Basingstoke Flashback: 1933 was a truly monstrous year for the world

That 75-year-old film was made in black and white and spawned a series of similar films over the following years.

The 1933 film was made at a time when the world was suffering from an economic crisis, but the directors, Ernest Schoedsack and Merion Cooper, knew that when it was shown at cinemas all over the world, people would forget the Depression and enjoy the escapism.

They were right about their predictions, within weeks of its release thousands of people flocked to the picture houses to see Fay Wray struggling in King Kong’s hands.

When the film arrived in Britain, The Times newspaper warned parents not to take their children, but some youngsters who saw it said that they “loved it”.

The scene at the end of the film, when King Kong was on top of the Empire State Building, has gone down in film legend. The sight of the giant gorilla on its peak was truly a scene to remember.

Basingstoke folk queued up at their local cinema to see the film on its arrival in the town in 1933.

King Kong appears in a scene from the 1933 motion picture King Kong. (Image: Gannett News Service/Warner Home Videos)

The town had three cinemas at that time – The Electric, in lower Wote Street (opened in 1910, converted into The Savoy in 1939, then demolished in 1966); The Grand, in upper Wote Street (opened in 1913 as a cinema and theatre in the old Corn Exchange, then the cinema part was ended in 1940, and in 1950 the building was called The Haymarket); and The Plaza, at the top of Sarum Hill (originally built as a drill hall and dance pavilion in 1883, converted into a cinema in 1931, closed down in 1954, converted into the Co-operative furnishing store in 1955, and demolished in 1984 to allow an office block to be built).

The Waldorf cinema, in lower Wote Street, was not built until 1935, and was demolished in 1991.

The year, 1933, also saw a creature arising out of Loch Ness, in Scotland, and photographed several times.

Newspapers put the pictures on their front pages and the “Loch Ness Monster” became the second monster of the year.

A view of the Lock Ness Monster, near Inverness, Scotland. The photo, one of two pictures known as the 'surgeon's photographs', was allegedly taken by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson, though it was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged by himself, Marmaduke and Ian Wetherell, and Wilson. (Image: Newsquest)

But before these monsters made their appearance that year, events on either side of the world made headlines in the newspapers.

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany.

(This “insignificant occasion”, as people thought it, was to have repercussions in later years when this son of a customs official brought about the Second World War by invading Europe with his troops.)

Adolf Hitler (Image: Newsquest)

The world economic slump of that time and the dissatisfaction of the German people with the country’s political parties had brought Hitler to the forefront. His plans for the recovery of Germany gave people the prospect of a better future.

But, as the world was to find out, that did not happen. In future years, he, too, was called a “monster”.

Meanwhile, in Miami, Florida, USA, a monstrous event took place in February 1933, when an assassination attempt was made on President Franklin D Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara, during an official visit by the president. However, it was the Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who was killed by his bullets. Four other people were also wounded.

For the people in Basingstoke, 1933 was a year of construction to expand the town westward. South Ham Farm, to the south of Worting Road, was to see several roads of houses being constructed as council homes, for the 10 years since 1923 had brought 1,000 new residents into the town and the local council realised that there were insufficient places for them to live.

Firemen fighting the fire at the Furniture Factory in Winchester Street, Basingstoke, in 1984 (Image: Newsquest)

A block of flats with places for 14 families, called Temple Towers, was also built that year in Richmond Road.

The population increase led to more shops opening up in the town centre. That year, Marks and Spencer moved into Winchester Street, and W H Smith moved into the Market Place.

But the main news item of that year, although hardly noticed by most of the local folk, was confirmation of the County of Southampton Review Order, whereby the Basingstoke borough was to be extended to include the parishes of Basing, Cliddesden, Dummer with Kempshott, Monk Sherborne, and Worting.

By the same order, the parishes of Basingstoke and Eastrop, together with the areas added to the borough, were amalgamated to form the new parish of Basingstoke.

This order was to see the development scheme of the 1960s expand further than if the original borough had existed, especially in the Kempshott area and at Worting.

As some people have asked over the past few years, “how many more houses can Basingstoke take?”.

This column was originally published in September 2008.