I used to support Oxford United (In the eighties I had a season ticket for 3 seasons, they went from the 3rd to the 1st and then on to win the milk cup, beating QPR, haha), on the way to the match on a Saturday, invariably my dad and I would go past this sight in Headington.
Bill Heine, an American, erected this huge Shark in the roof of his house on the 9th of August 1986, to commemorate 41 years since the Nagasaki bomb drop. He fought long and hard to keep it there as Oxford City Council did not like it one bit. He proved it was safe and I am glad it is still there now.
He owned 'Moulin Rouge' a cinema which had the stripy cancan legs sticking out of them, these legs where later moved to Brighton and put on top of the 'Duke of York's', which he owned as well.
Before the Moulin Rouge was demolished and the cancan legs moved to Brighton, he had to fight to keep those cancan legs on the Moulin Rouge cinema, Oxford City Council deemed them to be advertising and thus they needed planning permission. So Bill changed the name of the Cinema to 'Not the Moulin Rogue' and won the right to have them without planning permission. Cunning!
He owned the 'Penultimate Picture Palace' in Oxford also. This is the cinema that I saw Reservoir Dogs about 15 times!
When I first moved down to Brighton, I thought that those cancan legs were following me!
2 comments:
No way, maybe subconsciously thats where you got it from.
lol, i forgot about them legs, good mem jog thx
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