Saturday Afternoon Cinema Matinees

A Memory of Levenshulme.

As a boy of around 10 years old, every Saturday afternoon, my friends and I would go to the Palace Cinema (Farm Side Place, off Stockport Road) for the matinee. It would start around 2pm and it would be 6D to get in, downstairs, or 9D upstairs(now, 2 1/2p and around 4p). Showing on there would be cartoons like Buggs Bunny, Micky Mouse or Tom and Gerry. Then there would be a serial (in black and white) like Flash Gordon or Zorro, the end of which each week, the hero facing certain death. An announcement would come on screen saying, Will he escape? Come back next week and see! Coming back the next week we'd see the final sequence of the hero had been re-filmed, showing the hero escaping at the last second. We would all be wound up as we came out, pretending to be the hero. The ABC Regal Cinema (almost opposite the Levenshulme pub on Stockport Road), would show more or less the same programmes but the entrance fee was dearer(9D downstairs and 1/- upstairs-around 4p and 5p in to days prices). The ABC Cinemas were a big chain throughout the country and were quite posh (todays Apollo, on Stockport Road) in Ardwick, was another such cinema. The Grand Cinema (opposite todays Tesco on Stockport Road), I think, also had a matinee. The once Regal Cinema is now an exclusive Asian restaurant. The Grand became a Catholic church, then an antiques store, but has since been demolished. The Palace became a night club, then an Asian restaurant, but now empty.

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