Ralph Aspland Howden
| Ralph Aspland Howden | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 December 1913 |
| Died | 2 July 2005 (aged 91) |
| Education | Boston Grammar School (?-1928) |
Ralph Aspland Howden was educated at Boston Grammar School (?-1928).
Obituary
By BGS old boy Mervyn Gould
Boston's 'Mr Cinema'
After a short illness, Ralph Aspland Howden died on Saturday 2 July in Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital, at the age of 91. He was the second son of George Aspland Howden, and therefore the grandson of ‘old’ Ben Howden and the grand-nephew of George Aspland, a firm which toured the fairs of the eastern counties from Wisbech to Hull from the 1860s to the end of the 1920s. Their most famous ride was the Venetian Gondolas, now in preservation at the Thursford Collection. From 1906 they toured ‘Aspland’s Pictureland’, a walk-up by Orton & Spooner fronted by a 110-key Gavioli organ, and originally managed by Ralph’s father.
Ralph was born in Boston on 4th December 1913, after his father had left touring to open his own permanent Bioscope show at the Boston Corn Exchange in 1910, following this with the purpose-built Spalding Picture House in 1912. George Aspland Howden then built up a mini-empire of cinema in Boston and Spalding. One of these was the Regal, Boston, and Ralph managed this from opening day in May 1937 (Will Hay in Good Morning, Boys) until he closed it and retired in 1976.
He joined his father’s business on leaving Boston Grammar School in 1928, and, as he said in an interview later, ‘started as a lime boy' (follow-spot operator) on a perch when he was still at school, working in the evenings as a showman. He was put through all the departments, but at first spent most of his time as a stage-hand.
He and his brother were present at the installation of ‘Talkies’ at the New Theatre in 1930, which was the former Boston Corn Exchange re-built, and Ralph went on to oversee the next Western Electric sound system in the next-door Scala, and trained the operators there in the new technique, and designed and built a change-over system for the projectors.
On his father’s death in 1955, Ralph became managing director of Boston Scala Theatre, Ltd. At the time this firm ran the New Theatre, Boston as well as the Regal. He closed the New in March 1960, with the Billy Cotton Band Show, and used the money from the property sale to build a stage, fly tower and dressing rooms on to the Regal. This was the last commercial theatre stage in Britain, and he opened this with Babes In The Wood on Boxing Day 1963.
From then on, the Regal ran with a mix of films, amateur and variety shows, wrestling, and one-night-stand ‘Pop Package’ shows as well as the annual panto.
On the announcement of the closure of the Regal, the ‘Lincolnshire Standard’ reported - Mr Howden, who is 63, explained: “I don't like publicity, and I never have. The final curtain will fall and that will be that. The doors will close for the last time and I shall go home.
“I don't think people should come in mourning. I've had 47 years in the business and all through my married life my wife has never known what it is to have her husband at home in the evenings, and it's about time she did. I've worked seven nights a week, week in and week out, year in and year out.”
He was very proud of his father’s connection with show people, and kept up with touring families each year at the Boston May Fair. He had much of his father’s collection of photographs of Aspland’s rides, and ephemera, such as receipts for £500 in part-payment of a Savage machine. These were carefully kept, and over the years many people interviewed him and used his illustrations. Dr Vanessa Toulmin of The National Fairground Archive interviewed him, and he provided much of the early material for a history of the family’s involvement in public entertainment, to be published later as Boston and Spalding Entertainment and the Aspland Howdens.
A quiet, dapper man, known for his bow ties, Ralph avoided personal publicity, like his father, though he had been ‘Uncle Ralph’ at the Regal’s ‘Oodoo Club’ for children. He was a well-known member of the Boston Conservative Club, and a keen gardener, which he continued in retirement.
His elder brother George Benjamin, his younger step-brother Brian, and his step-sister Joan pre-deceased him. He is survived by his widow Lillian, his step-sister Betty, and nephew and niece Patricia and Dennis.