Mr Cosmo

Was there ever a time when cinemas closed on Sunday?

Reason for the question – when I was young growing up in Glasgow, I am pretty sure they were and when cinemas started to open on a Sunday (late 50s / early 60s) they didn’t always show the standard programmes that would be on all week, but they would show older films – presumably because they were much cheaper to book. I remember for example in 1965, almost every local ABC cinema at one time or another showed “The Time Machine” or “The Blob”, both of which were about 5 or 6 years old and other films like the British “Night Of The Eagle” would get a 1 day booking. Even in 1970 I remember going to see “Tomb Of Ligeia” (from 1965) on a 1-day programme. Advertising also said things like “usual prices” – as if it had been more expensive to attend on a Sunday.

Of course this may have been a Scotland thing due to the law being different.

Not sure when it all changed, but nowadays everyone is open 7 days a week and show the same films that are due to be shown every day.

Does anyone know anything about this?

dylan

In Nottingham in the 50s/60s (and probably elsewhere in England) some of the cinemas showed old films on Sundays with the new programme starting on Mondays. Others started the new programme on Sundays. Perhaps it was different in Wales.

D.

foha80

In Glasgow in the 60's they showed old films on a Sunday and I swear to God it always seemed to be a double bill of Imitation Of Life/Madame X.

Terry

orpheum

In London i seem to remember that this was still going on well into the sixties,mainly though with the independants rather than with Rank or ABC.Obviously a hang over from the days when Sunday opening was forbidden or restricted.In fact cinemas only opened at 4.30pm.They never opened at the usual times.This i recall went on till the seventies.

Janice Healey

Going way way back to the silent era when cinemas were not allowed to open on sundays. If they did open they showed different films and all the money had to go charity. It was up to the local licensing authority whether they allowed cinemas to open on sundays. Their hours were tended to be shorter around 4.30-9.30. Some owners did not open their cinemas at all on sundays.

AndrewLA

In London, most ABC cinemas started Sunday screenings of their new weekly programme in the late 50s. I remember seeing THE LAW AND JAKE WADE and HERCULES and a whole bunch of MGM movies on Sundays at our local ABC with my mother. That 4:30 pm opening time is right.

For some reason, I don't have so many memories of new Rank movies on Sundays during that time. Could it be that Rank only stopped showing older double-bills after ABC introduced the new practice...?

penfold

The same was true with Music Halls and Concert Halls at the time (bearing in mind that in the early days of film shows, these were the venues for film too, up until around 1908 and the first purpose-built dedicated cinemas arrived), however the brighter entrepreneurs held special 'Sacred Concerts' with religious music only on the Sunday....featuring the same godless artistes that worked Monday-Saturdays, particularly if in the middle of a two-week or more booking. Some cinema operators tried the same technique with varying success depending on the feelings of the local licensing authorities (and the prevailing local opinion)...and there were certainly enough silent films with a sacred theme to show..... this did two things; it made the cinema trade seem more respectable, civic minded and philanthropic; the local gentry, being patrons of the local charities thus benefitting would be expected to show up, with attendant publicity in the press, and there being nothing more than a Middle-class family would like to do than associate with the Upper classes......upwardly mobile goes the film audience..... and of course it brought pressure to bear on the authorities for a change in the law forbidding such Sunday entertainments....say what you like about these early showmen, they had their heads screwed on....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Howse

Where I live in Wales, the local cinema was always closed on a Sunday. Not sure about in the larger towns like Swansea Cardiff etc.

Howse

Wee Sonny MacGregor

Cinemas in north Wales were certainly closed on Sundays.

I recently came a controversy in war-time Chesham where a lot of US servicemen were stationed nearby. A request was made to the local council to open the cinemas on a Sunday for the troops but this was fiercely resisted. The row dragged on for weeks but the council would not budge.

Jim

Our local 'flea pit' - The Belgrave Cinema used to show old films on Sunday. New films were shown from Monday to Wednesday, then a change on Thursday to Saturday. You could rely on one feature film, sometimes asupporting film like an Edger Wallace crime film or 'Travelogue' docutype thing, or if you were really lucky - a Tom & Jerry Cartoon.

A film theatre, in the middle of town in the late 60s onward would show nothing but cartoons all week. I can't say if they opened on Sundays. It had the words 'Electric Theatre' carved or moulded into the plasterwork. I think it was called 'The Cameo'.

Good morning boys.

penfold

Electric Theatres were commonly used names for the first generation of cinemas, built 1908-1913...and having the name carved in stone - how confident is that! - sounds right too...yours might have been that old. In Bristol there was a newsreel cinema - was there one at Paddingtonor Waterloo too ??...that showed newsreels, short magazine programmes and cartoons in a continuously rolling programme, right into the 60's....a victim of the telly, naturally, it served a similar news-to-the-public function.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Chris B

I think you will find that the main reason that cinemas didn't open on Sundays was that the licensing conditions would not allow this in the early days. cinemas like pubs are licensed premises, licensed for "cinematograph exhibition," to show films in other words. In Birmingham the council didn't allow Sunday opening, but the Meriden council right next door did, so you got the situation that a cinema called The Beaufort which was constructed just over the border in Meriden opened Sundays and as a consequence it was always packed out, and all the Birmingham licensed ones had to remained closed. Also the licensing conditions only permitted opening in the week until 11pm and on Sunday it was either 9-30 or 10pm. Now of course like the pubs we are living in 24hour society so they are open all hours.
Regards Chris

Steve Crook

I remember one at Waterloo in the 1960s. I used to get the train from there down to Portsmouth (Gosport) to do some offshore sailing - when I was younger and fitter. If we got to Waterloo early we'd sometimes nip into the cinema. As you say, it used to show newsreels & cartoons. That would have been late 60s or early 70s.

Steve

orpheum

There were cinemas at Victoria and Waterloo.I was at the last ever performance of the last newsreel cinema at Victoria.By the way if you go to the top of Platform 1 at Waterloo.The stairs to the right of the shop there lead to what was the auditorium of the cinema.Up till 3pm it was news and cartoons.From 3 onwards it was a rep cinema.With a bit of luck there would be Gasbags or a Will Hay or some British comedy from the 30s.When i had half term holiday i would spend my morning at the news cinemas in the west end such as Studio 2 or Jacey and end up at the Classic Waterloo Station.Happy cinema going days