Calling all CSI sleuths

[Timbottawa]

I have a photo, which is in terrible condition,  of a group of theatrical people sitting outside a theatre.  I'd like to know which theatre, and what is written on a bill board in the photo.  I attached cropped images of the theatre name and the billboard.

1. Theatre name.  It is clearly Coliseum, but what word precedes it?  The script is different, so it may not be the "Something" Coliseum, but your thoughts would be welcome.

2. Billboard.  Yes, I can make out "O.K."!  And the first line is obviously "Coliseum".  I think 2 lines below O.K. it says "Musical Concert", but I've played around with contrast etc, in Adobe Photoshop without getting any further - I need an expert!

Thanks for all ideas
Tim

[PaulineJ]

I think the leading word is  ? E T ? G A T E

Pauline

[Arranroots]

I agree with Pauline - something-gate

Google identifies a few Coliseum theatres:

London Coliseum - Matcham designed red-brick
Oldham 20s, no glass
Aberystwyth 20s, sign at top of building, not glass BUT was it different in the past?
Aberdare - ditto

Unfortunately we can't be sure that the photos available are anything like their former glory - the Aberystwyth theate seems to have been quite different in the past.

What does the place look like if you don't crop the image?

kind regards, Arranroots 

p.s. there are also Coliseum cinemas, just to complicate matters!

[MaryA]

I think the leading word is  ? E T ? G A T E

Pauline

The first "E" doesn't look like the last "E" does it? maybe an L?  The last T totally agree, but looking at the first "T" it takes up less space widthways than the second, could it be an "I"?

No solutions but others will do more thinking about it.

[Timbottawa]

Thanks for your thoughts, Pauline and Arranroots.  I attach the entire photo, if that helps, but I think it just shows how bad it is - a copy of a copy of ...

However, knowing which relative the original belonged to, I'm confident that the theatre would have been in Yorkshire - most likely Leeds, Scarborough or possibly Bradford.  Newcastle is a possible non-Yorks location.

Cheers
Tim

[Arranroots]

Ah - there was a Coliseum Building in Leeds - will find out a bit more - wait one...

[Arranroots]

You can see it here:


http://www.rootschat.com/links/0tk/

(enlarge the photo on the bottom right to see the canopy - could be a candidate?)

A 

[Timbottawa]

Thanks Arranroots,

The link in your message didn't take me to a photo, but looking around the same site I found a photo of the Colisseum in 1946 as the Gaumont Cinema .... is that the photo you were meaning?  If so, then it has an awning, like in the photo, but I don't think there's enough in either photo to go further than that, do you?

Cheers
Tim

[Arranroots]

Bizarre!  Yes, that's the one.  The site must have changed since the Google spiders visited!

It would be nice to find a picture with the glasswork, which would give a better indication.

I am having trouble finding a play with OK in the title - I always thought that that was quite a recent term in the English language - any idea of the date of the photo?

A