General Chat

Sorry you are right Pat. sound of Music was 1965, my mistake. Can't think how we saw it though but we did never had babysitters then, or rarely, must have been a rare occasion.
Good to see the others on here. Easy to forget some isn't it? But weren't we lucky with all those to see, and I still love musicals. :-)

Very early 1960s Dad would give us (my sister + me) 2/- each to go to the pictures on a Saturday afternoon. 1/- for the seat, 6d for an icecream and bus fare. We walked and had some sweets as well.

We'd get the local paper out and see what was on. Many times we ended up in one of the 2 oldest cinemas, they did a lot of reruns so saw some of the earlier films. :-)

Forgot one of my favourites films Calamity Jane. How could I forget Howard Keel :-0

Saw Howard Keel live twice and he was in his mid - late seventies and could still belt them out.

1953 Desert Song - Kathryn Grayson and Gordon McRae - teenager and thought it was soooooooooo romantic. Still do.

All those memories!...think we all in that era went to the pics.
Anyone mention Golden Earrings or was that later?
I also saw Howard Keel live twice..he was very dishy!

Edit...think this was late 40's. remember now seeing it with my gran,!

Never heard of Golden earrings Brenda but I was born in 1940 so late 40s I wouldn't have been going to the pictures, In fact didn't start really going until 1954/5 and then not regularly until I meat OH in 1956 (was only 15 when I met him and he was 17.

Forgot Calamity Jane too. Loved Howard Keel but never saw him live. did see Edmund Hockridge, he had a good voice, met him too as my Mum dragged me round to the stage door. He was very nice too.

I've lost track now.

The best things in life are free
Kiss me Kate
Can can

I notice that white Christmas and Hans Christian Anderson were pre 1956 but I definitely saw them with OH so maybe they took a while to get to Hampshire :-D

@ Pat in Cyprus. Do you remember the cinemas in Walsall?

Savoy
Gaumont
Empire
Imperial
Classic
Palace (aka The Flea pit)


Just one now Ten screen cinema

Didn't the individual cinemas all have different characters? We lived in, what was then. a small market town and we had two cinemas. The Savoy and the Embassy. The savoy had a restaurant where with my Mum I would have things like poached egg on toast.

There was a Gaumont in Southampton and also in Portsmouth, and Odeons in both places. So much more character than the 10 screen affairs we have now. Although only one or maybe two main films a week so I suppose the choice now is better.

With thanks to another thread, what about three coins in a fountain?

Has anyone mentioned 'The Five Pennies' with Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye? I saw that in 1959 when I was twelve. The first film I saw, which I can only vaguely recall, is 'On the Town' when I accompanied my mother to the cinema, aged 3.

The second film I saw was 'South Pacific' in 1958, which my grandmother took me to see. I fell in love for the first time . . . with John Kerr!

Oh yes Wend John Kerr, wasn't he lovely and didn't I weep buckets?

Meant to put the Five Pennies so thanks for that. Use to really like Danny Kaye.

The first film I ever saw was the Bells of St Marys in 1946 when I was six, my parents took me when we were on holiday.

Another one The Gene Kruppa story.

I liked Brigadoon though the later movie with Peter Falk (Columbo) less.

Unbelievably "Singing in the Rain" was almost a flop in 1952 but became what the Americans call "a slow burner" and possibly the best musical ever, though my vote for that would be a tie between "South Pacific ( the movie)" and "West Side Story" .

Expresso Bongo? I shall have to google it ... here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMzd1Rxj8RY
Good heavens that is surely Laurence Harvey!

Golden Earrings was much earlier - if my memory serves me correctly, Marlene Deitrich and Ray Milland - there was a song "Golden Earrings" - my Mum was very young when she had me and we lived round the corner from a small local cinema - The Monico - they had two main films week - MTW and TFS - and as I was so good she took me when I was very little - don't tell Daddy we've been to the pctures today - but I always did :-D So, I saw hundreds of films, all B & W of course, with the news bulletin and adverts half way through plus trailers for forthcoming films - we knew the man who played the organ at the beginning and the end

At another small local cinema - The Tivoli - one of my Dad's sisters used to play the piano for the silent films

Sorry Paula, don't remember the Palace. There was also the Rosum up Leamore way.

Have looked it up, Palace closed when I was 6. The Classic, I was 10 when it disappeared. Mum used to refer to a flea pit.

The Empire and Imperial were the 2 where I saw the reruns.

Remember the hot chestnut/baked potato man outside the Imperial in the winter?

Know he wasn't known for his 50's musicals ,more westerns,but I loved Dale Robertson in the early days....just looked him up to find an obit as he died on Feb 28 th this year aged 89......didnt see anything in the press.RIP.Dale.

I didn't know that either Brenda. He was such a good-looking man and always had a sexy twinkle in his eye . . .

The first film I saw at the cinema was State Fair, Mum used to take me to a Wednesday Matinee at Kingston and we went on the bus as she couldn't drive then.

I also remember seeing, Gigi, Can Can, South Pacific, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and The King and I.

I remember one afternoon having an almighty nose bleed and being stared at all the way home with blood all down the front of my coat !!! I had it drilled into me so hard that I had to be good and not make any noise in the cinema, that I didn't tell Mum, and she didn't notice. M

Well this thread is a trip down Memory Lane :-)

Thank you AnnG.

My favourites were also South Pacific and West Side Story. I can remember which girl I was going out with to see each of them at the time :-)

A film I would very much like to see again is Porgy and Bess with Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr, Pearl Bailey, and Dorothy Dandridge.
Saw this in 1959 aged 18 at a cinema in Melbourne. The first cinema I'd been in where smoking was not allowed - so there was no blue haze.

Tec.