The Palace Theatre, Westcliff, started life as a part-time cinema. Primitive films beamed on primitive projectors alternated with live performances.

One hundred and four years and hundreds of movies later, it has finally become the subject of a film in its own right.

Palace of the Stars was premiered on Sunday at – where else? – the Palace.

The film, which tells the theatre’s story and looks behind the scenes at how it operates today, is a labour of love for Eastwood local historian Roy Dilley. Roy, 71, is best known as the chronicler of Southend’s lost cinemas. His book Southend’s Palaces of the Silver Screen was published in 2011.

But he doesn’t turn his nose up at the Palace just because it is mainly associated with flesh and blood performers rather than the silver screen.

“Most of Southend’s beautiful theatres have been demolished, but here was a chance to celebrate one that is still very much with us,” Roy says.

Roy has nursed the idea of a film about the Palace since the Seventies. He regards it as a legendary local icon. “It can almost be ranked alongside Southend Pier,” he says. He also sees it as “a survivor’s tale”, something which touches him personally.

A passionate film-goer since childhood, Roymoved from London to Eastwood at the age of 14.

“I was a bit reluctant at first,” he says. “Then I discovered that our new home town was packed with cinemas.

They were everywhere. I used to travel from one to the other by bus, and see about five films a week. I got to love the buildings as well as the films.

Some of them were like the Palace, very ornate, magnificent structures.”

One by one, though, the cinemas were closed and, for the most part, demolished.

Southend, which once boasted 31 picture palaces, is now down to a single modernmultiplex.

Roy says: “There have been times when it seemed the Palace would go the way of all those old cinemas. But somehow it has always bobbed up again.”

The chance for Roy finally to make his film came when he teamed up with local filmmaker Dave Fox.

“Dave provided a knowledge of digital equipment and computers and how they could be used in film-making,” says Roy.

A third contributor is the theatre’s resident archivist, David Simpson, who has collated a huge messy mass of old posters, cuttings and posters into some sort of order.

“I’m a retired civil servant,”

says Dave, cheerily, “so making order out of mess is meat and drink to me.”

The treasures he has uncovered provide some of the high-spots of the film.

Opening with shots of the original architect’s drawings, the film then moves into a black and white montage of the Palace’s early years. It was actually planned as an opera house, with financial support from local estate agents. The idea was to giveWestcliff an extra sense of refinement, distinguishing it from the more “vulgar” Southend with its music halls and noisy pub singalongs. The architects set out to create a miniature Covent Garden.

The camera roams across the large private boxes and the elaborate arty decoration in the auditorium, which are legacies of the opera house scheme. By the time of opening, however, the grand opera house had swallowed its pride, and gone downmarket.

The First WorldWar period is something of a blank, so the film skips forward to 1922, and introduces the real star of the Palace’s history. Mrs Gertrude Mouillot takes over the theatre after the death of her husband.

She proves to be a successful lady entrepreneur in an age of men.

Under her management, the Palace enters its first golden age. It is visited by the country’s most famous touring companies, led by illustrious names such as Sir Henry Irving and Dame Sybil Thorndyke.

“These people had a formidable reputation, but then so did Mrs Mouillot,” says David. “They often browbeat local theatre managers, but Mrs Mouillot was more than a match for them.”

In 1942 comes the defining moment of the Palace’s history, when Mrs Mouillot presents the theatre as a free gift to the council and people of Southend.

“It was an incredibly generous gesture,” says David.

“Particularly since the box office was probably doing well at the time, thanks to all the military personnel in Southend.”

In 1944, just as Allied troops were commencing the liberation of Europe, we see the Palace also enter a new era.

“The theatre had been notorious for the drafts, which blew through it, particularly when the curtain went up,”

says Roy. “But the council installed a new heating system and made the theatre a much more comfortable place.”

The film gallops through the post-war years, when the Palace sawmore ups and downs than an Adventure Island roller-coaster. But there is a happy ending, as the theatre enters a new era of stability.

“I certainly don’t think it is in any danger of closing at any time soon,” says Roy.

Towards the end, the camera noses its way into some of the back-of-house corners that theatre audiences never see.

Although the Palace has undergone frequent rebuilds, some of the features from the early days survive. They include the projection booth from its days as a cinema, and a collection of vintage posters pasted in the fly tower.

But it is what Roy calls the “glorious ornamentation” of the building that comes across most strongly in the film. Roy has no doubt as to why the Palace got its name.

“It would have been designed as a place of wonder, for sound business reasons,” he says.

“People didn’t have the nice homes they have nowadays.

The building, as well as the film, took you out of your humdrum existence.”

NowRoy believes that people are rediscovering that era.

“People may come to the Palace mainly to see a show,”

says Roy. “But they also come for the theatre itself.”

  • Palace of the Stars is on sale at the Palace Theatre at £9.99. It can also be purchased via dvdfx@gmail.com