Skipton Carnival & Hospital Gala

The annual ‘let your hair down’ day arrives in Skipton, giving anyone the opportunity to dress more or less how they liked without disapproval. Yet not everyone has to be in fancy dressers to stand out, as can be seen with the Jimmy Edwards lookalike. But clearly plenty wanted to see themselves in film, which they could do when it was put on by the Regal Cinema, for a charge. But in the 1934, before the NHS, it was all to raise money for the local hospital – a dry run for later times.

This is one of three films made of the Skipton annual Gala in the mid-1930s. Two of them were, presumably, made for the Regal Cinema in Skipton, with the third made by Pathe Gazette. The Regal Cinema began life as a temperance hall before opening as the Morriseum cinema in 1929. The following year it was renamed the Regal, and after several changes of owners and names, closed as a cinema in 1987. The Skipton Gala started in 1901 to raise money for the newly opened Skipton and District Cottage Hospital. Special trains from roundabouts were laid on for those wanting to see the usual trade societies, clowns, comic bands and those in fancy dress, with prizes donated by "The Gentry and Tradesmen of the Town".