Going to the Pictures.

I used to go Saturday morning pictures my Mum would give me a shilling, 3d to get in, 6d for my bus fare and 3d for an ice lolly. There was games, films who remembers the serials which ended with a cliffhanger every single week, dance competitions we kids loved it . Sometimes we would walk home and spend the bus fair on chips..

That should be fare of course.

My mum and dad had a small village shop and we used to get free tickets for showing the cinema adverts so I got to go most weeks. Unfortunately the last bus left at 9.45 so there are an awful lot of films I've never seen the last 10mins of !

I went with friends to Saturday morning kids show. Sometimes we were really bad and one or two of us would pay and let the other three in via the fire door

It was the ABC minors on a Saturday morning and good value at sixpence cartoons, films and a host to fill in the gaps.
My parents were very strict and I had be home early from evening shows so I missed several endings too. Notably Summer Holiday.

Saturday afternoon for me. The seats were threepence and sixpence and I wasn't allowed in the" threepeny's" as all the rough boys sat there. I had a shilling and bus fares were a penny each way and we would go to Mrs Beeton's cafe at the bus terminus where the drivers had their snacks and used the 4d left for a beetroot cob, always beetroot as it was the cheapest. Wonderful memories revived with Kit Carson and other serials. The rough boys would throw things up into the beam which sent the film from the projector which was in a little room at the back and it would flash and oh the fun when the spool came off the reel a nd th cat calls filled the air.
What marvellous memories.

Just now remembered the one with Emperor Ming and the jerky effects , that scared me even though they appeared to go into space in a giant tin can with metal cones on their heads.

The first film I saw was with my Aunt -Disney's "Cinderella"

I remember Saturday morning matinees too, in an area where I left when I was just 5. Walking what seemed like miles with all the other children from the village, carrying pop bottles to hand in, I assume for cheaper seats. The girls used to sit in the middle and the boys at the front and back, and they'd spend the whole film (usually a Western) lobbing missiles at each other over our heads and whooping and hollering. It was packed to the rafters every week and you never heard a word - they might as well have shown silent films!

My Dad took me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves when I was about 4 or 5. It was on at the picture house in our little town. Unfortunately I have no memory of the cartoon but I remember the inside of the picture house. It burned down a couple of years later and was never replaced. To see a film we had to go to Carlisle, a bus journey away. We only went to see films that we really wanted to see. It was a day out!

I remember Saturday morning "pictures". When they showed Disney's Davy Crockett movie, there was a prize for the best Davy Crockett hat! There were some weird creations! Then there was a yo-yo craze with someone demonstrating yo-yo tricks before the film started. I used to like The Three Stooges, Flash Gordon, and there were always lots of cowboy films. My father used to take me to the cinema sometimes and would always buy me a small box of Black Magic chocolates as a special treat. He would never go and watch a B movie, and for some reason, he only liked Hollywood films - he seemed to have an aversion to English films . I never found out why.

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!

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 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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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

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!

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.