The whole city knew of Derek and the Dominion

Published on Thursday 11 August 2011 11:55

DEREK Cameron, the former owner of the Dominion Cinema, has died, aged 77.

Mr Cameron's father built the Dominion in Morningside's Newbattle Terrace from scratch after selling the Lyceum in Dalry. Captain William Gerard Cameron opened its doors on the January 31, 1938.

However, Captain Cameron died just ten years after the cinema opened, leaving behind his wife and 13-year-old son Derek to run the Dominion.

At 16, the young Mr Cameron worked in the projection box, where he galvanised his passion for film and entertaining the public.

After three years with his father's former regiment, the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, Mr Cameron returned home. He qualified as a projectionist and took over the Dominion as manager in 1958.

In the same year he married his ever-supportive Winifred at Liberton Kirk and together they had three children - Alan, Mike and Lesley, and later six grandchildren. His family took over the day-to-day running of the Dominion in 1996, but Mr Cameron stayed on as chairman and even celebrated his 70th birthday at the cinema.

Mr Cameron retained the original guidelines set out by his father of "maximum comfort" and "best possible service", as well as masterminding the renovations of the cinema in 1972, 1980 and 1997 that kept the Dominion ahead of other independents and capable of competing with multiplex cinemas.

Mr Cameron always maintained the family-friendly atmosphere of the Dominion, declaring the cinema the "last bastion of public decency".

Mr Cameron became a star of the screen when independent filmmaker Ian Rintoul made Derek Cameron's Dominion, chronicling the life of the cinema. The Dominion screened the film during the Edinburgh Film Festival for free and took donations for the Sick Kids at the door.

"Totally gobsmacked" was his reaction when he received an MBE for services to the cinema industry in 1999.

He leaves the Dominion in the trusted hands of his children, who have vowed to carry on their father's, and grandfather's, work.

Son Al explained: "There were a few things he always saw as very important. He always wore evening dress to welcome the customers, as we still do, and my grandfather did.

"He always wanted to be ahead of the game, and if you look back, that is exactly what happened, with the creation of two screens in 1972 before many other cinemas started doing that kind of thing."

Asked how he thought his father would like to be remembered, Al said: "As the ever-smiling face of Morningside and as a man where family came first."

His funeral will take place at Morningside Parish Church on Friday, August 19.