Some cinemas including those within the ABC chain would use some of the children as monitors during the children’s matinees performances. The children would be given a few rows of seats in the cinema to maintain, providing another pair of eyes for the cinema staff and to assist in the cleanup of the cinema after the children’s film show ready for the next film showing.
The manager of the cinema would award marks to the children, prizes such as free cinema tickets and sweets could be won by the highest scoring monitors.
Watch James Walsh’ memories of being a monitor at the Gainsborough cinema: