IT was the last picture show and a drama without a happy ending – Ernest Hydes sued the owners of the Palladium Theatre in Southampton for wrongful dismissal.
He had been appointed as a manager at £5 a week with full control over staff, including musicians, with a month’s notice on either side.
The relationship however foundered after Hydes had found a woman making a private phone call from his office. She even had the impudence to ask him to leave while making it.
He not unnaturally asked her to make any further calls from elsewhere in the building. She refused and complained to the management who then sacked him, offering him £30, which he refused.
Instead Hydes took the matter to Southampton County Court where proprietor Harry Hood confirmed they had kept their part of the bargain by giving him a month’s notice with appropriate cash, but Hydes wanted more.
The hearing, that took place in 1918, ended with Judge Barnard Lailey coming down on the plaintiff’s side, ordering the theatre owners to pay him £20 with costs.
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