Cinemas in the 1940's    by Wyndham Jones

Long ago in pre-television times when I was a boy living in Fairview, if our gang of boys were not wrestling each other, gathering nuts, blackberries and wimberries or fishing for scrachons [bomble heads] in the inky black river Ogwr Fach we would go to the cinema or "pictures" as we called them. We had two      " Picture Houses “ in Gilfach Goch, the Workmens' Hall or the "Hall" as it was known and the Globe, apparently there was a third that burned down but that was before my time.

In both cinemas there would be two different programs of films each week on Mondays and Thursdays plus a Saturday Matinee for us kids in the Workmen’s Hall from 10am to 11.30 am. There were two “houses” in the Hall on Mondays and Thursdays this meant that there would be a showing at 5 pm until 7.30 pm and then another from 8pm until 10.30, us small boys weren’t allowed in to the second house. On the other nights as with the Globe, the showings were from 6.30 pm to 9pm. The price of admission for matinee was 3d [thruppence] downstairs and 4d [fourpence] upstairs which was less than 2 pence in present money.

The evening programs in the Hall usually consisted of, to me, a boring short film, usually British, a newsreel cast mostly of war news, it was very thrilling to see a huge tank come thundering at you on the screen and then there was the main feature film. At first, Mam and Dad would take us to the pictures. The only film I can barely remember from this time was a black and white film which most of them were then, I can remember that there were colliery underground scenes in it, so the film may have been “How Green was my Valley”.

I eventually graduated to going to the pictures on my own or with friends, this was still during the war years, We couldn’t get sweets so Mam would give me apples called Morgan Sweets which were horrible, can anyone remember those? An alternative to the apples would be cleaned, peeled carrots to munch on, I liked those – still do. My favorite films of course were cowboy and injun’ films, still are, and comedy films, I used to laugh until tears ran down my cheeks at Bud Abbot and Lou Costello and Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges and Our Gang just to name a few.

The Globe, because it was privately owned always seemed to have better films than the Hall. If there was a Tarzan film showing or King Kong, there would be a queue from the main entrance up to the main road and down the pavement to Reggie Jeffries newspaper shop, it would be about 80 or so yards long. About the Globe, unlike the Hall which had an upstairs and downstairs, the Globe was a large single story building which was owned by the Griffiths family. It was great fun in there because there were no windows, it could be very dark at times, this was ideal for courting couples sitting in the coveted two back rows with double seats which were almost like settees, to which I and my girlfriend, later to be my wife Maureen, graduated. The heating system was terrible but effective, if it got cold during an evening, the heating would be switched on and then there would be a constant banging in the pipes which made it difficult to hear the on-screen dialogue. There were two exits from the cinema, the main door and there was one at the side of the building, there was a shelter to this one which sheep enjoyed, so if you exited from the side door on a wet evening, you were almost certain to find yourself up to your ankles in sheep manure.

On Saturday mornings as I said, there was a matinee for us kids in the Hall, I don’t think I missed a matinee from the time I was old enough to go there to see Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger or Buck Rogers and his Galactic battles against Ming the Merciless. These were the days when we didn’t go straight home after the show and weren’t expected to. During Summer, when we came out of matinee we would look across to the farm at the bottom of the Rhiw, if there was a crowd there, we knew that the farmer would be “dipping” his sheep in water with chemicals in it to clean the sheep and to get rid of unwanted guests in their wool like fleas etc. Other times, my brother Brian and our friends would go down to the river and run from one end of the culvert by jumping from side to side over the river and hope that you didn’t fall in and slide into the pool at the bottom, I did once. This can’t be done now because the culvert has been extended and there are barriers on each end.

For days after a showing of a Tarzan film, the valley would ring to the sound of Tarzan’s Yodel as he swung through the jungle to rescue Jane or if there had been a particular good Robin Hood or similar film shown, there would be many battles fought in Gilfach Goch with homemade wooden swords and bow and arrows.

    Absolutly wonderful days.