LAST week’s Craven Curiosity was correctly identified by Terry of Threshfield as the upper, ornate floors of what is now Kooky Club, opposite Skipton Bus Station in Keighley Road, Skipton, but which was originally a cinema. Originally called the Morriseum, it opened in 1929 with the Fritz Lang film, ‘The Spy’.
Recently renovated, the building is heavily influenced by Classical architecture, including some elements of Egyptian architecture, following the discovery in 1922 of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Cart.
The Egyptian style was often used for cinema architecture at the time, and also for some factory buildings. The style developed into what was to become Art Deco in the 1930s. The cinema was renamed Regal Super Cinema in 1930 and in 1936 it became an Odeon property, re-named Odeon in 1967. In 1967, it was sold on to Classic Cinemas. In 1971 it was sold again and reverted back to the Regal, it closed in 1987, the last film to be shown, Crocodile Dundee, staring Paul Hogan.
Source: A Craven curiosity – a setting for a film classic | Craven Herald