It's all a little slow on the 'News' section today, so I thought I might pop-in, if you don't mind?
I have just been reading the post on film endings and it got me reminiscing.
How many can remember the latest film being delivered to your local cinema? These came in numerous large flattish and round aluminium cans, each one containing one reel of a multi reel film.
Now we can pop to the local supermarket and purchase, perhaps this very same film for a few pounds, for this we can own the film as our own for evermore.
Then once home we can sit in the comfort of our home, slip it into the DVD player, and watch all those memories come flooding back to life.
But then not quite the same as queuing in the rain, with your girlfriend on your arm, waiting to enter that luxurious Film Palace, but then that is another story.
And that is a nice story old git. I can remember seeing those spools of film in archived footage. I'm only in my 40's but I do remember the Saturday Morning Picture Club. All the 'big ones' snogging in the back row. There would be a film, cartoons, some music, loads of ads. We felt so grown up.
the boys playing at Zorro with their coats tied by the arms around their necks for a cape......the smell of ddt to kill the fleas... the manager screaming at us to sit down or we'd all be out...the bouncing ball...we are the minors of the ABC !!!!!
Ah yes. We had a cinema directly opposite the house i grew up in in the 50s and 60s. The view into the foyer was magical with its shiny brass, (rather worn) red velvet and crystal lights and and the big poster outside advertised the film programmes for the week. One on Monday to Wednesday, change of programme for thursday to saturday, and a separate programme for a Sunday.
However, i seem to recall that (rather like tv now) the occassional outstanding film was surrounded by lots of dross.
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His first job as a 14 year old in 1940 while he waited to join the RAF was going by van all over the north of england as the lad assisting the delivery and collection of the films.
I think he had a less romantic recall of all those cans!
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The first film I saw at the cinema was Ghostbusters.... I mostly remember the longest walk home with my dad singing the theme tune - loud enough for all to hear.... 'Who y'gonna call?' ... (pause... waits... waits some more... glares at my brother and I) Ghostbusters! We go to the cinema quite a lot and I wouldn't dream of doing that to my children. (I miss the stupid things my dad used to do.)
i remember going to the cinema on sat afternoon's, it was a reduced price for kids and i remember it as being more of a social occasion than anything else, the entire school seemed to be there :-)
Saturday afternoon was usually a "Cowboy" and when we came out, we ran into the "rec" divided up into cowboys and Indians and re-enacted the film sequence.
I always wanted to be the Indian Chief or the "baddy"
I remember the first film I was taken to see, probably around 1960-61, in a cinema in Manchester. I found it all very boring and confusing - I was only small and it was a double bill of Dumbo and Belles of St Trinians (as I later deduced, hadn't a clue what I was lookking at at the time). More than anything I remember the thick fog of cigarette smoke making me feel sick.
The cinema later became a porn cinema (!) and even later was reborn as The Cornerhouse, arty-farty foreign films and suchlike.
Plenty of happy memories at the Saturday afternoon matinees and the Back row of the Cinema in the evenings. The double seats were always a bit rickety and had a funny smell, I wonder why ! ;-)))
I think I'm a tad younger than you AOG so I don't remember films like that. I do remember my first visit to the cinema though. I went to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
It came on TV sometimes over xmas and as soon as I saw the title start up all the memories flooded back of being on the bus with my Grandma and Brother and Sister with so much excitement about going to the cinema for the first time. It was a great memory!
First film I saw at the pictures was Hard days night....my gran paid a friends daughter to take me to get me out of the house... the next I remember was saturday morning pictures...but the next feature film I remember was Jason and the argonauts...