@bevgender…thank you for referencing the Oxford Bio Cafe. My grandmother, Mrs Molly Knight, was the manager of the Oxford Cinema for quite a long time. There was a place in front where you could buy food and soft drinks and you’d take them into the cinema itself. There were shelves at the back of the seats and you’d eat while watching the movies. The movies were on a loop, so you could watch them over and over again. During the barely-lit intermissions, an African ‘boy’ would come along with a big broom and sweep away the sawdust and remains of food. Sometimes I’d go round the back, behind the black curtain, and speak to my grandmother in her office. I’d have been about eleven or twelve. I spent a lot of time in that cinema, watching mostly very awful B-grade movies, which were, still, way more wonderful than what was happening outside. Needless to say, no black people could attend the cinema then. This period still lingers in my memory fifty years afterwards.
@bevgender…thank you for referencing the Oxford Bio Cafe. My grandmother, Mrs Molly Knight, was the manager of the Oxford Cinema for quite a long time. There was a place in front where you could buy food and soft drinks and you’d take them into the cinema itself. There were shelves at the back of the seats and you’d eat while watching the movies. The movies were on a loop, so you could watch them over and over again. During the barely-lit intermissions, an African ‘boy’ would come along with a big broom and sweep away the sawdust and remains of food. Sometimes I’d go round the back, behind the black curtain, and speak to my grandmother in her office. I’d have been about eleven or twelve. I spent a lot of time in that cinema, watching mostly very awful B-grade movies, which were, still, way more wonderful than what was happening outside. Needless to say, no black people could attend the cinema then. This period still lingers in my memory fifty years afterwards.
Thank you. Robert.