“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

“In 1933/34 I went to “The Pictures” for the first time paying 1d. each to go in for about 2 hours. The Winter Gardens was not the best place to go to. The film was a Western, in black and white of course, I was not impressed. When I arrived home my mother asked me had I enjoyed it, my only comment was, “I’ll never go to live where the cowboys and Indians live because it rained all the time.” Nothing would change my mind. It was several years later that I realised that the film was very old and scratched. Well, it looked like driving rain to me.

Two years later I went again! I was given 6d. to pay for the three of us. I took my young sister and young cousin for their first time to a picture house in Walton Vale. We had a great argument outside, should we pay 1d. for our seat and have a penny ice cream in the interval, or the 2d. seat. As the eldest I decided – 1d. entrance and 1d. ice cream. The ice cream won! But if we had been nearer the front we would have been behind the screen!!!

I have only been once to the Plaza, about 2/3 years ago and before that to see the film of Winston Churchill’s funeral.”

Miss Betty Leitch

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 early days of cinema films for children would often be of American origin and sometimes just be adult films which had been edited until British films especially made for the child audience came along.

Concerns about the effects that the popularity of film was having on children had been raised by educationalists, the church and the press. Several reports and research surveys had looked into this area, one of the most notable being the Wheare Report in 1950.

J Arthur Rank who was a devout member of the methodist church and was also a Sunday School teacher, he found showing the students religious films would get messages across just as well as lecturing, this practice was extended to other Sunday schools and led to the formation of The Religious Film Society. His father was a millionaire flour mill owner and he had been brought up with strict moral codes.

His intrests led him into film production and he helped to form British National Film with the first commercial film in 1935 called ‘Tom’s Ride’. Rank wanted films to tell a moral story as well as be entertaining for the children and families. He found wide distribution of the film to be difficult due to ties with British distributors and Hollywood. As a solution bought and controlled some of the means of film production, distribution and exhibition.

He became head of the Gaumont and Odeon cinema chains and had interests in both Lime Grove and Pinewood Film Studios and wanted British made films and serials for the children’s cinema matinee programs.

He continued making films in this vein under Ranks’s Gaumont British Instructional Division, heralding the start of British made films especially for a children’s cinema matinee audience. They continued making films for Rank cinemas and became known as the Children’s Film Department and from 1947 became The CEF – Children’s Entertainment Films.

Film making is a costly business and when the Rank Organisation could not sustain funding the CEF and following publication of the Wheare report in 1950, which looked at the effect of juvinile cinem going and the influence of films, a collaboration within the British Film Industry was formed and supported by the Rank organisation – The Children’s Film Foundation -{CFF} was formed. The CFF had a remit to create films especially for children’s cinema matinees and suitable for showing within schools.

The funding for this was supported by the Eady Levy, a tax put onto cinema tickets. This continued for over 50 years until 1985 when the levy was abolished.

In the 1960’s the decline of the Children’s Film Foundation mirrored what was happening in cinemas all over the country. The 60’s brought about changes in society and the way in which people in society viewed things. Increased choice in places for entertainment and activities, changes in attitudes and the increase in ownership of televisions as well as increased choice oF television programmes, were factors which contributed to a decline in cinema admissions. Many cinemas had already closed by this point and the decrease in venues and sales continued. Children didn’t have to “Come Along” to the cinema on a Saturday morning for their entertainment, instead they had Saturday Morning Television.

Due to funding restraints and the decrease in Children’s cinema matinees in 1982 the CFF became the CFTF {Children’s Film & Television Foundation} and by 1987 the CFTF ended film making and went onto serve as an advisory body for children’s film and television. In 2012 the CFTF once again changed its name to The Children’s Media Foundation with its tag line being
“Ensuring that UK children have the widest choice of quality media”

After the Second World War, the church and educationalists raised concerns regarding what was being shown within the children’s cinema matinees, and in the cinemas in general, highlighting Hollywood’s glamorization of immoral behavior and crime.

In 1948 a committee on Children in the Cinema was set up to examine the effect of cinema and films on young people. A document written by a local Waterloo Senior Science Master was put forward as evidence for the committee, the archive copy resides in Sefton Records Office named ‘Frank Tyrer – Children and the Cinema’ This committee and its findings help set in place the Wheare report.

The Wheare Report was published in 1950 and looked at juvenile cinema going. The report made suggestions regarding censorship of film and brought in the X certificate to replace the broader H certificate of film classification. From 1951 no children under the age of 16 were supposed to be able to see an X certificate film, but of course many of them did, as the film posters and trailers would highlight the X rating which would make the film more appealing and a challenge to the younger audience to be able to see them. The report also placed a levy of voluntary tax on each cinema ticket the “Eady Levy” which would go towards setting the Children’s Film Foundation.

The Parents View Parents of young cinema goers saw the children’s cinema matinees as a safe place where their children could go to be entertained for a few hours whilst they could get on with their chores and shopping. A lot of what was shown in the matinees was often unknown and unseen to the parents so when films especially made for children were introduced, together with tighter controls on film censorship parents could send their children to the pictures without fear of what they were watching causing delinquency as many of the moralist at the time had tried to claim.

Another common theme and something which wouldn’t happen in modern society was the practice of asking adults {often strangers} to take you into the cinema if you wanted to see an ‘A’ or ‘H’ rated certificate film. Young people would stand outside the cinema money in hand and say
“Will you take us in Mr.”
“Can we walk in in with you Mrs”

Sometimes obliging adults would take the young film fans into the cinema but other times they would not.

Many of the films classified as an ‘A’ – Adult Certificate or ‘ H’ for Horror back then would now be a ‘U’- Universal or ‘PG’ Parental Guidance rating.

Some cinemas ran fancy dress competitions as a way of getting audience interaction and entertainment. Below is an image of Margaret as a child dressed as Little Miss Muffet for a fancy dress competition in the Gainsborough Cinema. The ABC Minors Poster can just be made out behind her.

Confectionary sold in the cinemas at the time was quite limited compared to today’s standards. Sweets, popcorn, Ice lollies such as Lions Maid and Twicers were available and ice creams sold in small tubs would be a special treat. Drinks such as orange or blackcurrant were available in cartons sold by brands such as Kia ora.

Ice creams and refreshments would be sold within the cinema by usherettes. Who would carry a large tray containing the treats to sell whilst standing at the front or within the aisles of the cinema.

Refreshments were also available from the kiosk within the foyers of most cinemas and cinema staff would sometimes get commission on sales.

As well as refreshments some cinemas also sold Film magazines, these would keep the cinema goers informed about the latest film releases, fashion and news about their favorite stars.

Some cinemas would also sell cigarettes and tobacco products as smoking was once permitted in cinemas. It would often be endorsed by the celebrity film stars on the screen and through magazine and newspapers.