Wymondham cinema legend leaves legacy gift to community club

Two years after his death the new kitchen he paid for at the former Regal Cinema, now the Ex-Services Club, will be unveiled at a special event in the town on Sunday.

On the Regal stage with fellow Regal Experience members and June Whitfield who thought Wymondham was “Ab Fab” (Image: Regal Experience)

Club chairman, Nick Howes, said: “After hearing the dreadful news of Michael’s passing myself and the members of our club were deeply saddened.

“Then, hearing from Michael’s solicitor stating the club had been left £10,000 for the sole purpose of installing a kitchen, work started immediately,” added Nick.

“I am pleased to confirm the kitchen is now finished and a brass plaque has been fitted in memory of Mr Michael Armstrong… so his legacy will live on,” he said.

Michael explaining the original Kalee 12 projectors to Virginia McKenna, to whom he presented a cheque for £1,200 for the Born Free Foundation. He loved showing people, including many stars, the Regal projection room (Image: Philip Yaxley)

Friends, and members of the former Regal Experience Group, will be gathering on Sunday December 4 at 2.30pm  to unveil the kitchen, remember dear Michael in a short film put together by John Jarvis, and then, of course, settle down to watch a film, The Smallest Show on Earth.

And you are invited to join them. Admission is free and any donations will go to the Pact Animal Sanctuary.

Michael Armstrong with Debbie Reynolds in Hollywood (Image: Regal Experience)

I know how many of you loved the Sunday afternoon charity film shows run by Michael and his friends from the Regal Experience which attracted so many famous film stars to the town.

Let him go!! Michael Armstrong in the grip of Richard “Jaws” Kiel! (Image: Regal Experience)

Michael’s family ran the Queen’s Head in Wymondham after arriving in town during the 1950s. The Regal Cinema, run by Bert and Dorothy Caley, became his second home from the age of eleven and he would fetch fish and chips for the projectionists on a Saturday night.

For years he supported the legendary Les King when he was manager before it closed in 1993. But Michael was not prepared to let the cinema fade away in Wymondham so he built and ran his own Regal and when he moved, built another one. They were very special places.

Two fellows in wheelchairs. Michael Armstrong meets up with film star Tony Curtis in the USA (Image: Regal Experience)

And the Regal Experience Group ran shows at the former cinema, now the Ex-Services Club for many happy years raising a lot of money to help others...

Michael became famous across the world and would visit film stars in America with other members of the group.

With Richard Todd before the screening of The Dam Busters. Also in the picture is Maureen Dodman, Regal Experience secretary (Image: Regal Experience)

He spent his later years in a wheelchair but his close friend Philip Yaxley said: “I never heard him complain. He was much admired and loved in Wymondham and the wider community.”

Thanks to Philip for sharing some of his photographs with us.

A young Michael Armstrong with Regal usherettes in Wymondham during 1965 (Image: Philip Yaxley)

It will be a special occasion honouring a very special man – Michael Armstrong of Wymondham. (Image: Submitted)