MICHAEL EATON

Michael Eaton first came to Hockley as a child, growing up in Carlton, he was a part of Carlton Operatics Society from the age of 10 and performed at the Nottingham Cooperative Theatre in a production of ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. As he grew older he would frequent the Nottingham Cooperative Centre more and more, getting a ‘magnificent’ film education at the Film Theatre from the age 14, where he coined his ‘second home’.

He remembers the space as incredibly progressive and artistic one. In the late 1960s to the 1970s, the area were mainly ran by volunteers and Martin Parnell, was the programmer for the film offering. Micheal fondly recalls that on Sundays, there was a double bill of older and classic films at the Film Theatre, seeing D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance on one of the Sundays.

He also reiterated how significant these trips to the cinema were for him and his career as Nottingham was well served cinematically for a provincial town. There was a tea house; Rainbow Rooms where they hosted tea dances and mainly ladies would dance. There was a good bohemian life in Nottingham at this time, with Mushroom Books and folk clubs around the city.

In 1990s when the space became the Broadway, Michael was involved in the development of ‘SHOTS IN THE DARK’, Adian Wootton and Michael took a trip to attend a festival that combined different art forms, where all genres were represented equally. Broadway became involved in international festivals in multiple ways, with Bouchercon being hosted in Nottingham in 1995, having only been hosted out of North America once before, it went to London in 1990.

Michael emphasised how the range of talented individuals who worked at all levels at the Broadway made it what it was. In his discussion about the life in Hockley during his time working at the Broadway, he highlights the importance of fashion in the area; Wild Clothing and G Force being a source of the fashionable student who frequented the are.