'Saturday Morning Pictures'

[Dennis McGuckin]

Just remembered a somewhat amusing side story related to my last post.
I once had a lady sitting behind me in the Globe.
She must have been an out of towner and didn't know the Globes reputation.
Anyway, the seat next to her was vacant. She felt something on it and started to stroke it. For some reason she thought it was a cat.
When she finally realised it was a large rat her scream was deafening and scared the living bejebbers out of me.
She was that loud that the lights were turned on. A somewhat regular occurrence in the Globe for one reason or another.
I only heard the story after the two of us could be calmed down and things returned to what passes for normal in that establishment.
Den.

[Rodney Mills]

What a great thread...Memories galore.

I haven't been to the movies in over twenty years but loved them as a kid in Southend. Signs of a misspent youth, I bunked into movies Monday to Saturday, couldn't do it on Sunday, not for religious reasons but there was only one show on Sunday, so no one came out the back door. The trick was to catch the door before it closed, slide into the gents, make sure the house lights were down, into the Odeon, Ritz, Gaumont, etc. slink into a seat and hunch down for a bit.

One movie theater defied bunking in, can't remember it's name but it was a small theater that showed mainly horror films. The cashier's booth was right inside the door, steps led up a flight of stairs, toilets at the top, doors into the theater up another flight of stairs. No other exit... I did it...out of desperation...You see it was the night of the day the King died. Every other theater in Southend closed. My mate and I crawled along the floor, below the cashier's booth, out of sight of the cashier, slithered up the stairs and into the 'gents', walked calmly into the theater and watched 'The Bride of Frankenstein'.

Next day, we were the heros of Southchurch Hall High School for boys, we'd cracked , I think it was called the Old Vic.

Cheers, Rodney.

[Dennis McGuckin]

Remember before the show started, we were entertain by some guy playing the organ.
Also at the end, when the lights came on, we all stood for God Save The King.
NOBODY left until it was over.
Wonder how that would go down today?
Den.

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Rodney,

A misspent youth indeed. To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised we never met before all those years ago, whilst passing through the emergency doors of any number of Southend cinemas like ships in the night - you going in and me going out !!! This was my normal point of entry and egress if, as was often the case, my visit to the cinema had been unpaid for.

In those days, there would very often be a gang of us, say four or five boys. Our technique was similar to your own, but with a slight difference. Rather than be seen loitering at the side of the cinema, one of us would actually pay to go in! On entry he would immediately go to the toilet, lift the bar on the adjacent emergency door and let the rest of the gang in. We had enough sense not to exit the toilets like a herd of elephants and so attract the unwanted attention of the usherette. Instead, we would try to stagger our entrance into the cinema proper. This, however, did not always go to plan. I'm sure that any patron, not wholly absorbed with what was occurring up on the silver screen, would have been bemused/amused to witness the furtive exit from the toilet of several small boys in the space of one minute. Patience was not a commodity in abundance as far as our gang was concerned, but for all the times we worked this 'scam' only once were we 'sprung' and unceremoniously ejected from the cinema. It didn't stop us though from successfully trying it on a week or so later, such was the intrepid nature of we kids.

Rodney, I was surprised that you made no mention of the Gaumont on Saturday mornings. I could have sworn that you were my antagonist with the ice-cream wrapper. I'm even more convinced now.

Wondered if the cinema you were thinking of was the 'Civic' which was almost directly opposite the Gaumont in Southchurch Road or, perhaps, the 'Strand' which was down an alleyway behind the 'Gaumont'.
There were so many cinemas in Southend in the years immediately following WWII. Apart from the"Civic', 'Gaumont', 'Strand', 'Ritz' and 'Odeon' which we have already mentioned, there was also the 'Rivoli' and 'Garons' which was next to the Odeon, plus another smaller cinema whose name I can't remember. About half a mile away, in Westcliff, there was also the 'Mascot' and 'Metropole'. Amazing really that there should have been so many cinemas in one town, but, of course, in those days, generally speaking, they were our main source of family entertainment. Few families I knew could afford the luxury of a T.V. set at the time.

Finally, Rodney, I thought I'd mention that although I was a pupil at Wentworth Road Secondary School, the family my mother and I shared a house with had a son named Leslie Barton who was about your age and, like you, attended Southchurch Hall. I wondered if you remember him?


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[Rodney Mills]

Rowger...(you're stuck with that patronymic...he.he. Russian intended).

You became a Cop, I was a very minor villain...escaped your clutches...but am 'remorseful', which I know carries a lot of weight under 'Oz' law...Some young mongrels knicked my fish tackle box outside of Townsville, Qusld....I paid A$15. to have it ship express to me...just to receive an empty tackle box...could the fact that it was a sheila cop handled this important crime have anything to do with it?...the dirty rotten b......s were remorseful though...I was too, I would have transported them to Mali.

Sorry about Leslie Barton, perhaps he was an 'A' student...I was a 'B'.

Yes, the 'Civic' sounds right...memory failing...look what you have to look forward to in three years.

Next to finally mate...One night at the Odeon?...the one nearest to the Palace Hotel.. about fifteen of us 'bunked in' in one shot...couldn't hang around in the 'Gents', to many of us...we opened the door and slunk into a darkened cinema, let's say as the orphaned child died in the arms of a young and struggeling priest...The whole bloody theatre roard out laughing....they probably bunked in during the 'Silent Movie' era.

Finally....Was the wrapper chocalate?

Cheers, Rodney.

[Rodney Mills]

Woops!

Chocolate...Sun's over the yard arm in South Carolina...Red wine has claimed another victime.

Cheers, Rodney.

[Rodney Mills]

Victime was intentional.

Cheers again, rodney.

[Neil Morton]

Ha Ha what a glorious thread. There were certain strings attached to my Saturday mornings at the Odeon Morden,you know that place at the end of the London tube on the Northern Line. One of which was to take Mum's bag wash to the laundry and dump it on the doorstep, they were not open when I arrived; imagine doing that today it would be nicked in a trice. Another condition was to take along my girl cousin Josie aged three years my junior and my sister six years my junior, which means I was about twelve if you wondering. I was given 1/6 for entrance fee and 9 pence to buy sweeties to be shared.
In 1951 sweets were a luxury, when they came off the ration the nation gorged themselves. Personally I preferred a cream bun, like most 12 year olds I was always hungry. Anyway having fulfilled the conditions required by " she who must REALLY be obeyed", (very generous wth thick ears),I would leave 'em for dead and join my boisterous mates three rows from the front.
Naturally I had a plan to meet the pests out front so I then dragged them home missing the after show hi jinks. I also had to go to the bloody laundry to get the parcel of clean washing. This was wrapped in the shiniest brown paper ever invented and it slipped every which way in my anguished clutches so that invariably the wrapping was rent asunder and half the linen exposed. Shock horror, good job it wasn't Mums smalls.
Sunday arvo was on a plane far above the gentle genre of Saturday mornings.It HAD to be gangsters or HORROR and had to wait until I was a dopey looking 14.No way I could get passed the pay box in the foyer so chicanery became involved. We would conribute to the entrace fee of the eldest of us, usually about 16 who could bluff his way in and admit us stealthily through those side doors of ealier posting.
My greatest achievment on the Sunday scene was at age 13 and still not in long trousers was the borrowing of cousin Josies slacks and getting in to see Edward G and Bogey in Key Largo. I recieved strange looks from Aunt Belle on their return.

[Pete Leonard (Bruno)]

Hi Neil,
we must have been brought up in more or less the same manor, but my local cinema was the Gaumont at Rosehill. You came a little after me as it was wartime when I was your age and the pictures was a good escape from all the restrictions of real life. I remember the Odeon at Morden because it was there that I learned how to squeeze though a small transom window into the toilets. We would send one of the lads through the legitimate route (by paying) and he would open the window to let us all in. I can't understand why the management never rumbled this, but we used it for quite a while until we got too big to squeeze through.Most of the local cinemas were vulnerable to this kind of activity. Majestic at Mitcham,Granada at Sutton, Century at Sutton. The only ones we couldn't crack were The Gaumont at Rosehill and The Bug Hutch at Sutton (sorry can't remember its real name). Although life must have been hard for our parents in those days, it didn't prevent us enjoying our selves. I feel a bit sorry for the kids of today who's only amusement is through a computer screen. Mind you, that medium is a godsend to me and a lot of my generation, it keeps us in touch with each other and the outside world, so who am I to criticize?
Cheers
Pete

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Rodney,

What sort of question is that, Rodders, 'was it chocolate?' How the h--l would I know?...I was wearing it, not eating it. I'm now convinced you have 'guilty knowledge' of the whole affair, nasty little boy

I hope the members will forgive my slight digression ( I blame Rodney for bringing it up ).

I have fond memories of the Palace Hotel next door to the 'Odeon' cinema, Southend, thank you very much. It was an 'oasis' in my hour of need. In 1960, during an extended period at home, with three landlubber mates, I signed up for a course of lessons at the 'Victor Sylvester Dance Studio' hoping to improve my chances with the ladies (I must have been mad). Apparently, the dancing lessons were held every Thursday evening in a large room above the Odeon and the music supplied was by virtue of records by the Victor Sylvester Orchestra. That first night, imagine our horror when we discovered that, apart from a couple of chaps in their 50's, we were the only male members amongst twenty or so ladies of a 'certain age'. I swear, there was not a single woman under 40, it was like 'Grab a Granny Night', only they were doing the grabbing. I felt like a sacrificial lamb. The ladies were all very nice, but not exactly what we had in mind. We endured an hour of 'slow, slow, quick, quick, slow', before they stopped for a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. This was our chance. We sauntered casually out the door as if going to the toilet, but then took a sharp left and tumbled frantically down the stairs, the sounds of our barely suppressed laughter echoing off the walls. Once out on the street, we darted hastily into the welcome 'fug' of the Palace hotel next door, still giggling like idiots. Over several pints, by unanimous decision, we severed our ties with the V.S.Dance Studio then and there. For a while I felt guilty about the way we'd left those nice 'old' ladies, but the guilt soon faded away.

Regrettably, I never did learn to dance. After dancing with me on one occasion my dear wife likened the experience to being run over by a Sherman tank, so it's obvious that, in the interests of public safety, I've no right being on a dance floor. Who knows, perhaps I did those old ladies a favour after all?

.................................................. ....................cheers, Roger.