Going to the pictures

S

ShaFlo

New member
Does anyone over forty miss the Big screen cinemas of yesteryear?
You know when screens were the size of a London double decker and you even had balcony seats. Huge screen curtains that would be back lit and would part gracefully when the film started creating a real sense of excitement.
Oh and of course mood music played in the background as you were finding your seat. And who can forget double features! Real value for money in those days and your ice cream vendor coming down to the front before the main feature started.

Now we are all jammed into a small oblong room, lights dim, curtains go back (if any) and your subjected to 15 minutes of very loud trailers that make no sense with the same voiceover artist, annoying adverts and no atmosphere.
Herded out like sheep for the next lot to be bundled in.
How I miss the days when cinemas worked hard in how it presented a film for an audience.
 
I should say I do.
Once, when we went to an old cinema in Cardiff, there was a problem with the equipment so the manager played the organ.
The 'Prince of Wales' cinema and 'The Gala' cinema were works of art.

Saturday morning cinema club was great and every housing estate had a local cinema.

You could go in at any time and leave when you wanted to, PLUS you had two films - the main event and a 'B' movie.
Kiaora squash and Oxo crisps - food and drink of the goRAB ... well they were to us anyway.

I remember my grandmother taking us to the local flicks armed with chicken sandwiches and a bottle of lemonade.
 
Cinema has changed. Back then there may have only been one screen and whatever was on was what people watched. Now there is a massive variety of films available and people will only watch what they really want to. If they can't get it at the cinema they will just buy the dvd. Don't forget, home video didn't exist back then.
 
Our local usually changed films on Thursday. Really, we didn't mind what was on.
As a teenager it was a night out with no complications, just walk to the local and walk home with a bag of chips in newspaper.
If there was something we especially wanted to see, we took a bus into the centre where there were several cinemas.
 
Bloody hell you've taken me right back to my childhhood AJ!
I remember our local cinema having no central heating, just a 5 bar gas fire down the front, for a massive room lol! Torture in the winter! Also remember a smoking section, where people would puff away during the film. Kiaora squash with a straw and Oxo crisps - heaven!
Like you say, the main event and a b-movie, and if you liked the main film you could hang around and watch it again. I remember watching the Wild Geese with my Dad (don't know how I got in, would have only been about 12) and we loved it so stayed and watched it again. Anyone remember when the b-movie finished, an ice cream girl would come in and stand half way up the aisle, and people would go over and buy ice cream from her? Those were the days lmao! :D
The real beauty of visiting the flicks back then tho was NO MOBILE PHONES. The ammount of times I've been disturbed by the light from some numpty's phone is ridiculous. :mad:
I yearn for the 70s sometimes :o
 
I remember films changing on Sundays when i was very young. The trailers would be for the next film showing and say "Sunday next for seven days". You would get the main film showing three times a day at say 1.30, 5 and 8.30 and the second film would show twice at 3.15 and 6.40. You could go in when you liked and see the main film first or vice versa. then in the 80's it all changed and the second feature was replaced by short documenteries about whiskey distilling or things like that! then you had to sit through these boring 20 min features then the 20 mins of aRAB. Probably more annoying than today where you just sit through 20 - 30 mins of aRAB and trailers!
 
These two posts have made me feel quite sad in a nostalgic sort of way...:(:)

My grandad used to take me to a little picture house in Chorley when I was a kid, I remember going there to watch The Empire Strikes Back.

There used to be an usherette who would walk up and down with a torch selling Butterkist and crisps, I thought I was in heaven...

...one memory that sticks with me is the fact that my Grandad would sit there smoking during the film, which would be an outrage now

The theatres were all painted that lovely deep red colour, with the traditional swing doors at the back, with the round window in them

The modern multiplexes are soulless in comparison
 
Don't be sad Ulysses!
Remember :D

The usherette who showed you to your seat :eek:
She'd shine her torch on you if she felt you were not behaving!
Oh, the shame being lit up like that.

I remember the ones who sold ice cream in the intermission wore silly little hats. The ice cream tubs with the wooden spoon were like concrete :D

Everyone smoked.
Every seat had an ashtray fixed to the seat in front of them.
 
I remember those Ice Cream tubs...:D

Ah, it is so nice to look back with fondness...

What I remember mostly is that a trip to the cinema, sorry 'pictures', was a major event, almost like going on holiday - my mum would make me sandwiches to take as well...:D
 
I miss the Cinema of my childhood and teens. When I was in my teens my then boyfriend used to take me on a 'date' to the Cinema at Grays in Essex every week. They still had a chap coming out of the Orchestra Pit on his Organ waving and playing kitch tunes. And we always watched a "B" movie before the main film.

When we were kiRAB my brother and I spent whole afternoons in the Cinema during the school holidays. We took a Carrier Bag each with sandwiches, crisps, sweets and pop. Happy days.
 
A pity, but it is.
And too expensive!
Every kid went to to pictures when I was growing up.
The cheapest seats were via the exit door which did not shut properly in our local :D You had to be quick though, timing it just before the usherette caught on.
When my daughters were small I insisted on buying sweets in a supermarket beforehand, but had to give in on the popcorn when they were older.
 
Well I live in an area where there are still lots of one screen cinema's. However, as a kid I longed for the days of going to Swansea and go to the Multi screens. The selection of confectionary was awesome and you could even store your coke and watch the film at the same time.

Now though, I long for the one screen cinema - with the better atmopshere, bigger screen and as described brilliantly by the OP.

However, the film choice is so poor, I do really venture there.
 
I have to say, there's nothing to match modern cinemas. Trekking to your "local" multiplex, passing through those magical doors into the indescribable STINK that invariably greets your nasal passages like the warm hanRABhake of a long-lost friend....

(Part 1 of 53. Back after these messages from our sponsors!)
 
The Smallest Show on Earth. Marvellous testimony to cinema. Peter Sellers as the drunk projectioniost & Margaret Rutherford as the piano player. When they turned the heating up to flog more ice cream:)

Mulitplexes are godless , souless places aimed at morons under the age of 18 & people who cant stop eating & talking. STFU its the cinema not your living room!!!! Why you want to ring people up in the middle of a film fair boggles the mind , but seeing as they only show mass market American dross i suppose the boredom threshold is easily reached.

Far easier to stop in & watch a DVD than waste good time & money on these tat emporiums

:D
 
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