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The Electro, later known as the Electro Cinema Museum and for a brief period the Viva Bingo Hall, was an old cinema in Cardiff. The building had a history of Rift activity. It was located at 74-76 Hope Street, Cardiff, with the postcode CF10 ST4.
The Electro originally opened in 1844 as the Panopticon Theatre. It was redeveloped in 1926 and converted to the Electro Cinema, which was operational until 1971-72, when it closed due to lack of revenue. Ianto Jones's father brought him here. (TV: From Out of the Rain [+]Loading...["From Out of the Rain (TV story)"]) In a new timeline created by Ianto, his father brought his children to the Electro to see The Jungle Book, planning to leave the family and move to Spain the day after. (AUDIO: Disco [+]Loading...["Disco (audio story)"])
The theatre reopened in 1974 as the Viva Bingo Hall before closing again in 1978. It remained disused until the mid 2000s when it was refurbished as the Electro Cinema Museum.
On the opening night of the museum, they showed clips from old films found in the basement. Some of the people on one piece of film walked out of the screen. One of them killed the owners, David and Faith Penn. Later, Torchwood Three filmed these characters and deleted them. (TV: From Out of the Rain [+]Loading...["From Out of the Rain (TV story)"])
At some point, it burned down, and was converted into student flats. (AUDIO: Dead Man's Switch [+]Loading...["Dead Man's Switch (BFTW audio story)"])
Behind the scenes
- The entrance to the Electro was also used as the entrance to Spellman's Magical Museum of the Circus in The Day of the Clown and the place where Estelle Cole held her talk about Fairies in Small Worlds.
- Dialogue in the episode establishes that Ianto used to go to the Electro with his father. This is completely consistent with both the rest of the episode and other stories. However, the Torchwood website claims that the Electro closed in 1977 and didn't open for thirty years. Since we now know that Ianto Jones was born in 1983, Ianto's statement would be seemingly impossible — if this wiki allowed Torchwood website as a valid source in this case. Even so, those who accessed the website immediately after broadcast wouldn't have noticed a problem, since Ianto's birth year wasn't established until Fragments, first broadcast a few weeks later.