Do you remember going to the cinema in the 70s?

[Aparecium]

Dh and I have been trying to describe what going to the cinema was like when we were kids to our kids. Another universe, really!

Do you remember the screen showing a kaleidoscope of ice-creams at the end of the B-feature? I've been trying to find a video of it, but clearly not using the right search terms. Or maybe I imagine it?

I remember often there was no early evening screening, so it was afternoon matinee or evening only.

No wish to go back as I know this would mean some films only being shown for a week.

This is really poor quality but I love the voice.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GCBseCgVtls

'Two for Beverley Hills Cop, please'

'Can't let you in, you're too young'

'...OK, two halves for Return to Oz, please' (only other film on and we weren't being picked up for another 2 hours).

'That'll be adult price'.

'You can't say we're too young to pay adult price for Beverley Hills Cop but we're too old to pay child price for the kids' film. We're either over 13 or we're kids, can't be both'.

'Oh. Take the tickets now fuck off'

1980s, but I remember sneaking in past the ticket booth to watch Desperately Seeking Susan when I was under age .

We had the ice cream interval. The whole place was thick with cigarette smoke. Snacks were either too pricey for my budget (big boxes of Revels!) or old school nastiness like chocolate covered raisins.

The B film was always crap!

Our cinema had Friday night horror which I remember seeing. I can also remember smoking in the Cinema and getting in for X films when I was about 15, the Exorcist iirc

There were ice creams you could only buy in cinemas, I used to like the King Cones, they were like a luxury Cornetto

Pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa , pa pa paaaaa pa , 😁

Oh god yeah (Pearl & Dean) I'll never forget it 🙂😊

It is on You Tube search Odeon intros or Cinema Sales Adverts there's 2 versions one with coca cola on and the other with pepsi.

It was never the cinema...it was THE PICTURES!!

In the early 1970s at least, the national anthem was played after the main film finished. I can remember it clearly, I’m not making this up.

Always hopeful you'd get a letter of the alphabet on your badge that you didn't already have....

It’s too orangey for crows, it’s just for me and my dawg.

We had a cinema for normal films and another one that only showed porn ... for dirty old men. (Soft porn by today's standards presumably. )

Our cinema was known locally as "the flea pit" as it was so old and dirty. I only remember it vaguely in the 70s.

It shut down in the 80s when the Blockbuster video opened and then we had no local cinema until the 00s.

Ads
Cartoon reel, if children
Ads
Short film
Ads
Main feature
Smoking and non-smoking seats
Pearl & Dean pa paa pa paa pa paa pa paa pa pa pa, pa paa pa paa pa paaaaaaaa PA!
Smarties in a cigarette box style packet

We had Saturday morning pictures. We would be allowed to pick a 10p mix up in the sweet shop and then Mum and Dad would drop us - all under 8 years old at the cinema with money for our tickets and then come back afterwards to take us home.

There would be a disco before the film started with a prize for best dancer ( usually a free ticket for the next week)

Then we would watch various cartoons and children's film foundation productions.

I remember the queuing for the latest big film only to get to the front and they had sold out of tickets.

You would often queue for an hour or more in the freezing cold only to go home and try again another day.

We still have a cinema near us that has Pearl and Dean adverts.

It was a big treat!

all films had an interval so people weren’t getting up and down all the time to go to the loo.

and an usherette sold kia ora and ice cream

Yes, I used to go quite a lot in the 1970s (& the '60s), enjoyed it very much but there were more cinemas around then. So many have closed locally, you have to go into town for a selection. That's nice but not always practical. I'm happy now to watch a film at home, don't particularly like travelling but I'm old, went all over the place when I was younger. However there are other things to do and places to go, plays, concerts, etc.

Remember watching the same film more than once.
Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo in Great Yarmouth while on holiday and torrential rain outside.

I remember you could sit there all day and rewatch the film.

Another thing I remember as a teen (so early 80s), was the fighting in the aisle at the cinema. They'd always be teen boys having a scrap .. then when the film started they'd stop and sit down ... it was bizarre 😂

Ohhhh lots of flashback memories here….

We only had one cinema, with one screen, but it was massive and going to see a film was a proper event.

Yes to Pearl & Dean, and those really crackly adverts for a local restaurant ‘just five minutes from this theatre….’

Only sweet popcorn available, hot dogs and sharing bags of sweets. Certainly no nachos.

King Cones were the Lyon’s Maid equivalent of a Walls Cornetto (and were superior in my opinion).

My local newsagent sold them

I remember in cinemas and theatres you could get the boxes of pastilles and fruit gums etc, not just the tubes like elsewhere. Also, little Walls Cornish ice creams with wooden spoon things.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned “Look at Life” and the “Pathe Newsreel” that preceded the B movie (or the main feature if it was a long one with an intermission).
There is a cable TV channel called Talking Pictures that show old programmes and we love the nostalgia, and the weird mixture of subjects chosen.