At the Flicks

Penn Cinema

'It was small and friendly and you felt you knew everyone, especially if you went regularly, and that everyone cared for the customers who came to the cinema. It was probably the friendliest cinema I ever went to and I went to most of the local cinemas at one time or another.'

'The Penn wasn't as grand as the other town cinemas but it was very comfortable and I would say it was probably more homely than all the others. It was a genuine local cinema'

'I think the vast majority of the clientele at the Penn was local and probably lived close enough to walk to the cinema, I know we used to. After all, the vast majority of people were car less in the fifties and most of the sixties.'

'My mother actually worked at the Penn as an usherette. She took the ice creams down at the interval. She wore a uniform but I can't remember the colour, how strange.'

'The Penn had quite a big foyer and it had a cloakroom so you didn't have to sit with your wet coat or mac on your lap. I think it was probably the only cinema in the town with a cloakroom.'

'One of my friends who had obviously never been to the Penn called it a flea pit once when we were out having a drink and talking about cinemas. I remember getting really shirty about that because my mother had worked there and I had gone loads of times and there was no way you call it anything like a flea pit. It was comfortable and most welcoming. My idea of a flea pit was the Olympia or the Coliseum, never the Penn.'

'Most of the kids off the Warstones estate must have gone to the Penn at some time or other on a Saturday morning. The matinees were really good and the people who ran things there were excellent.'

'When the Warstones estate was first built the Penn had a captive audience and must have enjoyed very good times, at least financially. I would say the cinema was one way in which the community was brought together.'

'You always felt the Penn was the local cinema for Warstones and Penn. This was really brought home when you went to the cinema and saw people from the area in the audience. I bet a fair number of the locals did all their courting at the Penn.'
'Most of the people who went to the Penn must have walked there because most of them came from within the locality. It might have been one of the reasons that the cinema stayed open that bit longer than some of the other local places.'

'Upstairs at the Penn was best. It was more comfortable than downstairs. I only ever went upstairs to watch some of the better, films like South Pacific. They used to show many of those sort of films years after they had been on general release.'

'The best part of the Penn was that you could catch up on some of the really good quality older films like King and I, Ben Hur, West Side Story and not have to wait in a long queue.'

'The thing I best remember about the Penn was that the car park was very large and so you could find a parking space really easily. This meant that quite a number of people from outside the area went to the Penn. It's probably the same car park that Somerfield Supermarket now use.'

'When we started going to the Penn it was towards the end of its time but it was a really homely place. It was the first place I ever got tea or coffee when I went to the cinema. We used to go for the drinks in the interval.'

'If I was taken to the Penn by a chap I really felt he was keen since but it always seemed quite a smart place and never a flea pit. The chap would go right up in my estimation.'

'I remember the uproar that went on when they said that the Penn was going to close. I went to one of the protest meetings but as you know, it made no difference.'

'The Penn should never have closed. It served a locality and a community and met all the demands of the community in terms of films and entertainment. I bet if it had stayed open it would still have a good audience. Still, it's too late now.'

'The Penn must have been one of the better of the local cinemas. It showed good quality films, had comfortable seats and had a very nice staff.'

Clifton Fallings Park

'When I first started to go to the Clifton at Fallings Park it was a new cinema and it had nice upholstery and really good acoustics. It must have been one of the best of the cinemas in the area, or at least outside the centre of town, at that time.'

'The Clifton at Fallings Park was my local cinema and I went very often with my mother and father to see all sorts of films from a very early age. We would walk to it down Raynor Road. We always went upstairs, I don't know why.'

'The Clifton was the local cinema for Low Hill and so many of us would go to the same films that it would become the sole topic of conversation at school and even amongst our parents.'

'Low Hill people regarded the Clifton as their cinema and it's strange how whatever was on at the local Clifton was what so many of us talked about when we met each other. If you were told the film was good by your mates you would go, if you were told it was rubbish you wouldn't go. It was as simple as that.'

'We had to queue so often at the Clifton. The queue would start outside the front doors and go all along the Cannock Road side of the cinema. That was the side where the posters were which told you what was on. Remember the Clifton changed its programme on a Thursday and would show another film on the Sunday just for one day. They had stills on the front walls as well if I remember rightly.'

'Saturday mornings were always spent at the Clifton. The matinee there was really great and there was so many kids. You'd go on the 46 bus from Underhill and it was always full of kids and the queue would often go all along Cannock Road, right up to Park Lane. It was marvellous fun.'

'The twopenny queue was what we called it. It was the queue that all my mates stood in. If you got there late on a Saturday morning, there'd always be someone who kept you a place. Mind you, if someone else thought you were queue jumping, there would be real trouble. I've been at the back of that queue many times though. We used to sing Roll Out the Barrel before the film show started. We bought our sweets from a shop in Raynor Road. During the school holidays we'd go to the flicks very often. We'd nip out of the side door and buy some sweets and then nip back because one of our friends would keep the door open.'

'There was the twopenny crush on a Saturday morning at the Clifton, mind you if you were posh, you paid fourpence. OId money that is.'

'I worked at the Ever Ready and often the girls would get together at night and go to the Clifton to see the film that was on at the time. It was a good night out and if you met some chaps at the cinema, all the better.'

'We used to go two or three times to the Clifton straight from work. We both worked at Henry Meadows so it was easy to get there. It was just a matter of walking up the Cannock Road and you were at the Clifton. We mainly went on a Monday and a Friday to the pictures. It was a different film on those evenings because the film changed on a Thursday.'

'At the Clifton there were big bill posters which told you what was on and what was coming as a future attraction. I can remember when I passed the Clifton on the 46 bus or the 13 trolley bus I would often make a mental note of what was coming on and decide which night I was going to go to the flicks. I reckon I must've gone at least once a week throughout the fifties. That was true for many of my mates from Underhill as well.'

'When I used to go to the Clifton in the early fifties it was probably about Is 6d downstairs, Is 9d upstairs at the back and about 2s 3d at the front upstairs. I don't remember going in the dearer seats anytime.'

'It was really noisy sometimes at the Clifton when loads of people were coming in because there was no carpet on the one part of the floor downstairs.'

'The Clifton was half moon shaped inside and it always seemed very big. It was probably my age, so everything seemed big to me.'

'I got turfed out more than once on a Saturday morning by the Commissionaire at the Clifton. I was trying to remember his name but that's one of the results of getting older, I forget so many things theses days.'

'One film I remember seeing at the Clifton was Can Can which was the last film at the cinema. It had Frank Sinatra in it. It was a special occasion because I remember there being a big cake which was brought on to the stage. It must have been just a few days after that the picture house was torn down. It didn't take long before the whole site was flattened. It was pretty sad because I reckon there could not have been a person living on Low Hill or the Scotlands who hadn't been at sometime at the Clifton to see a film. I bet hardly any of them went to the town cinemas during the fifties.'

'The Clifton was torn down by some property company and none of us liked the idea but as usual there was nothing you could do. They built the Fine Fare and I suppose loads of people went to do their shopping there but there were other shops, not another cinema.'


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