General Chat

Pauline,

Down the road from Eccles - near Irlam. In warrington cheshire now. Most places seem to have gone down hill.

Very best wishes Happy days

Hey Harry
how long have you lived in Ecceles i lived there upto age about 25yrs do you remember the chines laundry on liverpool road, nobody seems to remember it,thats when Eccels was !! nice to live in.
Pauline

Our local picture house was known as the bug hut and was owned by a bad tempered 90year old man
If you laughed too loudly he stopped the film and usually threw some boys out
If you went in winter you had to wrap up warm because he never had any heating on
it was 7d at the front 9d at the back and a shilling upstairs
2d on saturday afternoon Kids Matinee
He offered my a job as the cashier when I was about 17
because i went there a lot and he thought ! was one of the more sensible ones didn't take it though

Bren

Mac,
Magic to this old timer.

Happy days

"Usherettes Reunited" :O))

Mau xx ex Coliseum

Wonderful memories folks.

Best wishes Happy days

Hi Taff,

Hip slowly getting better, thank you :-)

Sue xx

Lovely thread Harry. A lot more "Oldies" on here than I thought! lol BC XX

*waves to Taff. In Cork eh? lol I was an usherette, about 40 years ago, in the ABC Fulham Road!

We had two cinemas Harry.....one was the Odeon and the other was our flea-pit, the Princess.....I well remember going there on a Saturday morning and watching the cowboy films that were often shown......and the ice cream lady selling wafers, ice lollies and drinks in the interval....

The film I remember most was taking my Sis to see the Ten Commandments on a Sunday afternoon, I would have been about l4 and she 10......when we got there, there was a long queue and by the time we got to see it, we had missed the beginning, so had to wait until the second showing started to see the beginning......so instead of getting in about 7 pm......we caught the last bus about 10.30.......and my Dad was out looking for us, and my Mum was angry because they were frightened as a girl about our ages had gone missing.......boy did we get into trouble......no mobiles, or even phones then to let them know......

First film I saw was during the war, 'Dumbo the flying elephant'. My sisters boyfriend took me the 8 miles on the crossbar of his bike, and she rode beside us. My OH was Doorman and controller of staff at Monmouth picture house when it belonged to a national chain. Neither of us can remember what it was called! I got in free, but didnt like the winter cycle ride home! That was 50 yrs ago, and a lady came up to us a few years ago and said that she remembered him there when she was alittle girl.Talk about making you feel old! Jean (Monmouth)

hows the hippy Sue??
xxxxxxxxxx

Jam Jars or a bundle of newspapers was your entrance fee on a saturday in the war years ,

Bc, I was an usherette, in the pictures on the Grande parade, Cork!!!

Aaaaah Saturday morning pictures....

one film usually cowboys/indians then we had a break and children were invited up for a 'talent' contest usually singing or juggling. A few jokes from the MC and time for a few more refreshments from the ice cream lady.

Then settle down to watch the 'feature' film. When it was all finished the MC would announce next week's bill and state that he hoped we would all be back.

Used to go out the emergency exit and lurk around the back of the cinema and play games for as long as we could.

Those were the days....lol

Sue x

Good to "see" you, Harry. You were mentioned on my we do care about people thread.

Awww BC love that tale .......you poor little mite :O)
Seriously, never had to sell any jam jars to get into the pictures, but remember it was sixpence,ninepence and for rich folk a shilling!! to get in.

There certainly was an awful lot of cinemas in towns those days.
One of my favourite tales was when my boyfriend and I were taking our seats in the back row,.....like you did ;O) I saw one of my friends waving,now she had sat through the first film and was 'staying in' to watch it again.
She whispers loudly down the row "oh you'll cry at the end Gina (Lollobrigida) dies!! .......don't know how she didn't get thrown out ....lol

In Dublin, first you would sell the jamjars to get the tuppence, then you would give the tuppence to the lady in the kiosk, and she would give you a token with a hole in the centre. Then a Large Usher would stand at the door and collect the tokens and put them on a string. Then another Large Usher would show you to your seat...all for tuppence!! My love of cinema started when I ran away from home at 3 years old, and was found by a kind sailor (we lived near the docks) with tuppence clutched in my grubby paws. When asked where I was going, I replied...to the pickchers.....lol BC XX

Eccles - just down the road from me.

We used to follow the bouncing ball at the ODEON CHILDRENS CLUB. "To the odeon we have come; now we're all togethere we can have some fun, Oi"

Happy days

we used to have loads of cinemas in Cardiff city centre and a cinema in every suburb. Two films a week - one Mon.Tues,. Wed and one Thurs.Fri, Sat.
Always one big film and one small. In between, either an organist would rise up out of the floor playing the organ or there would be a trailer for films to come, Pearl and Deane advertisements and sometimes Pathe News with the cockerel.

I remember those lollies Pauline,we (ashamedly) used to search in the gutters to find sticks that had been thrown away,I think there were also Jolly Lolly packets too,if you gave them back you got free lolly.
We used to 'trade them' to friends for other sweets (well they were rationed lol)

Harry?
What was the OCC please (Odeon Cinema Club?)
We also went to GB pictures ....Gaumont British...
oh weren't we spoilt! ;O)

One Friday night Mam & Dad 'took' our older cousins in to see a 'big' picture, we were'nt there and were very jealous!

I've heard about the jam jars but thought it was a myth, never happened where we lived.

Mau