stroheim, starring Mae Murray and John Gilbert
Les Misérables - (France)
The Monster, starring Lon Chaney
The Mystic, starring Aileen Pringle; directed by Tod Browning
Orochi - (Japan)
Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, and Norman Kerry
The Plastic Age - directed by Wesley Ruggles, screen-written by Frederica Sagor Maas, starring Clara Bow (her debut) and Gilbert Roland; Clark Gable was also in this film
The Pleasure Garden, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Nita Naldi and Virginia Valli - (Britain)
Pretty Ladies, directed by Monta Bell
Quo Vadis (1925 Film), starring Emil Jannings
The Rat, starring Ivor Novello, Mae Marsh and Isabel Jeans - (Britain)
Sally, Irene and Mary directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Constance Bennett, Joan Crawford & Sally O'Neil
Sally of the Sawdust, directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Carol Dempster and W.C. Fields
Seven Chances, a Buster Keaton film
Smouldering Fires directed by Clarence Brown and starring Pauline Frederick and Laura La Plante
Stella Dallas, starring Ronald Colman and Belle Bennett
The Street of Forgotten Men
Street Sketches (Gaijo no suketchi) - (Japan)
Strike (Stachka), directed by Sergei Eisenstein - U.S.S.R.)
The Swan directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki; starring Frances Howard, Adolphe Menjou and Ricardo Cortez
Tartuffe, directed by F. W. Murnau - (Germany)
Thou Shalt Honor Thy Wife, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer - (Denmark)
Three Weeks in Paris, starring Matt Moore
Too Many Kisses, directed by Paul Sloane
Tumbleweeds, starring William S. Hart
Under the Crimson Sunset (Akai yuhi ni terasarete) - (Japan)
The Unholy Three, starring Lon Chaney
Variete (Jealousy), starring Emil Jannings - (Germany)
Visages d'enfants (Faces of Children), directed by Jacques Feyder - (France)
The Whirlpool of Fate (La Fille de l'eau), directed by Jean Renoir - (France)
The White Lily Laments (Shirayuri wa nageku) - (Japan)
Wizard of Oz, starring Dorothy Dwan
Wolf Blood
Womanhandled, starring Richard Dix and Esther Ralston
A Woman of the World, starring Pola Negri
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