Catlin Follies put Llandudno on the map

Mar 11 2010 by Eva Ketley, North Wales Weekly News

WILL Catlin was a theatre impresario who put Llandudno on the showbusiness map in the first half of the last century.

There has been a theatre on the Venue Cymru site since 1894. Originally named the Victoria Palace, it was built by Jules Rivière who for many years had been the celebrated resident conductor of the Llandudno Pier Orchestra.

He established his own 42-piece orchestra at the 1,015-seat Victoria Palace, which attracted eminent soloists including Sir Charles and Lady Hallé, who in 1895 gave a piano and violin recital with the orchestra.

The building was only intended to be a temporary structure but became a landmark on the promenade for over 100 years.

In 1915 the theatre was bought by Will Catlin and renamed the Arcadia. The theatre provided 1,147 seats in the auditorium and was the last of Llandudno’s many theatres and cinemas to offer traditional seaside entertainment.

It was the home of Will Catlin's Pierrots, which eventually became Catlin's Follies.

Recently a bar was renamed at Venue Cymru as Catlin’s Bar. It was a long overdue recognition of the great man’s achievements in the resort.

Many of his old friends and former Arcadia performers attended the renaming ceremony, including his daughter Margot, who still lives in Llandudno.

She recalls how her father once had to step in and be the pantomime dame, as the real dame had partaken in a little bit too much Christmas cheer!

Clive Stock, the former impresario, of the Arcadia, remembers Catlin well. He said: “He’d greet people personally at the entrance of the theatre with his trademark cigar in his hand.

“He never took a night off, but the theatre was only ever open in the summer.

“The Arcadia was the top of the British summer league of shows.

“Holidaymakers used to drop their bags at the hotels and go straight to the Arcadia to book the shows as they knew it would be good.”

Catlin used to send his Pierrots to Llandudno train station to entertain the holidaymakers coming off the train. It proved to be a marketing masterstroke.

“The governor himself had worked as a humble Pierrot in Scarborough,” recalled Clive.

Catlin also made sure the Pierrots paraded around on the promenade to attract attention.

The Pierrots were told to whiten their shoes every day, and costumes had to be kept in pristine condition.

Catlin's Follies survived the sudden death in 1953, aged 82, of Will Catlin and continued until the theatre was bought by Llandudno Urban Council in 1968.

The Arcadia continued as a summer theatre under local authority ownership until 1993.

However, the original Arcadia theatre was abandoned and lay derelict until July 2005 when it was demolished to make way for a redevelopment of the then North Wales Theatre.

As the bulldozers crept in, it signalled the end of a golden era for the Queen of Welsh Resorts.