UK cinemas in 1940s and 1950s: the 'pictures'

picture palaces and going to the 'pictures'

When I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, no-one ever spoke of 'going to the cinema' or 'going to the movies' or even 'seeing a film'. It was always 'going to the pictures'. I don't think I properly registered the word 'cinema' until the late 1950s. Older people still spoke of 'picture palaces' or 'picture houses'.

Where I was in Edgware, north London, our cinema was at the corner of Station Road and Manor Park Crescent. It was called The Ritz, and that is how we always referred to it.

There were several national groups of cinemas, with each group showing the same programme at the same time, normally for a week. The main ones I remember were ABC, Gaumont, Odeon and Savoy. If a programme somewhere didn't happen to appeal, there was always another cinema, belonging to another group, not far away.

Our Edgware Ritz was part of the ABC group. 

Going to the pictures was extremely popular as there was nothing similar at home because ordinary families didn't yet have televisions. Even in the late 1950s as televisions trickled into homes, the screens were tiny and the choice was small. Going to the pictures was an outing for young and old alike. So most towns and large villages had their own cinema.

In the 1940s I went to the pictures with my mother, who always took me as a treat on the last afternoon of the school holidays. In the 1950s I went with my friends in the evenings. In the late 1940s and early 1950s I also went to Saturday Morning Pictures.

Inside picture palaces / cinemas

Our Edgware Ritz which must have been typical of most cinemas, contained a reception area and one large theatre. (Splitting cinemas up into several smaller ones was years away.) At the front of the theatre was a large screen with thick curtains at either side which opened and closed indicating the start and finish of the day's show. Behind the curtains, but in front of the screen was a fire curtain which I understood had, by law, to be raised and lowered once every day that the cinema was open.

At the back of the theatre was a large balcony.

There were customer lavatories, but I don't remember any form of cafeteria - but I don't remember any intervals either. Usherettes with trays of ice creams for sale would walk up and down the aisles from time to time. I don't remember any ushers, but am told that they existed. In my experience they were always women and it never occurred to me that the word 'usherette' was the feminine of 'usher'.

I was always fascinated by the colourful and brightly lit organ. I can't remember the details of when and what the organist played, but I clearly remember how the whole organ was raised up for all to see while the organist was playing, and then how it was slowly lowered to below eye level for the films.

Cinemas were always dark during the films and usherettes with torches showed customers to their seats. This was rather disruptive as everyone in a line of seats had to stand and push their seats back up to let newcomers pass even in the middle of the films.

At the beginning of the afternoon and the end of the evening, the lights 'went up' but I don't remember them as particularly bright. I can't help wondering how clean the cinemas were.

The cinema programme

A typical cinema programme consisted of two films, trailers for future films and a newsreel, presumably, so called because it was on a reel of film. This news seemed to put together by Pathé, whose emblem was a crowing cockerel with full sound effects. In wartime, everyone relied on the Pathé news to keep up visually with what was happening, even though a new edition seemed to come out only at weekly intervals.

The two films were rated by perceived quality, with a B rating for the poorer of the two. I never heard of the better of the two having an A rating, because A was reserved for films suitable for adults. Children could see A rated films if accompanied by an adult, and they could see U rated films unaccompanied. X rated films were for adults only and were either horror or sexually explicit. I particularly remember the films being in black and white, although there were a few in colour.

Everyone always knew the programme on locally because they frequently walked past the local cinema where there was no shortage of billboards. Also all the cinemas in the wider locality advertised in the local paper. (There was of course no internet to access.)

Somewhat surprisingly, my mother never seemed to take any notice of the starting times of the films and - judging by how often we had to stand to let newcomers along the rows - she was not alone in this. It was quite normal to arrive in the middle of a film and 'see it round' in the next sequence and hence put together the story line afterwards. I suppose that the enjoyment of the event was in seeing people moving around on a large screen, rather than in the plot.

At the end of the evening programme, the organ played the National Anthem. I am told that something appropriate like the Union Jack or the royal family was shown on the screen at the same time, although I don't remember that. Everyone - well, almost everyone - stood for the National Anthem. Occasionally a few people made a beeline for the exit, but everyone else glared at them. I don't suppose they noticed.

The film stars

This was the heyday of Hollywood and many of the actors who always seemed to be known as 'film stars' were household names. I collected their photographs by posting off requests to the production companies in Hollywood and invariably received a large signed photograph in return. At least, I thought it was signed, although it was probably a reproduced signature. I often received unsolicited autographed photographs too. I am surprised that this was regarded as a cost-effective form of advertising, but it certainly happened.

the courting couples

Cinemas were one of the few places where courting couples could go to sit in the warm and relative seclusion of darkness. They sat in the back row which had a partition behind it, shielding them from the view of casual observers - although anyone who wanted to see them could easily do so. It was well-known that such couples saw very little of what was being shown.

Interruptions

There were several national groups of cinemas, with each group showing

The film was stored on large reels and during projection it wound from a full reel to an empty one. Not infrequently the film broke. There was a whirring sound, the screen went messy and then, after perhaps half a minute, the film started again.

Sometimes the flow of the film was interrupted by a handwritten message superimposed on the screen. Presumably someone had come in from outside needing to contact a customer urgently. The message usually just asked a particular person to come to Reception. It happened to me the day my father died in 1971, which was the last time I ever went to the Ritz.

I have already mentioned being interrupted by customers arriving mid-film.

Prices of cinema seats

I don't remember how much it cost to go to the cinema but fortunately other recollections are better than mine.

The demise of the cinemas

As people began to buy televisions for their homes, they went out less. So cinemas had to adapt or go out of business. The major change was to split single cinemas up into smaller ones, but many cinemas simply closed.

The Edgware Ritz closed and was turned into flats. Its shell was kept, as can be seen from the photographs. A new glassy front was added.

The Ritz cinema, Edgware in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Photo reproduced according to the terms and conditions of Flickr.

The Ritz cinema building refurbished into flats. Photo taken in 2008, courtesy of Tony Woods.

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