REGRADING your article last week Hollywood in Birkenhead and a trip down memory lane and the magnificent Ritz Cinema in Conway Street, I worked at the Ritz, but during my time there it was the Top Rank Bingo Club from 1986 till its closure in November 1997.

I was the main stage caller at the club and looking back even then this magnificent 2,000-seater hall was a joy to work in.

We used to regularly stage full staff shows at Christmastime which were always sold out - also lots of celebrities in my time there for cheque winner presentations like Barbara Windsor, singers such as The Bachelors, Don Estelle, Ruby Murray, Freddie Garrit and game shows with Derek Batey and the Mr & Mrs Show.

The night we closed the club I ended the final game and as a tribute to the 'Show-place of the North' as it was known originally.

I ended the evening playing the song Sally, this being the song that the great star of stage and screen Miss Gracie Fields had sang to the mass crowds outside The Ritz on the grand opening night on the October 4, 1937.

Most of the members left that night in tears with all those wonderful memories of their visits over the years when the Ritz was a great show-place not only showing films but a full stage show and the fabulous organ interludes during the interval.

Within two years of closure the building was reduced to rubble even thou several campaigns to try and save it an absolute sacrilege it should have been saved and preserved as an entertainment venue.

At one time there were seven cinemas just in that area alone - Ritz, Empire, Queens, Super, Savoy (ABC), Plaza, The Gaumont which by the way is virtually unchanged as it was in its heyday and is now a furniture store.

It is so sad that all of this has virtually gone - though we still have our memories and pictures which cannot be wiped away.

Mark Lees by email (former cinema projectionist)