Death of woman cinema pioneer (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Death of woman cinema pioneer

5:29pm Tuesday 30th September 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A WINCHESTER woman who was one of the first female cinema managers has died.

Guen Cross, who was 91, boasted an enviable place in British cinema-history: the first woman manager of one of London's highly-popular Classic repertory cinemas in the 1950s and 60s.

In those days she "ruled" Baker Street cinema in Marylebone in the West End off Oxford Street.

Blessed with the smouldering looks of a film star herself - she modelled for London society painter Nicholas Egon.

Her expertise, ingenuity and natural charm made her cinema a magnet for London cinemagoers.

She lived for many years in a house called Khandalla, 100 yards from Shawford Station, near Winchester.

Her second marriage was to the late John Cross, first British sterling manager at the Russian Moscow Narodny Bank in the City of London. Much of the staff was expelled, allegedly for spying, and was put back on the plane for Moscow by MI5.

Guen leaves two daughters, Ann and Wendy, and a son, Frank Lauder, all from her first marriage. She had four grandchildren including Tanya, England's only woman lock-keeper on the Thames and one great-grandchild.