The Mail encouraged readers in 1993 to close their eyes and listen very carefully the next time they visited the old Palace cinema opposite Barrow Town Hall.

It reckoned they would probably hear the ghosts of countless Barrovians who saw Mae West pout and who screamed in terror as King Kong roared before their eyes in the building.

The old Palace was still drawing the crowds – none more so than when nearly 500 people went for a night out there to celebrate its 120th anniversary in 1993.

The Palace was then a Top Rank bingo club. It had changed its name but had not lost its sense of history – a sign on the night declared ‘120 years at the Palace’.

A celebratory bonus was clocked up by bingo players Marion and Andrea Metcalfe of Newbarns and Josie Herdman of Barrow Island, who between them netted nearly £5,000 in prizes on the birthday night.

The building was erected in 1873. In its time it had hosted music hall acts, circus acts, operas and wrestling – but most Barrovians would remember it as a cinema.

The Palace began showing pictures in the mid-1920s. It showed its last films in 1963 – Love Me Tender with Elvis Presley and Jackpot with Jimmy Stewart.

Also in 1993, Angela Frank and Herbert Dixon won more than £6,000 between them at the Top Rank bingo hall in Duke Street, Barrow.

Angela, of Portsmouth Street, won £2,600 and Herbert, of Kentmere Crescent, Barrow, won £3,600.

Continuing the bingo theme, in 1993 customers of Cascade bingo hall at Duke Street, Barrow, donated money to buy more than 100 teddy bears. Most would go to Bram Longstaffe Nursery, Hindpool Nursery and George Hastwell School.

The club had bought a giant teddy bear and generous customers who saw it then gave money to buy 100 little bears.

Hindpool head Judith Caine said 14 of the little bears were going to a group meeting at Ormsgill Family Centre.

Some were going to social services and the giant teddy was likely to be raffled to raise money for George Hastwell School.