'Dancing Travolta' and the region's lost cinemas

The Majestic Cinema in Scunthorpe during construction

An exhibition will allow visitors to step back in time as it showcases the "golden age of cinema" dating back more than a century.

Picture House Past: Cinemas of North Lincolnshire explores "the magic of the silver screen" and the local buildings that once brought people together through film.

The free exhibition opens on Saturday 22 November at North Lincolnshire Museum in Scunthorpe and runs until Sunday 3 May 2026.

Eveline van Breemen, senior curator at the museum, said the exhibition covered all the buildings that were built specifically to be a cinema within North Lincolnshire, including Ashby, Barton, Brigg, Crowle, Epworth and Scunthorpe.

Photographs, artefacts and personal stories from the former Majestic Cinema in Scunthorpe will feature in a new exhibition

North Lincolnshire Council said: "From the flickering reels of the 1890s to the last showing at Scunthorpe's iconic Majestic Cinema in 2003, the exhibition celebrates more than a century of movie-going in towns and villages across North Lincolnshire."

Drummer Anthony Mitchell, 52, said his "treasured memories" of the Majestic Cinema was watching the re-release of the original Star Wars film as a teenager with his father.

He said watching it "on the big screen" aged eight was "completely out of this world".

The exhibition will include photographs, artefacts, personal stories and a mosaic salvaged from the former Majestic Cinema, on the corner of Oswald Road and Mary Street in Scunthorpe.

Ms Breeman said the mosaic was damaged during demolition work and brought back to life at the University of Lincoln.

A mosaic from Scunthorpe's Majestic Cinema was damaged during demolition work but brought back to life by the University of Lincoln

Former employee Shawn Cooper, 44, said then owner Gerald Parkes gave young people an opportunity to develop and "liked the cinema experience to be a certain way".

He recalled people queueing around the block every night when he was 16, for a "magical experience" and the musical album Tubular Bells would play as the public took their seats. He said ice-cream would be served in the interval during long films.

The "greatest night" for him was during an anniversary special of Grease, when he came up with a plan with his projectionist, Gary Scutt, to dance through the aisle like John Travolta with the audience "descending into laughter", adding "after that I was known as Travolta".

Picture House Past will be open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00 GMT, and Sundays from 13:00 to 16:00.

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