The Majestic Cinema

A Memory of Mitcham.

Between the tree and the cinema you can see the roof and top floor of one of the blocks of flats in Armfield Crescent so we did not live far from the cinema. 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.
As I grew up and went to work we went to the pictures at night. One of my most memorable and probably life changing for me was the film "South Pacific" with Mitzi Gaynor. I saw that film a few times and was determined to go to the South Pacific. Well, I finally did that by getting a one way ticket on a slow boat to the South Pacific on my twentieth birthday in 1966 and set sail in March 1967. I am still roaming the islands of the South Pacific, be they large or small, and I have not made up my mind where to put down my roots in the evening of my life.
Just across the road from the Majestic was a music shop where I bought my first record. It was a 45rpm and one of many that I eventually purchased from 1963-1967. I still cart them around with me to wherever I live at the time. Also have the 33rpm's too, including "South Pacific", which of course I played on the deck of the ship on my portable record player as we sailed through the South Pacific on the way to Tahiti where the film was made.
Next door to the Majestic was the Westminster Bank - I ended up working in their Head Office in Lothbury EC1. Next to that was the Pie & Mash shop. We never bought anything there but would go in to see the jellied eels squirming all around in a large bin on the counter. We did this when we waited for the bus to Croydon on a Saturday as the bus stop was just outside the shop.