As a child in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s I recollect going to the Odeon for the Childrens Saturday morning club.It started at 9.30 pm with a 10 to 15 minute cartoon followed by the manager coming on stage to run one or two competitions and have a friendly chat with the kids. This was followed by a weekly serial of about 30 minutes a brief interval for the obligatory ice creams soft drinks etc then on t the main full length feature. All finished by noon. Not bad for sixpence. (21/2 new pence) Refreshments about 1/– (5 new pence)
Early 1960’s took us on to visiting on Saturday afternoons to see my beloved Hayley Mills, first in ‘The Parent Trap’ and then ‘In Search Of The Castaways’ Other films I recollect were Fred McMurray in ‘Flubber’ and ‘Son of Flubber’, Dick Van Dyke and the georgous Ann Margaret in ‘Bye Bye Birdie’. Elvis in ‘Kissing Cousins’ and ‘Kid galahad’, and then on to Sunday evenings in the late ‘60’s sixties where the fabulous 'The Graduate’ featured Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, A full house for ‘Carry On Up The Kyber’ plus many more. Loved the lighting in Cinemas and marvelled at the way the dimming procedure operated in the Odeon. Ceiling lights, indirect type slowly first, followed by the floods on the cutains from a bank of about a dozen or so lamps rigged acroos the circle front, The colour was nearly always a bright orange, although for a short spell the imagination (or the budget) altered the curtains to be lit with ten of the lamps with a violet and the rest in blue filters replacing the ordinary orange ones. Even as a child i recollect visiting a copuple of Saturdays when the ceiling was shrouded in scaffold whilst the only re-decoration of the sixties took place. The manager explaining why the screen was exposed to the floodlights as the curtains were ‘away being dry-cleaned’
Ah what memories. My elder sister had the pleasure of visiting the Odeon round about 1960 to see one of the many ‘Larry Parnes Pop Shows’ of the day. Cliff Richard, The Vernons Girls, Adam Faith, Marty Wilde etc., etc., Would have loved to have been older to have seen these!
I’ll reminisce about the ABC (Regal) on the respective page.
As a child in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s I recollect going to the Odeon for the Childrens Saturday morning club.It started at 9.30 pm with a 10 to 15 minute cartoon followed by the manager coming on stage to run one or two competitions and have a friendly chat with the kids. This was followed by a weekly serial of about 30 minutes a brief interval for the obligatory ice creams soft drinks etc then on t the main full length feature. All finished by noon. Not bad for sixpence. (21/2 new pence) Refreshments about 1/– (5 new pence)
Early 1960’s took us on to visiting on Saturday afternoons to see my beloved Hayley Mills, first in ‘The Parent Trap’ and then ‘In Search Of The Castaways’ Other films I recollect were Fred McMurray in ‘Flubber’ and ‘Son of Flubber’, Dick Van Dyke and the georgous Ann Margaret in ‘Bye Bye Birdie’. Elvis in ‘Kissing Cousins’ and ‘Kid galahad’, and then on to Sunday evenings in the late ‘60’s sixties where the fabulous 'The Graduate’ featured Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, A full house for ‘Carry On Up The Kyber’ plus many more. Loved the lighting in Cinemas and marvelled at the way the dimming procedure operated in the Odeon. Ceiling lights, indirect type slowly first, followed by the floods on the cutains from a bank of about a dozen or so lamps rigged acroos the circle front, The colour was nearly always a bright orange, although for a short spell the imagination (or the budget) altered the curtains to be lit with ten of the lamps with a violet and the rest in blue filters replacing the ordinary orange ones. Even as a child i recollect visiting a copuple of Saturdays when the ceiling was shrouded in scaffold whilst the only re-decoration of the sixties took place. The manager explaining why the screen was exposed to the floodlights as the curtains were ‘away being dry-cleaned’
Ah what memories. My elder sister had the pleasure of visiting the Odeon round about 1960 to see one of the many ‘Larry Parnes Pop Shows’ of the day. Cliff Richard, The Vernons Girls, Adam Faith, Marty Wilde etc., etc., Would have loved to have been older to have seen these!
I’ll reminisce about the ABC (Regal) on the respective page.
Roger Allen. Halifax