Going to the Pictures.

Ah ! ABC Minors ....used to go as well ! I think it was only 3d to get in where we were, so after, it was 1d worth of 'scraps' from the chippy (sometimes a piece of battered fish found its way into the bag !) the bags came as cones of chips ..to be eaten on the way home ....and if anything was left, a stale bun from the bakers ...

Like you, I once worked for an Estate Agent (well known chain !) who bought a cinema in Billericay known as the Flea Pit, so he suggested I might like to go after work and be an usherette .....so I did ! Saw the Good the Bad and the Ugly and Half a Sixpence so many times I know them backwards ! Good fun though ....

On Sky 343 there is a channel called Talking Pictures TV, which shows mainly old British Films, although there are American ones as well. There have been some brilliant ones, plus some really bad ones. I've tended to download them and watch things at night, when there is nothing on TV. I do remember watching some of the old films with my mum on a Saturday afternoon. One I have just seen was The Anniversary, with Bette Davis, absolutely cracking film. There have been Laurel and Hardy films, Old Mother Riley, and one of my favourite films of all time 'Dead of Night'. They bring back such good memories, becuase they actually show films from the Children's Film Foundation, which I remember seeing at the cinema as well. I'm straight back there in the cinema queue with my 6d clutched in my hand
There is a website at www.talkingpicturestv.co.uk which is well worth looking at.

And popcorn came in a little tiny packet, not a huge bucket like it does these days!
We also had fish and chips as we walked home afterwards.

But wasn't it a treat go to to the cinema and watch a film. I really don't think it's the same now for children ....they have constant exposure to films and cinema trips don't seem to be a treat anymore like it was for us. Or perhaps that's just my perception

My dad took me to the pictures from the age of three, 1926, whilst Mum looked after my baby sister. In those days they were silent movies and when the captions came up I had to ask Dad what they were saying. I saw the first talkie and the first time colour came up it was in the ballroom scene in The Studant Prince. The audience cheered. There was always a stage show between the two films and at the Tooting Astoria, Reg Dixon on the organ. Right until I was married in 1947 I never missed going to the pictures at least once a week. Now I have to watch them onTV and I subscribe to Amazon Love film.

You'd probably get chucked out if you snogged in the back row nowadays! I used to love going to the cinema but over the last 5 years,I have become increasingly pissed off with other people's behaviour. That is,talking constantly to their companions,messing about with their mobiles and distracting me with the lit-up phone screen,kicking the back of your seat,throwing popcorn at people,and the best one,sitting down right next to me when the auditorium is 3 quarters empty! I mean,really?!

Last time I went there were two young girls age about 8, doing cartwheels down the aisle! Cinema nearly empty, their mums turning a blind eye, truly times have changed.
Bring back the usherettes, they wouldn't stand for any nonsense.
But I don't miss the great clouds of cigarette smoke though, even pipe smoke sometimes. Ugh.

I was a forces kid and we use to go to the cinema on the camp. They use to have airmen as staff keeping us in order. If we didn't behave we got whacked with a rolled up news paper!

A member of my extended family played the piano for the silent movies. They watched the film and played by touch, it was quite skilled but I suspect they had a small repertoire for the type of film being shown.

Joannapiano,I did exactly the same thing only my film was Taras Bulba starring Yul Brynner and Christine Kaufman ! I saw the film on TV a few years ago and STILL knew almost every word after 50 years !

"we come along on a Saturday morning greeting everybody with a smile ..........". Oh the memories.

I'll never forget my dad taking me to the cinema to see The King and I. We absolutely loved it and went back again with my mum so she could enjoy it too. The film had only been on for a short while when I looked over at my mum to see how she was enjoying it - and there she was fast asleep.