Pontllotyn Cinema 1960 1974

A Memory of Pontlottyn.

I have many fond memories of Pontllotyn Cinema, it was a very big part of most of my childhood and teen years. I remember Mrs Jones with the torch, Mrs Lewis & my own Nan, Mrs Jones from Duffryn St. My nan's job was to bring around the refeshment at the interlude of the film, which always had a second part, sometimes really long films may have had a part 3. On Christmas time the kids would line up in droves to get a free apple, orange and free film. My favourite was always The Lone Ranger, with Tonto ("hi ho silver away"). We would get so exited, other times we would be able to sneak in without paying. We would wait in the hallway of our flat opposite and look through the glass in the window, then when everyone had gone in, we would creep under the window of the ticket booth or sometimes we could climb in through the open toliet window around the back of the building. This was great while we were small, but as we grew taller and bigger we were not able to this without being caught or stuck in the window. Many a weekend my brother would give me 2 shillings to go to the 'pictures' to get me out of the flat, we lived opposite in River Road Flats, he would do this while 'entertaining' his girlfriend in peace. Later when I became a teenager myself, I chatted up my now wife of 35 eayrs with the line "fancy going to the pictures?" We still have very warm memories of our dates at the cinema and the films we watched there.
I always felt it a great priviledge to have a Cinema on our door-step and it was always a place of wonder and an escape from the doldrums and stresses of daily life.