Going to the pictures, as we used to say

[trastrick]

Oh, dear. We've strayed into sports. Well, my biggest disappointment is twofold. First, the choking of the Blue Jays in the ALCS playoffs last year (though I was glad they at least got there) and second, the Habs showing so much early season promise then going progressively downhill.

 

Back to the pictures. Do you remember when some films had "continuous" showings. You could enter the cinema mid way through a film and stay there until it went right around again. Or longer. I'm sure some people would spend half the day in there and see the film a couple of times through.If the cinema filled up, a queue of people would form outside and people would be allowed in as others left. The Cinema House in Barker's Pool was well known for that. A bloke would go up and down the line: "Two seats on the front row. Not together," he'd shout until a couple of customers emerged to take up the offer.

 

 

Hence the famous quote, "This is where we came in".

 

We got used to seeing the end of the film first and if it was a good ending we stayed to watch the plot set up

 

---------- Post added 12-02-2016 at 21:36 ----------

 

My cousin's dad worked at the Carleton, and with her I saw every picture for about 3 years. She was the ultimate knowledgable film critic, knew all the actors, directors, and the others mentioned in the credits. She died very young unfortunately.

 

I was able to celebrate her, in a way, later in life. I got a chance to hang around Los Angeles a couple of times, with time on my hands. I drove around the Valley, Simi Hills, and the Santa Susana Pass where 75% of those old movies were made. I even got to stand on the same rock over the trail, where an indian always jumped on Gene Autrey, Hopalong Cassisidy and the rest. I wish she could have been there to point out all the stuff I missed!

 

It's covered by subdivisions now.

 

Up on Mulholland Drive at night with the city lights in both directions, where all our teenage idols James Dean, Sal Mineo, Robert Wagner "made out", killed their girlfriends, or ran off the road into the Canyons.

 

The beach coves just north of the city where Doris day and the rest had their "clambakes"

 

I also drove by a quite small nondescript decaying industrial shop that had a crumbling sign, "Technicolor Studios". Really? Is that where all the magic came from?

 

A long way from the Carleton on a winters night with a long cold walk home along Eastern Avenue, and no scarf or gloves.

Edited February 12, 2016 by trastrick

[TORONTONY]

Oh, dear. We've strayed into sports. Well, my biggest disappointment is twofold. First, the choking of the Blue Jays in the ALCS playoffs last year (though I was glad they at least got there) and second, the Habs showing so much early season promise then going progressively downhill.

 

Back to the pictures. Do you remember when some films had "continuous" showings. You could enter the cinema mid way through a film and stay there until it went right around again. Or longer. I'm sure some people would spend half the day in there and see the film a couple of times through.If the cinema filled up, a queue of people would form outside and people would be allowed in as others left. The Cinema House in Barker's Pool was well known for that. A bloke would go up and down the line: "Two seats on the front row. Not together," he'd shout until a couple of customers emerged to take up the offer.

Yes one of the most common sayings among picture goers in those days was " Oh well this is where we came in" lol

[EdmundH]

jhgghfdfgfrgfgfgfg

Edited February 3, 2018 by EdmundH

[lesleyward]

My dad was a projectionist at some of the cinemas mentioned he sadly passed away in 2013 I used to love going to rex and Elsacar in Barnsley.remember crying at wartnership down and last snow of springs.like dad said cinemas now arnt same.

[soft ayperth]

On the not so pleasant side, the cinemas were always filled with cigarette smoke. Oxygen must have been at a premium. That would never fly nowadays. Back then, it was one of the places where kids who were too young to smoke could do so covertly. I was one of them. Puffed my way throw many a film.

[gomgeg]

On the not so pleasant side, the cinemas were always filled with cigarette smoke. Oxygen must have been at a premium. That would never fly nowadays. Back then, it was one of the places where kids who were too young to smoke could do so covertly. I was one of them. Puffed my way throw many a film.

Spot on. On another thread on here it's about your first fags, mine were Park Drive but I remember taking a girl to the pictures and buying some American ones in the soft packet, Peter Stuyvessant I seem to remember, thought I was so sophisticated shaking them out of the packet like I'd seen the film stars do.

[EdmundH]

hfghgfhgfhgfhgfhh

Edited February 3, 2018 by EdmundH

[brian1941]

Oh, dear. We've strayed into sports. Well, my biggest disappointment is twofold. First, the choking of the Blue Jays in the ALCS playoffs last year (though I was glad they at least got there) and second, the Habs showing so much early season promise then going progressively downhill.

 

Back to the pictures. Do you remember when some films had "continuous" showings. You could enter the cinema mid way through a film and stay there until it went right around again. Or longer. I'm sure some people would spend half the day in there and see the film a couple of times through.If the cinema filled up, a queue of people would form outside and people would be allowed in as others left. The Cinema House in Barker's Pool was well known for that. A bloke would go up and down the line: "Two seats on the front row. Not together," he'd shout until a couple of customers emerged to take up the offer.

-------------------

Hi, I enjoyed that reminder i did chuckle to myself, i too remember

those pictures going in half way and stopping to watch all over till it

came round to when i walked in halfway. I really forgot all about that.

:hihi::hihi:

[echo beach]

Also spot on... It's one of those amazing things, in the 1960s and 70s everybody used to smoke, especially at the pictures or in shows, it wasn't until, let's say, the 1990s that people began to realise how dangerous it was... I also spent something like 40 years or so slowly poisoning myself with cigarettes, I was up to about 30 a day before I gave it up about 10 years ago... Even more amazing is that nowadays I'm sometimes asked why I gave up and I say "hey, is that a serious question"?

 

 

Oh no they didn't Edmund and I was one of the exceptions. Despite both my parents and eventually all of my mates taking up the habit I never succumbed. Just didn't see the rationale of sending my money up in smoke. Instead my hard earned wages were spent on running a car from the day of my test at the age of 17.

I will admit that the vast majority of folks smoked in the '60s and before and I have no doubt that passively I've inhaled many a cigarette via the atmosphere in the cinemas, pubs and nightclubs of that era.

It's Sod's Law that I'll depart this life due to lung cancer, but at the moment, I'm still waiting.

 

echo.

[soft ayperth]

 

 

Oh no they didn't Edmund and I was one of the exceptions. Despite both my parents and eventually all of my mates taking up the habit I never succumbed. Just didn't see the rationale of sending my money up in smoke. Instead my hard earned wages were spent on running a car from the day of my test at the age of 17.

I will admit that the vast majority of folks smoked in the '60s and before and I have no doubt that passively I've inhaled many a cigarette via the atmosphere in the cinemas, pubs and nightclubs of that era.

It's Sod's Law that I'll depart this life due to lung cancer, but at the moment, I'm still waiting.

 

echo.

 

No, you did absolutely the right thing echo. I smoked for about 25 years. Gave it up in 1978. Never looked back. I'm not sure what percentage of people would have smoked back when folk used to go to the pictures, but it would have been much higher than today. In any event, nobody seemed to mind that their eyes might be watering during the showing, the view of the pic looked at through a curtain of smoke, their lungs full of second hand smoke, and the fact that they would come out with their clothes smelling of cigarette smoke. Values have changed.