Some of these "picture houses" are well before my time but the memories of luxuriously carpeted floors, ice cream ladies and the projector beam cutting, like a knife, through the thick blue atmosphere of a smoke-filled auditorium....it all comes flooding back. Thank you.
The Woolton : I Remember watching great movies like Zulu, Spartacus and West Side Story at The Woolton Picture House. Sometimes the projector would break down and the slow hand clapping would begin. At the end everyone would dash out before they played God Save The Queen. My late father told me that my Grandfather Syd Hughes was an electrician and he installed the brand new electric lighting inside the cinema when it was being built in the 1920s.
I must have been in well over half of those cinemas. Wonderful nostalgic memories of the happiest days of my life.Thank you so much for producing such a fabulous piece of work
+ted2321 Thanks Ted. I felt I had to record many of the buildings that gave me pleasure with the old films. Like you I travelled around many of these cinemas.
Thanks very much for this. The Abbey was the first cinema I ever visited, and was blown away by the Silver Screen. Great to see it's external grandeur once more.
Music should be 'In a summer place' played every week at our Liverpool cinema! For years I thought it was called 'forthcoming attractions'!! Remember people rushing out so they didn't have to stand whilst they played 'God save The Queen' at the end of the film!
AHH fond memories of my childhood, went to the hippodrome every week and the majestic picturehouse. Such a shame that these buildings were knocked down or became bingo halls, they should have been renovated and preserved, shame on our council for having no vision!
I have very fond and dear memories of Liverpool cinemas when They where cinemas before the alterations came in and changed their interiors beyond all recognition . The Forum and the Odeon was my favourite places to go for a good night entertainment costing very little too. Huge auditoriums plenty of space and beautiful decoration inside them dream places of dreams.. Thanks for the memories here on this video worth a watch and nicely done.
"The Tunnel Cinema" in Tunnel Road. Spent many a Saturday morning matinee in there when I was a lad. I remember seeing "Enter the Dragon" on the huge screen in the Abbey. "2001" in the Odeon in London road. The days of double features and big screens. Those were the days.
Brilliant piece of work bringing back loads of memories for this expat Scouser. I'd fogotten the names of the Hippadrome on West Derby Road and the Majestic in Daulby Street and it was whilst researching them that I hit on your piece. Thanks a lot for the mine of information that you've provided and for the trip down memory lane.
How I remember we used to go to the cameo and to the smithdown road picture playhouse that turned into a large Tesco. I was in the cameo the night of the robbery. V.H
Putting this together must have been a labour of love. I remember alot of them in the South (L16 and L15), and in the centre. The Abbey was my local (Krakatoa, Exorcist, Confesions of a Window Cleaner). My favourite was The Woolton Cinema, I remember going there and the seats were really comfortable, and during the ice cream break, I was talking to ice cream lady at the front, and they wouldn't start the film until I sat down.
2:04 Abbey cinema saw ‘The Love Bug’ and ‘Oliver’ in 1968 the only time my mum & dad took us to the cinema together, I was 12 years old, my 3 siblings were younger.
I remember being so excited going to the Abbey in Wavertree to see chitty chitty bang bang as a kid. My first cinema visit. I enjoyed lots of films in the Abbey. Sadly it’s shops now.
The abbey in wavertree had a curved screen - cinerama - 3 projectors were used you could just about see the joins on the 3 images on the screen - saw 2001 space odyssey there - fantastic !!
Been in about 75% of these cinemas, The very first one I went in and it was for Saturday afternoons was the Paddington Palace in Paddington I think it closed about 1957
Regal cinema, broadway, Norris green. I lived on the East Lancs Road in the 50’s, Saturday mornings we used to sing “We are the ABC minors”, followed by Flash Gordon, followed by the intermission which consisted of a live local Skiffle Group, followed by Lone Ranger & Tonto. We had to line up at the side of the building before going in so the manager Mr Mac could walk up and down the line telling us all to keep the noise down. If you kept on shouting, he wouldn’t let you in. He always wore black tuks which made him look a bit scary, but he was a softy! Years later, on my first date, my dad asked me where I was going to take her, I said I thought we could go to the Regal, my dad said tell her you will meet her inside then you only have to pay for one ticket. Those were the days. I think the Regal is now boarded up, will check with google earth. Many thanks for the memories........
The picture of the Tunnel brought back some funny memories.. l could also see my uncles side of the street on the right (hes long passed now) and me dads other brothers house to the left (hes passed also) just my dad whose 81 left out of 9 of them... I had my 21st in there when it was made into a nightclub called "The Dallas" LOL...
My nearest cinemas were The Hippodrome , The Majestic .and the Paddington, Thats the first picture I have ever seen of the Paddy. The disgraceful Liverpool council knocked down the Hippodrome to make way for a new road scheme that was never built. The Majestic was the easiest Cinema to bunk into the EXIT doors on Daulby street were so easy to open from the outside.
Of course I shoplifted as well like most kids my age, what where you a fucking alter boy. And by the way I still take any opportunity for a little light fingeredness.
Did it take you a week to compose this post of shit.You say your only 40 , well thats my whole point you knew fuck all about post war Liverpool, and the conditions people lived in. And couldn't you include Asia, Russia and Australia in your property portfolio, what a fucking gobshite you are, I actually feel a bit of sympathy for you.
Fuck me, I made a comment that as a 10 year old, in bomb ravaged Liverpool I used to bunk in the Majestic and surrounding cinemas because we could not afford to pay. then all of a sudden I am subjected to a torrent of abuse from an obvious Yank. What my age and probable health issues ( I have none actually ) common to my socio-economic background have got to do with this is beyond me, unless you are trying to impress me with your level of education. Your Mother is not from Liverpool If she is from Aigburth, as this place is well outside the Liverpool boundary. You would also know that gobshite while being an Irish expression is common in Liverpool because 90% of Liverpool people are of Irish decent, have you ever been there you ignorant prick. I make my observation that you are from across the pond by the fact that your mother did not work part time at the Abbey movie theater, she may have worked at the Abbey picture house. No such thing in the UK as a movie theater. Your seemingly intimate knowledge of the use of KY and the insertion of an M4A1 Carbine into a four legged cloven animal also attests to this fact. I lived not more than a 5 minute walk from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Mount Vernon Street to be exact but you wouldn't know where that is. My memories of the LSTM was that it was a School to cater for the African & Indian regional diseases and as such took students from that part of the world, Your farther perhaps?. I have spent this week playing golf, eating fatty foods, drinking beer, and have at least 2 large glasses of single malt whisky a night. I don't smoke, that may disappoint you. I look forward to your reply on Sunday then you can get back to trolling for children.
As I too was born and raised in Liverpool, I must take issue. Your statistics on Irish ancestry are way, way off! For a variety of reasons, the city’s population has declined by about half since the 1950s. Approximately 90% of the city’s current 466,000 population are white European/British, half of which claim to have at least some Irish ancestry, which is about 45% of the total census, not 90% as you claim. As far as I can recall, Aigburth was and still is Liverpool 17, a good 3 miles within the Liverpool boundary. The city extended to past Speke, almost to Hale, but not quite and the boundary was marked by a large black and white metal sign “Welcome to Liverpool”. A very humorous and heated exchange over something so trivial! You said were a thief and admit you still are. You are what you are and he really shouldn’t have been as hard on you as he was. I actually felt sorry for you until you inexplicably accused him of “trolling for children”. Resorting to obscenities, merely exposes your intellectual inadequacies and highlights his obvious, although arrogant, educational advantage. Sometimes it’s prudent to walk away than continue a battle for which you’re clearly under-equipped.
Excellent that you've made the effort to record this. Two places close to where I used to live don't seem to have been around at the time of the Echo's listings, a picture house now the Handyman's Supermarket on Smithdown Road, and one built above a Tesco store in the seventies on Allerton road, was it the Classic? Damned if I can remember! More of the same please!
6:30 Every Saturday morning in the 60’s (kids only) dropped off here at the Palladium to watch movies with hundreds of other kids, the very last movie we saw before it closed was ‘Mighty Joe Young’ a King Kong type movie.
The ABC Carlton (also known as The ABC Tuebrook) ... I remember one time in 1971 when there were timed power cuts planned for each area, I headed for The Carlton to see A Man Called Horse, aiming to get there when its supply was restored. I entered the cinema to be met by all of the staff at the ticket office. One of them put it to me that if no one actually was present to watch the film, then they could all go home early, so ..... would I be a nice guy and turn around, letting them all have an early night or would I be a complete selfish b*****d and make them stay? Looking at the line of half a dozen faces, with their pleading "puppy dog" eyes of sorrow, I turned around and exited the cinema to their cheers of gratitude. And to this day, I have never yet seen A Man Called Horse
That was true about the Lytton cinema you could pay with jam jars ,it was a real fleapit they had a saying back then ,you go in with a jumper on and come out with a ball of wool !
Hello there, I am trying to track down the Movie Theatre my grandfather Claude King worked in. I was told my father and he attended the first Cannes Film Festival, am guessing that would of been 1946. Dad was born in 1923 and I remember him saying his father (Claude) lived in Hoylake and travelled to Liverpool to work in the Cinema. As I work in film I'm trying to uncover a little of my past. Am Canadian, both dad and Uncle Len left England and immigrated to Canada after the war. My father and Uncle have both passed away. Of course I now wished I'd asked more questions when they were here. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. I hope to someday soon travel to travel to Hoylake and Liverpool in person. In the meantime am searching from Canada. Many thanks to anyone that can point me to some records...
Shame no actual pic of the Smithdown Picture Playhouse. We lived in River Avon Street and I remember vividly larking around on those steps of the cinema and rolling down them with my mates till we eventually got told to clear off by the staff, it was pretty good to roller skate on as the paving was smooth and mostly level. We moved down south in 1965. I went back to liverpool for a visit a couple of years ago and was mortified to see that area now as just about every place I had fun at or in and the schools I went too and where my friends lived have all gone, it felt like someone had gone and erased every important part of my youth on purpose 😶.
The Majestic .... I remember going there on its final performance before its demolition. It was showing a double bill of The Birds and, I could be wrong on the second film, so please correct me if I am, The Day Of The Triffids. Can anyone remember the date? It was very late sixties or early seventies
I used to go to Webster Road infants school and lived off Spofforth Road. The Cameo is before my time, but I can't find out properly about the murder that happened there. It sounds interesting.
Memories of the best city and greatest people in the world, how sad the life we had then. Respect, women looked like women, no knife crime and the elderly were not afraid to go out. Where did we go wrong
...and look how utterly unexciting Lime Street now looks, with another bland Lidl supermarket. I remember when going to town was an event, and the buses actually dropped you off outside shops you wanted to shop at.!!
Pity about your language. Living there in the 1950s with a friend we were regulars. It was small and of an uninteresting shape, but good enough for support from my local school in earlier times. (The Morrison). Certainly didn't deserve your description.
