Murphy’s Town Hall Athenry 45 1948-50 Note – While Slideshows and Moving Pictures had been shown in the Hall from the very early days, and the Hall held the requisite Cinematographic Licence, it would appear from the surviving documentation, that these were mainly screened by Travelling Picture Companies, and not necessarily by the Murphy family themselves. In the period following Dick Murphy’s death in 1945, visiting companies continued screening Cinema Shows in the Hall (e.g. Daniel Ryan and also the Smith family). However, sometime around about 1948-50, 82 Richard Murphy Jr began performing the role of projectionist for the Hall Cinema. Richard Jr would have been 16 going on 17, by this time. It is certain that Richard was performing this role by 1950, as The Irish Catholic Newspaper, 9th November 1950, page 5, carried the piece opposite, asserting that Richard Jr was “one of the most efficient and certainly the youngest projectionist in 16 mm in this country...” 83 5th & 6th January 1950 – Athenry Dramatic Club performed The Righteous Are Bold in the Hall, a 1946 play in Three Acts by Frank Carney, set in 1945 (source: Hall Journal see also Connacht Tribune 31st December 1949, page 6). 8th January 1950 – I’ll Be Yours, a 1947 musical comedy starring Deanna Durbin, William Bendix and Tom Drake, was screened in the Hall (source: Hall Journal, see also Connacht Tribune 7th January 1950, page 10, advertisement headed ATHENRY TOWN HALL CINEMA). 29th January 1950 – King of the Zombies, a 1941 movie starring Dick Purcell, Joan Woodbury and Mantan Moreland was screened in the Hall (source: Hall Journal, see also Connacht Tribune 28th January 1950, page 9, advertisement headed ATHENRY TOWN HALL PICTURES). 3rd February 1950 – Athenry Dramatic Club again performed The Righteous Are Bold in the Hall (source: Hall Journal). 5th February 1950 – Wanted for Murder (aka A Voice in the Night), a 1946 British crime film starring Eric Portman, Dulcie Gray, Derek Farr, and Roland Culver was screened in the Hall (source: Hall Journal). NB: See 19th May 1950 below for a piece relating to an arson attempt on the Hall, on this night. 12th February 1950 – Northwest Outpost, a 1947 movie starring Nelson Eddy was screened in the Hall, (source: Hall Journal, also see Connacht Tribune 11th February 1950, page 9). 13th February 1950 – Jimmy Robertson’s Players performed several plays in the hall including those listed below (source: Hall Journal, see also Connacht Tribune 11th February 1950, page 9): Lady in Danger The Wild Geese Sweeney Todd In a Monastery Garden 5th March 1950 – His Butler's Sister, a 1943 Comedy starring Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Pat O'Brien, Akim Tamiroff, Evelyn Ankers and Hans Conried was screened in the Hall, (source: Hall Journal, also see Connacht Tribune 4th March 1950, page 9). 82 NB: Its possible that Richard Jr took over this role in late December 1948, with the screening of On Stage Everybody (see above), as the Smith family, which had been screening films in the Hall, placed an advert on page 9 of the Connacht Tribune 4th December 1948, saying that they would no longer be involved in the Hall Cinema. Unfortunately we don’t know for certain what the sequence of events was but there is no doubt that Nora began screening the films around this time with the assistance of Richard Jr etc. 83 Full size image of this news cutting is included in the images at the back
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