Chris B

Hi All,
I have written a little saga entitled Confessions Of A Cinema Employee, if you are a member of the C.T.A. you might have read it as it was serialised over the last few editions, for anyone who has not I have started here with the first chapter, if you find it of interest I will continue posting, this is rather than post the whole lot and bore everyone to death, so please let me know.
Regards Chris Bryan.

CONFESSIONS OF A CINEMA EMPLOYEE.

Chapter one.
A PART TIME JOB.

As the Chief Operator once said to me in a fit of temper because he found me having a chat with the kiosk attendant, who he had a “soft spot“ for, “You might think you have done everything in this place, but you have never pasted up the big poster outside.” And he was indeed correct, because by the end that was the only job I hadn’t done in the cinema. But lets start at the beginning I was saving up to get a deposit on a house and get married, so being employed in the retail trade in the position of Assistant Manager at Lewis’s Department Store, lots of prestige but not much money, I decided to get a part time evening job, I wasn’t struck on working in a pub so being keen on films and the fact our local cinema The Sheldon, situated on the A45 Coventry Road Birmingham was advertising for a part time usher for the princely sum of £2-2-0 (£2.10 in modern money) for 3 nights from 7pm to closing approx 10-35pm. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, one week and Friday, Saturday, Sunday the next week, I applied and got the job. The first Manager I worked for was named Mr Charles Aston known as Charlie Aston in the business, he was the second Manager since the building had opened in 1937 with Deanna Durbin in 3 Smart Girls, The first being Mr Sydney Last, employed by the board of directors for “his vast knowledge of the cinematograph trade.” The Sheldon was a typical 1930s cinema, it seated about 1500 in the stalls and balcony / circle, it was a horseshoe shaped balcony which was suspended on an enormous girder that spanned the building with ribs stretching back to support the seating area, the girder had to be transported down the Coventry Road on a Sunday on a Pickfords low loader, and it had to come the wrong way around the island at the Swan at Yardley because of its enormous length but it gave the stalls patrons a totally uninterrupted view of the screen, no columns in the stalls supporting the balcony. The projection equipment was Weststar Heads with Peerless Magnarcs carbon lamp housings and Westrex valve sound amplifiers, the front of the building had beautiful stained glass windows at the balcony lounge level and to enhance it at night there was a series of red and green neon lighting illuminating the building, it looked attractive without being garish. Charlie Aston was the epitome of a cinema manager, he was a big fellow and quite rotund, you could always tell when business was good as when you came on duty he was on the front of house puffing on a big cigar greeting the patrons, when it was quiet he could be found in the office picking the greyhounds for his flutter on the dogs at Hall Green stadium. I always remember a story Charlie told me about his early days as manager, the company that owned the cinema was a building company called Morris & Jacombs, although the premises had been constructed by Bryants the builders. The Chairman of the board was Harry Morris, and on one of his Saturday evening calls as he was “just passing” he asked Charlie how business was? Now Charlie being young and keen at that time had put up some shelves in the spacious pay desk and filled them with bags of peanuts, because in those days you got your eats and sweets from the shop next door as there were no kiosks in the cinemas and the Sheldon was no exception with the “Bon Bon” run by two middle aged ladies being adjacent to the cinema, now Charles thought this move was going to be a feather in his cap, so his reply to Harry was “ We’ve sold 500 bags of peanuts tonight Mr Morris,” to which the reply came “We are here to sell pictures Charles, not peanuts,” which is in sharp contrast to today’s theory of acres of confection and fast food and tea shirts, film related material etc and oh by the way there is film showing in the

back room if you are interested. Initially I was taking tickets and patrolling around the building checking the exits telling the yobs to “belt up,” the other two people on the team was an older man who worked at the G.E.C. In the day time and a somewhat limp wristed character who was in his element helping the balcony usherette shining the torch and generally poncing about rather than sorting out the yobs.

To Be Continued (If you want me to carry on)
Regards Chris b

David Brent

Hi Chris,

I for one would like you to continue.

As a lad I lived in the Birmingham area, Smethwick to be exact.
I never did get the chance to visit the Sheldon but I can remember it's name.
When checking out the cinema programs for the week on page two of the Birmingham Mail I always noticed the Sheldon in the list.
I remember new films for most cinemas being shown on a Sunday (and sometimes on a Thursday).
Sometimes there were films "Retained For Second Week" but that was rare.

What year did you start at the Sheldon?

Of course I also remember the big Lewis's store in the city centre. Thats where all the kids used to visit Santa in the grotto at Christmas and have their pictures taken.
I believe Lewis's is now no more? Very sad.

Cheers

Dave.

Edward G

Chris,
Really enjoyed your memories. And do continue..
Ah, the days of the picture palaces.
Did you ever see the series hosted by Douglas fairbanks Jr ; "The Amazing Years Of Cinema"?

I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

Chris B

Hi Dave, & Edward
I Started at the Sheldon in 1965 and was there up untill it closed, and yes Lewis's store has gone but the magnificent building is now used by the law courts and offices etc. and no Edward I don't remember the Doug Fairbanks programme.

Here goes Chapter 2



Another story Mr Aston told me was about the relief Manager who was named Mr Stanford, he was a touch more of an aggressive character and he was formerly manager of the Coronet cinema in Small Heath, Now just a bit of information before the point of the story. For those who may not realise it all cinemas are licensed premises and the manager is usually the licensee, every 12 months the premises have an annual inspection for the license renewal, and in those days it was quite an event, two or three city of Birmingham limousines arrived at the premises containing the licensing justices, people like Dame Cadbury (Cadbury’s Chocolates), Lady Bower and others dignitaries and their clerks etc, plus a senior fire brigade and police officer, and they were all involved in inspecting the premises. Now prior to this event you had to have an electrical inspection to ascertain the condition of wiring etc, and once every five years or so you had to have a ceiling inspection to make sure that the plaster was going to stay up there and not land in in some bodies lap while James Bond was blowing up the villains headquarters, all this had to be done by qualified personnel from specialist firms who then issued a certificate if all was found to be well. This certificate had to be produced at the inspection. Now back to the story, the inspection of the Coronet took place and on this occasion the officials found that there was no toilet paper in a couple of the ladies cubicles and Mr Stanford was reprimanded. Now 12 months on at the next inspection Mr Stanford moistened a few sheets of the paper and stuck them high up on the wall of the toilets out of reach so when he went round with the justices he was able to say there was always paper in the toilets, they were not amused and he had another ear wigging. Another point of interest was that the guy who had been employed in the job some time before me was a character called “Big Jim,” his main employment was with Spillers the Millers so he was used to picking up heavy things and throwing them about. Now it was not a good night for Jim if he hadn’t got to throw anyone out so if there was not any trouble he got bored and he would go and provoke some likely yob so that he could open the exit doors with his head as he carried him out bodily by his collar and the seat of his trousers. After one lively Saturday night when Jim had put a few out he went home across the recreation ground and hidden in the bushes were his old adversaries and they leapt out upon him and a few stiletto heels and fists found their mark. When Jim reported for work on the Sunday he had a few band aids and some bruising, and he said to Charlie Aston “if you see anyone going passed or coming in with bandages on there heads let me know” and with that he pulled out the cosh that he carried in his back pocket which was covered with dried blood and tapped his hand with it. Oh well it takes all sorts.

Now back to the job, things carried on very much on a routine basis and having an
enquiring mind I was drawn to wanting to have a look around the projection room as I had never seen one before, but the Chief who was one of the old school and a bit miserable really wouldn’t allow “unauthorised people in the box” but he wasn’t there seven nights a week, and I had become friendly with the 2nd and 3rd operator who would let me go up to the projection room when it was the Chiefs night off or he was on holiday, and over a period of time I learned how to lace up the film, put new carbons in the arc lamps, and do changeovers. Now the projection suite in an old 1937 cinema is nothing like it is today, you had a series of rooms across the width of the building, one was the rectifier room which contained as the name suggests a rectifier, which converted the incoming AC current to DC to supply the carbon arc lamps for the light on the screen, the room was like something out of Frankenstein’s laboratory with a couple of large glass containers of a peculiar shape containing mercury all dancing about with a blueish light, then you had got the non sync room which contained a record player for the interval music (non synchronous music nothing to do with film), then there was the dimmer room which contained the backend of the dimmer banks that controlled the house lights and the foot lights and the battens around the proscenium arch surrounding the screen, then you had the main projection room and finally the rewind room for rewinding the film after it had been projected. The reason that the rewind room was separate from the projection room was that nitrate film stock was highly inflammable, but after the mid fifties safety film was invented, so you could rewind in the projection room. In the projector lamp houses written on the casing by the Chief was the instruction “Burn up Your Bits” this referred to the short ends of carbon rods so that you got full value from them, and there were holders made so that you could burn the rods practically down to the end, the only trouble was that if you miscalculated the length and the rod came to an end before the end of the reel at best you got a poor light on the screen, at worst you had no light at all and you had to hastily replace the carbons whilst the audience had a foot stamping and hand clapping session. It was usual to use the bits on the kids Saturday matinee's which contained a number of short films in the programme. On the door of the projector heads the Chiefs message read “8 in the Gate,” this of course referred to the number 8 on the film leader, and when you laced up the film the number 8 had to be in the aperture so that you gave the audience a “seamless” changeover of the reels, if you were to put 4 or 3 in the gate you could save a minute or two on each reel and over the length of a feature film you could finish the show 10 minutes early, which if you were a drinker meant that you could get to the pub before last orders were called.
When a new young cashier was employed Charlie told her to keep away from the projection room, but eventually curiosity got the better of her and on her meal break she went to have a look at where the film came from, when she returned to the job Charlie said to her “I thought I’d told you keep away from the projection room” “I haven’t been up there” she replied, and as she followed the downward gaze of Charlie’s eyes she saw two embarrassing dirty hand marks on the top of her light coloured dress.

Jackdaw

Enjoying this, Chris.
Please carry on.

Chris B

A Picture of the front of THE SHELDON CINEMA. next chapter coming shortly

Chris B

hi there could someone explain how to edit post please I have forgotten
Thanks Chris

Steve Crook

Hit the button?

I think it's only available for a short while after you post

Steve

Chris B

Hi All,
here goes for chapter 3






Chapter 3

Staff Matters.


At this time besides we three “chuckers out” on the floor staff there were usherettes / sales girls of various ages and two door men, both strangely enough called George, one was Full Time George and the other was Part Time George, for the purpose of this tale referred to as F.T & P.T. Now for a start these two never got on, at the weekends F.T George would do the car park attendant duties because it was the busiest period and the tips were good, he used to stand or sit in his little hut by the entrance to the car park and in the days when the boilers were coke fired in the winter he would have his brazier blazing away fired with a couple of shovels of red hot coke from the boiler with a billy can on it for his tea, and when it was quiet inside we lads would put a wedge in one of the outer side exit doors and go and have a chat with George and stand and have a warm by the brazier and then go back inside to keep an eye on things. One of George’s other duties on a Saturday night was as soon as the feature had started he would come in and change the front of house posters and stills and put the new programme on the category board using the magnetic letters, the information for this was on a piece of paper from Mr Aston printed in block capitals, the other job he had to do was to sign the fire book at the close of business to say that the building had been inspected for any signs of burning material, (most people smoked in those days) now the writing of his signature was appalling, you will see the reason for this comment and the previous information shortly. One Saturday night all was quiet in the stalls and it was time for my tea break, I came out into the foyer to make my way up to the staff room and F.T George was changing one of the posters, I looked up and said “they’ve spelt that poster wrong,” it was Maximillian Schell in something, (I just can’t remember what,) the poster company had missed one of the “Ls” out of his name, I continued up to the staff room and had my break. On my way back down I could hear voices raised in the Foyer and there was George waving his arms about and pointing here and there vaguely at the poster, it turned out that he had gone into the office and told Charlie Aston that the poster was spelt wrongly and Charlie had come out to look and he asked George “where,” I didn’t realise it at the time until Mr Aston told me but George couldn’t read or write and he’d failed to ask me what part of the poster was wrongly spelt.
Unfortunately things for poor old George were to take a bit of a downward turn over the next couple of years. But before we come to that we’ll look at another bit of fun,
Sundays was the change of programme, and also “yob” day and one of F.T. George’s favourite tricks was to patrol down the gangways in the stalls dressed in his best uniform with the epaulets and the shining capital letter “S” (for Sheldon) on his peaked hat, on his travels some likely lad would shout some remark to him as he passed, he would remonstrate with the youth only to be told *ollocks, he would then turn to face the back wall where Harry and I were standing, draw himself up to his full 5ft-6” height and with a wave of his arm he would summon us, when we got there to see what he wanted he would utter these immortal words “I’ve told this lot ‘ere that if they don’t belt up YOU’LL throw them out” and with that he would turn on his heel and with a measured tread march off with his hands clasped behind his back. Thanks George.


Charlie Aston was on holiday and Mr Stanford was relieving, I had left the premises on my break, it was at this time that he’d had a hip operation and he strode up and down the foyer on two sticks, and as usual he started on group of youths who were a bit lively and it ended up with him ordering them off the premises, they reluctantly left but as they were going down the front steps one of them turned and grabbed one of his walking sticks, thus ensued a tug of war with Stanford shouting to Marie to phone the police, but unfortunately the phone hadn’t been switched through from the office, he then shouted “get George, get George,” who at the time was on his break so one of the usherettes ran up the stairs and said to George who was sitting in the staff room with his peaked hat on the back of his head sipping a mug of tea with his feet up on the chair opposite, “come quick Stanfords having trouble with a load of yobs” to which George replied “I am due to retire in 18 months and I aint going to get me head kicked in for him, tell him you can’t find me.” Anyway by the time the girl had got back down stairs Marie had pretended to phone the police and although she was only having a one way conversation it was enough to make the yobs think that the law was on its way so they beat a retreat and threw the one stick they had got off Mr Stanford on the floor.
The next problem for F.T. George was the old coke fired boiler was converted to oil, so when the winter came a large heap of coke that had been in the boiler house bunker had been thrown in the corner of a run down part of the car park, what poor old George didn’t realise was this coke was industrial coke and needed to be draft fed to start it burning with an intense heat. So Saturday night came and George took up position in his hut with his brazier and armed with newspaper, cardboard, and a couple of bucketfuls of damp coke he endeavoured to make a fire, he fanned it, poked it, put more paper on it and when I looked out of one of the exits all you could see was clouds of smoke and very little of George or his hut. 9 o’clock came and George came in to do the poster change, looking very down in the mouth, “all right George” said I, he replied “no I effin well aint, I’ve been out there an hour and I’m effin well froze and I cant get a decent fire going,” not only that but he reeked of smoke as if he’d just escaped from a kipper factory, he climbed up and down the step ladders unrolling the posters into their frames, mumbling and muttering under his breath “effin this” and “effin that.” I honestly felt sorry for him.
It was at this time that I had left the department store and got a job in a small shop fitting factory cutting up sheet materials (blockboard, Formica, etc,) this move was made in the ever desperate need to get more money for my house deposit, I could work overtime and there was a production bonus scheme of 3d per hour. (Old money) The company was A.J. Gupwell Ltd who had premises in Bradford St’ just on the outskirt of Birmingham City centre, as a member of staff it was a perk of the job for staff to have any off cuts of timber for their own use, there were lumps of mahogany, oak, obeche, deal, etc, and I thought that some of this material would be great for George’s fire bucket, so I loaded a sack full up and tied it across the rear carrier of my motor bike and on my way home I dropped it in the cinema bin house for which I had a key as it was where I parked my motor bike when on duty, so when I went on duty and told George there would be a constant supply of timber to burn in his brazier his eyes lit up just like old Tom in the Smallest Show On Earth when they got him his uniform.

To Be Continued

Cinema Auditorium

Chris B

Thanks Steve I had forgotton it only lasted for a short time,
Chris

Chris B

Hi All. Sheldon Projection Room

Chris B

Details of one of the large light fittings

Regards Chris b

Chris B

Those were the good old days

Harry, Arthur, Chris b, and Gwen the ice cream/kiosk lady at her retirement.
Regards Chris b

Chris B

Hi All,
Chapter 4

.

.
Chapter 4




By now I had managed to save enough money for a deposit on a house, and my Mother was planning to move to a bungalow and I asked her if I could buy the house off her, so luckily she helped me by letting me have it for less than what it was worth on the open market, which was a great help to me and my fiancé, so I was then able to get married. June my wife said “now that we’ve got the house you’ll be able to give up the cinema job wont you” to which I replied “no the money will come in useful for the central heating system I am going to install, and that’s how it went on over the years, to pay for the car, to pay the petrol etc etc, as you will see later on I managed to get June interested in the cinema business, but back to the “burning” problem.
During the time that I was bringing the timber for F.T George’s Fire Bucket, P.T. George was having a dip in the sack as well so that he could have a fire on the nights he did car park duty, this of course had the effect of demand outstripping supply, I could only get one sack slung across the back of my motor bike and if that shifted when you went around a bend you felt it, there was nothing else for it, F.T. George had to address the problem himself, he hid the sack of wood somewhere else on the premises where P.T. George had no access. That cured the problem, so P.T. George started bringing with him in his car an Aladdin Blue Flame paraffin heater, so there he sat nice and comfortable and warm without having the trouble of lighting a fire. So this is how it went on for a period of time F.T. George would hide his timber, and P.T. George would take his paraffin heater home in his car at the end of the night.
One Sunday I arrived on duty and there was a bit of a panic on, the film “The Blue Max” had not arrived, but the sister cinema The Kingston, situated at the top end of the Coventry Road on the back end of town which belonged to the same company was also showing it, so yes you’ve probably guessed, get your motor bike out Chris and go to the Kingston, by the time you get there the first reel will be coming off. So there I was racing up and down the Coventry Road with a spool of film strapped to the carrier of my bike, thankfully it was before the days of towers and cake stands, and yes we managed to keep the show on the screen without a break, and I didn‘t get nicked for speeding. I wasn’t overly happy at the shop fitters, it wasn’t a bad job, and I had made some good mates there but it wasn’t my cup of tea really, it was just a means to an end, so I started looking for something else and I applied for a job in the Co-Op department store in the city centre as a section Manager and got the job, these were the days when you could leave a job on a Friday night and start somewhere else on the Monday following, so now I was leaving town at 5-30pm getting home at about
6-15pm having a bite to eat, a wash and change, and round to the Sheldon Cinema to be on duty for 7-00pm. The limp wristed guy had left by now, I don’t know if it was because the 2nd and 3rd operators who were a pair of wags had filled the pockets and
the arms of his overcoat with cast iron brackets that the seats swivel on, and when he took it off the coat hook it nearly went through the floor, or joking apart I think he had changed his day job and couldn‘t get to the cinema at night for the 7.00pm start, so we had another fellow named Arthur on the strength who worked at Cadbury’s in the day time, he was great, he brought us cheap chocolates from Cadbury’s staff shop. F.T. George had started to have time off ill so we fellows were asked to do extra nights to cover his absence, this carried on for some time and I had to say to Mr Aston that it was getting to the stage where what with the day job and the night job I was paying for a house I was never in only to eat and sleep. (He laughed, but the wife didn’t.)
During a performance of the film Zulu one night when Harry and myself were on duty we had some noisy yobs in the stalls, and we couldn’t make out who the ring leader was, so Harry quietly sat a few rows back and I said I would go up to the balcony and stand in the shadows at the side and look over, by doing this you could see everyone in the stalls picked out individually by the reflection of the light from the screen but they couldn‘t see you, as I approached the balcony lounge the usherette met me and said that she had got a woman acting peculiarly inside, the usherette had asked the lady to come and sit on the lounge for a bit if she didn’t feel well and she would get her a drink, but the lady was very short with her so she asked if I could have a word with her. I went into the balcony and the woman was standing right at the rear of the circle muttering away to herself. So I approached her and asked if I could be of assistance, and would she come outside to the lounge area as she was disturbing the other patrons. All of a sudden she started waving her arms about and shouting “I know what you want, you want to get me into the men’s toilets! Get away from me,” and proceeded to take a swing at me with her handbag. So in the interest of keeping the noise down and my head on my shoulders and knowing what a reputation the young fellows had in that day I decided to go and get Harry who was about 15 years my senior. I went down the stairs to the stalls two at a time and as I came to the office in the foyer where Charlie Aston was sitting I put my head my round the door and said “screaming mad bird at the back of the balcony, I‘m just going to get Harry,” he replied “I’ll meet you up there and we’ll get her out through the rear emergency fire doors, I’ll get the key.” (Just to explain, there were two ordinary sizes doors in the rear wall of the circle with break glass access from the auditorium, but you could open them with a sort of key from the other side.) So I rushed into the stalls to get Harry, who because of the shouting, and the way it echoes around a large 1937 auditorium, thought someone was being attacked in the front stalls ladies toilets and he had gone there to investigate, on finding nothing he was just on his way back when he saw me signalling that I wanted him. While we were on our way back up to the balcony I filled him on what had happened, and I said I thought it would be a good idea if he were to make the next contact with the woman him being an older man, so I stood back in the shadows whilst he made his approach, it was just a repeat performance of what I had received, so I leapt forward and grabbed one arm while Harry grabbed the other, the woman was shouting things like “I don’t care if my house is dirty, I know you want to take me in the men’s toilets” and other comments which I can’t remember. Now picture the scene, the Zulu’s were charging over the hill at full tilt, by now some members of the audience were shouting shut the row up at us, plus other sundry “pleasantries” the yobs who were performing in the stalls were all standing across the front apron below the screen looking up and cheering us on as we
struggled to man handle this woman out (she was no lightweight), there was no sign of Charlie Aston, so whilst we had a good grip on her we decided to continue down the horse shoe side of the balcony and get her outside through the public exit, on our way she claimed we were hurting her, so we relaxed our grip and she promptly sat down on one of the steps and refused to move, so we hauled her to her feet and finally got her out onto the car park where she gathered herself together and promptly threw a bar of chocolate at us and walked off. So we two rushed back inside secured the balcony, the yobs were still going full bore in the stalls, down the stairs we went, Charlie Aston was in the foyer and asked where the woman was and where we had been we pointed her out going past the front of the building as if nothing had happened, a patron emerged from the stalls and said “can’t you do something about the row in here?” The Zulu’s like Harry and I, were regrouping for another charge, we went in the stalls and the yobs saw us coming and promptly left by the front side exits, after making sure there were no further problems we returned to the foyer to have a breather when another patron emerged, and I thought oh no what now ! but he just made the comment “all that in the middle of the film was very disconcerting you know,” to which I replied “not half as disconcerting for you as it was for us.” As a man once said, “why us”? To which the reply was “cause we’re the only ones here lad, that’s why.” As you know films used to be run two or three times before T.V. had them in those days, it was strange that whenever we ran Zulu there were always some problems that week. Watching the film whilst standing at the back of the stalls on one occasion a chink of light in the darkness caught my eye for a moment, it was coming from the side exits in the balcony, now when someone leaves the premises they open the door wide as they going about their legitimate business, and when this happens you get a large amount of light, but when someone is trying to get in without paying you only get a chink of light as they try to ascertain where the usherette is so as to get to seat undetected. So on this basis I went up to the balcony with all speed as I approached the doors the yobs had obviously seen me coming so they all put their shoulders against the doors to stop me coming through, I put some force to the door in an effort to get through and the door opened and I grabbed a yob in each hand, as they took to their heels they went either side of the central hand rail which left me spread-eagled so I had to let one of them go, but I hauled the other one down to the Managers office so that his face was known for future reference he was then thrown out of the building. A similar incidence occurred not long after this one, so being determined not to be caught out a second time I approached the doors at speed applying my foot to the centre at what I considered to be the right moment, the doors flew open like a shot from a gun, I went through, stood there a few seconds, no one ! As I turned the doors were slowly closing, the one opened into a small recess and as it closed it revealed a youth standing in the recess as white as a sheet with his cigarette smashed into his face. Needless to say another one added to the banned list.

to be continued


the last queue

Chris B

Hi All,
Chapter Five
















By this time June had become a casual member of the usherette staff, and used to help out on high days and holidays, and Mr Aston had been promoted to General Manager of the group of cinemas on the retirement of Arthur Dowding who had his office at the Kingston. All that was left of the original group of theatres was The Beaufort, The Sheldon, and The Kingston and it was about this period that Mr Aston asked me if I could take June and Myself and work for two or three nights at the Kingston as it had leaked out that the Kingston was to close shortly and be turned into a Bingo Hall, the result of which was that the staff were deserting the sinking ship. I agreed to help out so June and I set off to man the helm at the Kingston, we were met by Jack Attwood the Chief Operator who was a gentleman, he found me somewhere secure to park my motor bike and gave me a key for further use as I was going to be there for some weeks. The cinema was built in 1935 and the front was very similar in appearance to the Sheldon, basically the interior had the same layout with the exception that you went down a few steps to enter the stalls, this was due to the land configuration I think, the only exterior difference was that the crush hall on the side of the building was just overhead cover whereas at the Sheldon built two years later it was an integral part of the building. The building was situated at the back end of Small Heath, not the most salubrious of areas, and as I stood by the usherette looking at the film I noticed some small black dots on the screen, I said to the usherette “has someone been flicking bits at the screen?” “no” she replied “those are airgun pellet holes where the kids in the front row shoot at the cowboys on the screen during the Saturday matinees. That gives you some idea of what prevailed in this area. The cinema was close to Birmingham City Football ground and the doorman and the 2nd operator had a good wrinkle on, when there was a match being played they roped off a couple of the car park entrances so that when the football supporters arrived they could control the cars using the car park and “sell car parking spaces.” (keep the beer fund up) There was always some yobo trying to get in the side exits, and I was forever chasing them out. One week there was a film showing that had a delightful young lady getting her kit off in one scene, and every time it came to this part there was some interruption and it was nearly the end of the week and blast, I hadn’t managed to see it properly, so on the last performance of the week I sat myself down in the middle of the stalls well down in my seat so no one could see me, and I thought no matter what happens I am going to see this part! The girl on the screen was just getting into the swing of discarding her garments and there was an almighty BANG, CRASH, WALLOP, in one of the side exits, I didn’t flinch from my position, I saw the whole scene, right I thought I had better go and see what’s happening, and on going through the exit doors lying in the passage was one of the posts from the perimeter of the car park, it was some five foot in length and the yobo’s had uprooted it got the outer doors open and hurled it up the passage and the bang I heard was it hitting the inner doors, so I dragged it back out and put in the bin house, another eventful night over. Eventually the cinema was turned over to bingo and the cinema manager was not deemed suitable to operate the bingo hall so Mr Aston managed it initially and June and I went back to our jobs at the Sheldon. It wasn’t long before we had a new manager, but for one reason or another he didn’t last long!!!. One incident that did occur was that when F.T. George came to change the category board for the new manager, on that night I came out into the foyer and there was George up his steps with his peaked hat on the back of his head fiddling about with the letters and putting his glasses up and down his nose, “how you doing George” I enquired, “I need to get my glasses changed” was the reply, so I said to him you go and make the tea and I’ll finish the board, the problem was the new manager had written the information in double writing not block capitals, when George had gone I went and told the new manager that he would have to do the titles in block capitals because the doorman couldn’t read or write. There was a new manager appointed at the Kingston so Mr Aston came back to the Sheldon, but unfortunately a sequence of events was to alter things dramatically.
By this time we had had a change of cashier, Marie who used to read the cheap 6d or 1/0d paperback romances just like “Mrs Fazackerly in Mr Spencers day” had retired, and we had a new cashier who looked a bit like a poor mans Zsa Zsa Gabor both Georges had also finished and we had another car park attendant named Len, but no doorman, apart from the Chief, the projection room staff had also changed, we now had a second operator who was a bag of nerves, and no 3rd operator economies were creeping in to keep down the cost of the operation.


large cinema is an easy place to search, exits, toilets, passages, and looking along the rows under the seats with a torch for any packages. So the usherettes, myself and Arthur carried out this task and by 8-55pm we had found nothing, so we stood by and 9-00pm came and went, the little group of idiots over on the corner crept off back down their rat holes and we finished the performance as normal. Very shortly the Chief operator took one of his weeks vacations, and when I arrived on duty on the Saturday night the new manager asked if I could relieve the 2nd operator for a break as he had been up and down several times to see when someone would be available to cover his tea break, I went to the projection suite and he couldn’t get away quick enough, and as he left with starting chocks under his heels he assured me that he would return before the interval, so I plodded on running the support film and I had laced up the last reel and was just thinking to myself the 2nd will be back in minute, so I laced up the ads’ and trailers and the last reel was getting smaller and smaller, and I was thinking “oh gawd, what do I do next,” you see I had never opened or closed a show, I had only done the “bit in the middle,” anyway the end came on and still no sign of the 2nd so I managed to get curtains closed, house and foot lights up and the interval music playing, I felt quite chuffed, but still no sign of the 2nd, the time ticked on and I could see the manager looking up at the port holes from the circle, as if to say get on with it, so I thought here goes, curtains, lights down, fade the music out, fade up the sound track, NOTHING ! no sound, there was Nelly Gwynne walking across the screen extolling the virtues of Kia Ora orange totally silent, I stood there for a minute thinking “don’t panic Mr Mannering” and it suddenly came to me I had finished the last reel on the other projector and I hadn’t switched the sound over to the one in use now, got it