THIS IS THE BLOG OF COLIN JONES, RHYL TOWN COUNCILLOR: BODFOR WARD
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The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own and not the views of the town council.
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In Rhyl just over 100 years ago, visitor numbers were high and many business opportunities suggested themselves to the town’s entrepreneurs. Arthur Cheetham was versatile. Down on the beach he gave lectures on phrenology and would read your character by feeling the bumps on your head. He was a photographer, a retailer of stationery, a printer, and he loved scientific novelties. Hardly surprising therefore, that he started making films as soon as the technology became available.
Mr Cheetham made films around the streets of Rhyl and elsewhere in North Wales, and exhibited them locally to astonished audiences. Moving pictures! Imagine seeing them for the first time ever! Arthur Cheetham was an enterprising man and a genuine movie pioneer. You can read more about him in the book ‘Glorious Rhyl - a peep at the past’ by Philip Lloyd, published in 2002.
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