“I remember there were two screenings in the evenings. The first house started at around 6 o’clock, with the second at around 8:15pm. It was a real rush for workers to get to the first house. Sometimes there were two separate showings, but often everything went on continuously.

What was particularly frustrating was that after queuing for half-hour or more for the second house, in often cold and wet conditions, you could not be sure of getting in until after the main film had started. This was because the first house viewers would stay on.

Another memory is of the Odeon Club on Saturday mornings. I remember the club song which went like this: “To the Ode – Odeon we have come. Now we’re all together we can have some fun. Is everybody happy – YES…. Etc. etc.” I can’t remember the rest.”

Eileen Clarke

Below is a video clip of another version of the Odeon Cinema Club Song. The ABC Minors also had a Cinema Club song. Clubs, songs and badges gave the children a feeling of belonging and brought loyalty to the cinemas as child regulars returned each week.

”
I am one of seven children and live in Waterloo. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, when we were all younger, we used to go to the Odeon cinema (now the Plaza) on Crosby Road North, Waterloo.

On Saturday mornings Mum would be glad to see the back of us and we would head off to the cinema where they held the Saturday Club. We would pay our 6(d) pence to go in to the cinema, we would then buy our sweets and popcorn from the counter and when we walked into the main auditorium there would usually be a man playing the organ. This would then lead to us all singing our Saturday morning song, when we had finished we would settle down to watch something exciting like Flash Gordon, or a western. I always remember the adverts; it’s a bit like the telly nowadays, but without the fast forward. During the interval we would look out for the lady with the ice-creams and would have either a tub or an Orange Maid. If you were lucky you got a Jubbly – hmm, lovely. After the interval there would be something else to do, such as a competition or a draw. Sometimes the competition was a Yoyo race to see who could ‘walk the dog’, ‘swing the baby’ and other tricks that I have long forgotten. This did not happen all the time, but when it did it was great!!!

We lived from one Saturday to another and the happy memories of the Odeon for me as a child in the 50s and 60s are filled with happy times.”

Edwina Lyons

“My father did shift work, so every third week we would all go to the pictures either to the Regent, Plaza or the Corona.

If it was the Corona we would have an early tea, rush from Brownmore Lane down Endbutt Lane through Coronation Park to get to the Corona Picture House, which was were the Co-op shop is now in College Road. The park would be closed when we went home so we walked the full length of College Road, Kingsway, Stuart Road and into Brownmore Lane: A long evening out.

Most Saturday afternoons I would go with school friends to the Stella in Seaforth, as the father of one of my friends was the manager and we would get in free.

Sometimes we would go to the Queens or the Winter Gardens picture houses; they were also known as the ‘Flea Pit’.

We always had to stand in queues to get into any picture house.

On Saturday mornings there was a club for children, I think it was 6 pence to get in.”

Cherie Bootle

The films were screened from several large film reels through projection machines which would sometimes be manned by more than one projectionist to ensure a smooth change of reel.  The film reels would be on a circuit and would be passed onto other cinemas. Sometimes the film reels in the cinema  would break, if this happened at a children’s matinee show there would be screams and shouts from the excitable audience wanting to see the film, and a frantic dash from the projectionist trying to splice and project the broken film to continue with the show.

Occasionally film reels would get mixed up to, below is Norma’s memory of one such time when the cowboys and the pirates got mixed within the film show.

In the 1950’s the average weekly attendance to children’s cinema matinees was over 1,016,000 with 1735 cinemas holding cinema matinees for children. {Source: media statistics website taken from report from Wheare Committee http://terramedia.co.uk}

Society at the time was more restrained in some ways than it is today, children were confined at home and school and the cinema on a Saturday was a place to be free and exercise their spirit. It was a place where gangs of kids could meet or come along together in a safe environment that provided a chance for parents to have some free time in the knowledge that their children were in a safe, warm and social
environment each week.

Cinema Clubs
The format of the Children’s Cinema Matinee varied slightly between Picture Houses. Some would be held on a Saturday morning others would be a Saturday afternoon. Some lucky children would attend two children’s film shows in a day at the local cinemas, providing them with a full mornings and afternoons entertainment.

Several cinemas especially ones who were part of the larger circuits such as the Odeon and The Gaumont Cinemas would have a club type atmosphere within their cinema matinees. The children would receive a badge and come up onto the stage when it was their birthday to receive a free ice cream or tickets to next week’s matinee. The notion of film clubs helped to develop the habit of going to the pictures from a young age which organisations like Rank and Odeon hoped would continue to turn young cinema goers into lifelong film fans.

Before the days of films made especially for children , what was shown within the children’s cinema matinees would often be an adult film which had either a ‘U’ rating or one which had been edited for the children’s matinee. Many of these films were said to “have a certain harmful morale and psychological influence on children ” { Frank Tyrer document Children and the Cinema 1948} There would often be adult themes shown, with very few child actors having a main or starring role until the development of Children’s Entertainment film in the 1940’s later The Children’s Film Foundation. This began as a trend in the market and resulted in a profitable business in producing films specifically for a young audience.

The creation of Children’s Film and Cinema clubs came about as a way to get regular attendees through the doors each week. The Children’s Cinema matinee shows would generally have a film, cartoons and the very important episode of the serial.

The role of the serialization within the Children’s matinees could be an important hook in trying to lure back the children to see the next part of the serial the following week. Each week the serial was left with a cliff hanger. This was quite a clever marketing ploy as the “Cliff Hanger” was a way to ensure customers returned the following week especially in the days when picture houses were in abundance.

Cinemas would sometimes have two serials running with a delayed overlap, so when one was coming to the end another would begin so as to keep regular attendees. Popular serials at the cinema included Flash Gordon, Batman, Superman, Zorro and The Lone Ranger.

It was the highlight of many children’s week growing up and a place where they learnt and saw new views on the world. It is estimated that over 1 million children a week enjoyed the Saturday matinees at the cinema, { source media statistics website} each week the same children would return to see their friends and find out what had happened to their hero’s from the serial, and get carried away and lost in the land of cinema and make believe.

Children’s cinema matinees have been around since the early days of cinema. One of the first recorded children’s film screenings took place in Derbyshire in 1900 in a schoolroom in Mickemore. Posters released by London Gaumont in 1906 referred to special children’s matinee screenings . {source The Powell and Pressburger Pages website}

The latest animated or film performances would often be screened for children on a Saturday morning or afternoon. As cinema and the popularity of films grew, a program formula was adopted in many cinemas, usually taking the form of a cartoon, a main feature film and a serialization. Popular serials would range from the singing cowboy Gene Autry to the perils of Batman and Flash Gordon.

Each week the episode would be left with a cliff hanger – the hero left in peril – would he be captured by the evil villain? Would he be saved? To be continued. To find out return next week only at your local cinema – this would have the children in wonderment all week and see the children flock back the next week to see what had happened to the star – was he safe- course he was, what relief!

I say he because most of the hero’s in the serials and films shown at the matinees were male, with the odd exception such as Dale Evans who featured in several films starring Roy Rogers such as ‘Twilight in the Sierras’ and ‘Apache Rose’. She would be seen as an idol to the young girls watching the cinema shows.

In the earlier days of the Children’s Cinema Matinees the main film would often be a cowboy or gangster film, generally of American origin. Stars such as Gene Autry, Hop Along Cassidy, Roy Rogers and Buster Crabb became household names.

Children would get absorbed into the films and get excited banging their feet and cheering the goodies and booing the baddies.

Involvement at the cinema was encouraged through things such as cinema club songs and badges and members of the cinema club would often get a birthday card on their birthday.

The Picture Palace of Bootle / Empire Picture Theatre was on Knowsley Road Bootle and as other picture houses we have looked at through the project was not built as a purpose built cinema. The building was built as Bootle Institute in 1882 and the buildings date plate can be seen engraved at the top of the building still today.

It began showing moving images from 1908 when it was converted into a small stadium like cinema with seats for about 300. When it was opened on November 18th 1908 adverts in the local newspapers described it as showing “45 miles of film nightly!” Admission prices were 1/-, 6d and 3d with reduced prices for early doors of 8d and 4d.

The Picture Palace held film show matinees for children on Saturdays at 1pm and 3pm with prices of 1d and 2 d.

The name was changed in 1912 to The Empire Picture Theatre and was a popular venue despite local competition from other nearby picture houses. It wasn’t until The Gainsborough Cinema was opened almost directly opposite that the decline of The Empire came about.

Following closure as a cinema it was converted into a dance hall in 1922 and named The Palais de Dance. Over the years it has had several further changes of use including Bootle trades and Labour club and Knowsley Social Club.

Today the building still stands and is currently trading as Bootle Labour Club.

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“I remember well the 1950’s Saturday Morning Matinees. It was always packed with children and before the show commenced {Pathe news, trailers. 2 cartoons, the serial and the main feature usually a Western – Great Stuff} an M.C. would be on stage and invite the children to come up and give ‘a turn’ After the song the M.C. would call out to the audience “How many lollies was that worth?” and the excited audience would yell back “one, two or four” or in some cases “none” , if it was terrible

Lovely times at The Odeon, now The Plaza“

Josie Messerli – Crosby

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