The aim of the Going to the Pictures Project has been to help preserve a part of our local cinema heritage by collecting and recording memories from people who used and worked in the local picture houses from the 1930′s to the 1960′s.
Explore this map of 21 local cinemas within a 3 mile radius of the Plaza, from 1930 to 1960.
The ABC Film Review magazine was available in all ABC Cinemas from 1950 onwards. This magazine told cinema goers of forth coming film attractions
Cinemas accommodated for different audiences by holding film programs which catered and entertained many tastes.
“I remember the club song which went like this: “To the Ode – Odeon we have come…”
When the film ‘Rock Around the Clock’ was released in cinemas the music had people dancing in the aisles and many people were asked to leave the cinema.
Fashions from the films have always been emulated by people in society right from the days of early cinema up until today
A couple’s first date at the opening of the Plaza Cinema in 1939.
In 1933/34 I went to “The Pictures” for the first time, but I was not impressed. The black and white film was very old and scratched; it looked like driving rain to me. A few years later I went again and paid a penny to get in with a penny for ice cream in the interval.