From 'Entertaining South Wales':
'The independent Plaza Cinema opened in North Road on March 12th 1928 with 1,500 seats. The opening film was Norma Talmadge in the (silent) version of “Camille”. The film was accompanied by a large in-house orchestra - a standard feature of many larger cinemas, though this was something that would mostly disappear due to manpower shortages during the Great War. Over the course of its more than fifty-year existence it was taken over by the Cardiff Cinema Circuit and then the Jackson Withers Circuit, and ultimately bought by the Rank Organisation. The cinema closed on October 17th 1981 with a horror double-bill of “Alien” and “The Fog”. The building remained unused for several years before it was finally demolished and replaced with Meridian Court, a sheltered housing development.'
Meilyr Powel, RCAHMW, November 2020
Source:
'Entertaining South Wales - C', overthefootlights.co.uk, p.32