At the Flicks

'What do you remember about some of the films and the stars?' 'You know there was something about those old films that you never get now. I can't explain it but it's as though they were magical and the stars were unreal I suppose it was caused by all the ballyhoo about Hollywood and so you expected them to be 'other worldly'. I went several times a week to the local cinemas but it was mainly to see the stars like Clark Gable, Ronald Coleman or Errol Flynn. I would lose myself in their eyes and because they were on the big screen it was even better. If ever I watch them on the telly, it's never the same.'

'There were so many of the films which were really great. The stories, which you don't get now or so it seems anyway, were so good. They were often based on some of the best books written. The stars of the films were very good, especially people like Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey and Errol Flynn. My real favourite though was David Niven. He was about the only British actor who could compare to the stars in Hollywood. The best films of the time were Gone With The Wind, Waterloo Bridge and Random Harvest. They were such moving films and you found yourself in a different world, especially as the war was on.'

'I liked the weepie films best of all and the more I cried the more I loved them. They made such lovely films.'

'Me and my chap loved the musicals especially Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films. My favourite was Flying Down To Rio. I don't think there's been any better musicals made since then.'

'The first films I ever saw were silent and I think it was Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. They were really great'

'You couldn't beat the swashbuckler films like Scaramouche and the Musketeers films. My real favourite star was Errol Flynn.'

'The big films were nearly always American. They were really lavish productions and were nearly always better than the English films.'

'I always went to see the big American films but I seldom went to see English films. We always felt that the English films were no good, I don't know why but that's what we believed.'

'Too many of the English films seemed third rate to me and my mates so we only went to see an American film and the big stars. Even if an English film was on with an American film we wouldn't stay for the English one.'

'Most of the films when I first went to the cinema were black and white. I never really liked them and I still don't. Give me a coloured film any time.'

'We always found the coloured films more interesting than the black and white films. The epics were my own favourite films, especially the Ten Commandments and Spartacus.'

'Gone With The Wind was the best film ever made, I think. They will never match it, no matter what the special effects or the stars.'
'I really liked the cowboys and it was always comforting to know that the feller with the white hat was going to win.'

'Some of my favourites were the pin ups like Tyrone Power, Cornel Wilde and Robert Taylor. You don't get men like that any more in the films. The stars now seem to be young kids with spotty faces.'

'Swashbuckling films were my favourites. The fellers used to swing across the rigging of the ships and shin up the walls. You don't get any such films now, do you? I wonder why.

'If ever I went to the pictures it would have to be one of the good old action films, especially the gangsters. I loved James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart films. I think my very favourite was White Heat where James Cagney dies at the end in an enormous explosion. I think he said something about being Top of the World or King of the World.'

'My dad was a film fanatic especially the G Men films as he called them. What he meant was the gangsters, especially James Cagney. He brought me up as a Cagney fan. On Sundays, if there was a gangster film on the telly my dad would be sat in front of the screen and watch every shot and I'd be sat by him. By the time I was about 12 I probably knew more about the gangster films than any of my mates, and most of dad's mates as well.'

'My mom was mad on Robert Taylor and that film called Waterloo Bridge. She still cries if ever that film comes on the telly. She must have seen it about a dozen times to my knowledge.'

'If you were lucky enough to have parents who were film fans you got so much information from them about the films and you became a real expert about certain films and certain stars. I was an expert on the musicals and I'd go with my mom and dad to see every one of those Rodgers and Hammerstein films and my mom would get all the records from the earlier films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in them.'

'Gene Kelly was my favourite and Singing in the Rain must be the greatest film ever made, or at least that's my point of view. Musicals were great fun, with all those singers and dancers and blue skies and fantastic colour, marvellous!'

'Take me to the flicks was what I used to say to my morn and dad and so often we'd all go, especially if the film was a musical with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly or Howard Keel. I still love to see them on the telly. We've got Sky at home and so many of those old films come on it. My own children and my grandchildren love them now.'

'If one of those Hollywood films was on at the local cinema, my dad would come home from work and forget about his tea and go straight off to see it. Mind you, it had to be either a cowboy or a gangster film.'

'It's funny when I think about it now but so many times we must've gone and watched one of the John Wayne films and I bet you it was probably the same story over and over again. Still, it was great.'

'Give me John Wayne on his horse or James Cagney with a machine gun and I was made up for life. I'd go and when I came home I'd tell my dad all about it. He never went because he was crippled but he loved to hear about the films, It was more important to him than the news. When he went out to the pub with his brothers he would talk about those films just as though he'd been. It makes me cry now to think about it.'

'Kids nowadays don't get the chance to see the old stars and I bet some of those stars like Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford would be as big stars now as they were then.'

I remember the film which I think ended a lot of the enthusiasm for the flicks, it was Rock Around The Clock with Bill Haley. The reason I think that, was that the kids saw and heard the new music and dancing and wanted to get up and dance and not go to the flicks like their moms and dads had. Mind you many of the picture houses were wrecked by the kids after watching that film.'

Having considered some of the general statements made by those people interviewed during the completion of the booklet, it is now time to look in more detail at the individual cinemas of the area. Most of the recollections centred on the later cinemas of the period i.e. from about 1930, but there were a few examples from earlier years. The statements are presented under the names of the individual cinemas, starting with Wolverhampton, followed by Wednesfield and then Bilston.

Olympia

'We used to pay a penny, an old penny I mean, on a Saturday morning to go into the Olympia. We went in by the Westbury Street entrance and got a comic, orange and apple. I reckon they gave us those things to keep us quiet while the films were on. In fact, if you dared make any noise in the Olympia they used to come and throw you out. I think it was the doorman that used to do that. He had a uniform on.'

'There was a pianist at the cinema and he would play for the audience before the film came on. I remember it was at the Olympia where I first saw Pearl White and Tom Mix.'

'The first time I went to the Olympia was when I was about ten and I'm sure it had wooden benches, not proper seats. That was about sixty five years ago, so I might be wrong.'

'It lasted ever such a long time. I know that because I first went to the Olympia when I was just 8 years old and I remember going there when I was in my forties in the 1950's. By the time I went there last it had changed a lot and was not very impressive inside, in fact it was a typical flea pit cinema.'

'The Olympia was a bit of a joke among us. It was the place you went to see the X films, even if it was a flea pit. I remember seeing some really dreadful films there but loved every minute of it.'

'If you're talking about flea pits then the Olympia was the worst of the lot. It was small, dirty and really seedy inside. It showed really poor quality films as well I think. Mind you I never went so I suppose I'm relying on other people's stories.'

'Some of the cinemas in town were real flea pits. I think the worst was probably the Olympia because it was in a really vile part of town and wasn't too well cared for when I went there. It was a shame when it closed though because there were so few other cinemas about at that time.'

'When I was a teenager we used to go to the Olympia quite often because it showed X films and so it gave us a cheap thrill or a cheap shock. I remember going one night with a couple of mates to see a film called Rodin and sitting behind this tall broke who seemed really scared of the monster in the film. We must have made his life a misery by whispering in his ear, anyway he left before the end of the film. It was pretty tame really.'

'The Olympia was one cinema I remember because I took a girl there once and she was so disgusted by the film that I never saw her again.'


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