Saturday Morning Matinee
Sit back and remember the thrill of the silver screen for children in the 1950s - oh the fun to be had at the Saturday morning children's matinee! The only place to be on a Saturday, take some time to remember the heroes and villains of the day, singalongs at the interval, spending sixpence on lollies and ice-cream, and cherishing your membership of the ABC Minors!
Fortunately, the photographers of one company travelled all over Britain between 1860 and 1970 recording thousands of towns and villages for posterity. In doing so they captured reminders of everyday life including photographs of the British cinemas we so fondly remember. These photographs are now preserved as The Francis Frith Collection.
Much of this amazing archive is now available to browse on the Internet and visitors are invited to add their own memories - inspired by individual photographs or towns - and it is these which bring the scenes depicted to life.
Enjoy these images and memories of a vanished aged!
The only place to be on a Saturday
Saturday morning could not come quick enough for our family, myself and brother Marty would walk 5 miles to the morning show with a shilling between us. Looking forward to cartoons with Mickey Mouse, on-going serials with the Lone Ranger or Flash Gordon where the end finished with the hero about to come to a nasty end that you had to come back next week to see. The shows usually started with a sing-song generated by a compere, then a different game show like eating a donut on a string the fastest or, my favourite, a singing contest . The first one I won was singing "She Loves You" by the Beatles. I won a big bag of mixed sweets that we shared with all our mates. I remember walking through the tough winter of '63 up to our knees in snow to get there and most annoyed to find it could not open. I remember thinking "Well, I walked 5 miles, what's the problem?!" That?s how much we enjoyed our films.
From a memory by John O'connor. Click here to read the full memory.
Heroes and villains of the silver screen
Of course you remember it ... well most of us do!!! It all seems so long ago now, but it's beginning to drift up from the fog of "times gone by". Hot and damp and steaming gently in the heat of the old Globe cinema at Gosforth (you sold more drinks and ice cream if you kept it very hot!), in from the rain and sitting there with our knees under chins and feet on the seat with sweaters pulled up to our eyes and pulled down over our knees so we looked like rows of strange beasts - so God help the ice cream girls! There must have been about 1,000 screaming children rooting for Roy Rogers and Trigger and hell-bent on making as much noise as possible! But they never noticed that Roy?s hat never fell off in a fight and that he had more lipstick on than Dale Evans his love interest. They would never imagine that poor old Trigger would end up being stuffed and mounted on a plinth out side Roy?s ranch. Hands up if you remember "The Perils of Pauline", and you must remember "Flash Gordon and the Clay Men"?. Then there was "Zorro" - now there was a force to be reckoned with! We all wanted to be Zorro! After the show there we were galloping up the road on imaginary horses with our navy blue school raincoats over our shoulders buttoned at the neck so it looked like Zorro's cloak, with homemade eye masks covering most of our faces, brandishing our homemade swords with bits of chalk tied to the tip - zizz zizz - at any stray dog or imaginary enemy who came across our path! We left Zorro's mark Z on any door or wall we passed! Zizz zizz and the deed was done and off we went to find another enemy to fight! I suppose we could all go on for a very long time rekindling our childhood memories of the Saturday matinees that we lived for as in many cases it was the highlight of our week.
From a memory by DAVID HINGE. Click here to read the full memory.
Singalongs at the interval
I lived in Belvedere. My sister and I would walk to Bexleyheath, crossing fields to go to the Regal Cinema. This cinema had a fine organ that came up from nowhere and was played by Reginald Fort during the films interval. Words of the songs were flashed on the screen and everyone sang along. Popular songs at the time were "When the Poppies Bloom Again" and "Her name was Queen Mary, she sailed the seven seas" etc. Unfortunately, the second world war put an end to the organ. A bomb fell in about 1942 hitting that part of the cinema wall containing the organ pipes and electronics. The Regal was demolished in the 50's and became a Bowling Alley and then Sainsbury's Super Market.
From a memory by Stanley Gray. Click here to read the full memory.
Boys and girls of the ABC Minors
I was born in 1951, so belong to the generation of Saturday morning cinema goers in Wallsend who just couldn't wait for Saturdays. The choice was big in the late 1950's: the Gaumont (corner of Park Road and High Street East), the Royal (High Street East) and now the Lloyds TSB bank, the Tyne (Station Road) pulled down to make way for The Forum, the Queens (Station Road) behind Woolworth and opposite the Memorial Hall or the Ritz (High Street West). The favourite was The Ritz, an art deco cinema palace. I was an ABC Minor - the junior cinema goers club and still have the badge to prove it. Sixpence got you into the stalls and a shilling got you into the circle. With only a shilling pocket money a week at the time (£0.05) it was the stalls, threepence for an ice lolly and threepence left for the rest of the week.
(Sung to the tune of 'Blaze away')
We are the boys and girls well known as Minors of the ABC,
And every Saturday we line up to see the films we like and shout aloud with glee,
We love to laugh and have a singsong, such a happy crowd are we,
We're all pals together - the Minors of the ABC!
Happy memories. As 'going to the pictures' was replaced with TV in the 60's and 70's the picture houses disappeared. The Gaumont and The Ritz remain, but as bingo halls only.
From a memory by Michael Innes. Click here to read the full memory.
Sixpence for lollies and ice-cream
When we were small we were given a shilling to go to the Saturday morning pictures - The ABC Minors we were called. We even had a song we sang before the films began. Sixpence was used to get into the cinema and we had sixpence to spend on lollies or ice cream that was sold from the counter between the entrance and the doors into the theatre. It was always noisy in that area where you would meet up with other kids you knew and see where they were going to sit. I remember the westerns with Hoppalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid and The Masked Ranger with Silver, his horse, and his sidekick Tonto. I also remember the cartoons Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Donald Duck and all those Warner Bros characters. I have them on DVD and my grandchildren watch them now.
From a memory by Carole Baldwin. Click here to read the full memory.
Messing about at the matinee
Lower down the street was the Lyric cinema, The Lyric was always a cut above the Palace cinema in terms of decoration, on Saturdays they held a matinee which featured a live local group and cartoons, kids from Wellingborough all wore the famous ABC club badge. It was a fiasco playing to these kids (I should know...I did it !!) one got pelted with sweets and pennies, for anyone that can't remember our old currency, pennies were large and heavy....and hurt!!
From a memory by Mick Austin. Click here to read the full memory.
