Can you help us find Scarborough's lost 1929 Capitol Theatre opening poster?

A poster advertising the grand opening of Scarborough’s Capitol Theatre on March 11, 1929, has gone missing — and the Capitol Theatre Trust is hoping a reader may be able to help trace it.

The original poster advertised the opening of the new theatre on Albemarle Crescent with a screening of The Garden of Allah, starring Alice Terry and Ivan Petrovich. But it wasn't simply a film poster.

The elaborate opening-night advertisement also promoted live entertainment, including Mary O'Hara, John Ellis and Walter Paynter and his orchestra, together with J W Ainsworth at the theatre's grand organ.

It listed admission prices ranging from 6d to 2s 4d and promised audiences “comfort, super-programme and music”.

The Capitol opened on March 11, 1929, as a huge new cine-variety theatre. Contemporary trade coverage described a building capable of seating around 2,500 people, with large waiting rooms and lounges, a stage, dressing rooms and facilities for live “kine-variety” shows.

The theatre was built for Londesborough Theatre and Picture House (Scarborough) Ltd, with Liverpool architects Gray and Evans responsible for the design. Construction was reported to have cost £45,000.

Now the Capitol Theatre Trust is trying to find the original opening poster.

A photograph of the poster survives, and the Trust knows that the original was sold through Newark Antiques Market several years ago.

The hope is that it may still be in private hands.

Could it be hanging in someone's house? Sitting in a collection of cinema memorabilia? Or perhaps safely stored away with other family treasures?

The University of Sheffield's National Fairground and Circus Archive holds historic theatre and cinema posters and other ephemera, although searches of its online catalogue have so far failed to uncover the Scarborough opening poster.

The archive does contain other posters relating to theatres called the Capitol, demonstrating the sort of material held in its collections.

The search has also uncovered a photographic record of Scarborough's Capitol held by Historic England, while contemporary architectural records preserve detailed descriptions of the building as it was being constructed in 1927 and 1928. In 1929 it was equipped with a Fitton & Haley two-manual, 27-stop theatre organ, opened by J W Ainsworth.

But an original opening-night poster would be something different: a piece of the Capitol's physical history dating from the moment the doors first opened.

The Capitol Theatre Trust would love to hear from anyone who can help identify where the poster is today — or who remembers seeing it, buying it or handling it at Newark Antiques Market.

Anyone with information is asked to contact [email protected].

You can find out more about the plans for the Capitol Theatre at the Open Day on Saturday September 19, which runs from 10am to 4:30pm.