Going to the Pictures.

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.

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

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 !

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.

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!

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.

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?!

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.

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

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.

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.

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 ....

I remember being too small to sit on the seat in the 'down' position and the seat was left up and I perched on top of that. Dad would take me to the war films made in the '50's (lots of them) and I saw A Night to Remember about the Titanic. As we went into the cinema that night they had printed reproductions of newspapers at the time with Titanic story on front page. I liked films about children, one was Mandy about a deaf girl. I'm racking my brains for the titles of some I remember - wil post on here when brain gets into gear.

I too remember that we never bothered with the start time of films but just watched until it came around to where we came in. What an odd thing to do, maybe doesn't say much about the quality of the plot. There was a cinema walking distance from home where tickets were cheaper because the films weren't new releases. There was a chip shop next door and if it was dark it was a real treat to have chips on the way home. Weren't allowed to do this on light nights as my parents thought it was rather common to be seen eating in the street!

HaHa Maggie. If I'd have been there I'd have smacked it with my umbrella! ?

Oh dear, hulahoop, I came across some inappropriate behaviour at the pictures too. Sitting with two of my friends aged 16 at a matinee. The most sheltered of the three of us looked to her left and said "oh look, how cute, that man's brought his hamster with him". My other friend and I had to break it to her that what he was stroking was no hamster

Yes red I remember national anthem being played . I can Rember going to Saturday morning matinee they always seemed to be cowboy films . I worked as a usherette as well can remember shining torch along a row and realising noise was a gentleman getting rid of sexual tension if you see what I mean I turned torch off quickly good job it was dark. One thing I remember about cinema is how smoke used to swirl around beam from projected it used to fascinate me. First time I took my daughter she wasn't heavey enough to keep seat down we had to sit either side of her holding seat. Now I can't believe price and you are only in 1-2 hrs we used to be in all evening and usually saw two films

Do you remember standing for the National Anthem at the end of all cinema shows as well as the theatre? There was always a few who carried on walking and as a child I thought them very rude!

During a college summer vacation in the late 60's, I got a job as an usherette in the local cinema.(Shift work,but good money)
I thought I would be seeing all the latest releases. Alas, The Sound of Music was there for the whole season. I saw it 52 times and by the end knew every word of the script.

The first time my mum and dad let my sister and I go to the pictures to see a walt disney film on our own, we watch the film over and over again, then we noticed an usherette with our parents searching for us in the cinema because we hadnt arrived home.

When I was six, my parents took me to an evening performance of the Black Shield of Falworth, starring Tony Curtis. It was dark when we came out and we'd missed the last bus. At ten thirty at night I was tired, so my father carried me most of the 2 miles home. Now I watch whenever the Black Shield is repeated on tv. Happy days!

I also used to go to the ABC minors on a Saturday morning. I did a lady's shopping and she always gave me 2/6. That paid for the bus, entrance, and chips on the way home, as money was very tight in our home. I was actually in that chip shop last week, and the waitress told me that there are lots of people who come in and reminisce about the bag of chips after the Saturday morning ABC minors. If I was flush, I would buy a quarter of midget mint creams, which I still love. I enjoyed all the cliffhangers each week and spent the following week anticipation the next episode. Happy days!

I think we went on Sat. mornings too. My favourites were Abbott and Costello.
2 scary films I still remember - Reap the Wild Wind, with the giant octopus, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

We always went on Saturday mornings. It cost 6d as I recall. We would then go into a local sweet shop for a bag of broken crisps and a drink of very weak squash which cost 1d. If it was your birthday, they would call you up onto the stage and give you a lollipop. I went on my birthday once and couldn't understand why I wasn't called out. It's only as I got older I realised someone had to actually TELL them it was your birthday!

I remember walking to the local flea pit, past bomb sites, on our way to the ABC minors show. My brother was in charge of a small gang of us. We always saw 'boys' films...The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid and Flash Gordon, did they ever show any other kind? Total bedlam inside the cinema, the poor staff must have dreaded Saturday mornings!