MILKING IT - Mexborough's Golden Age Of Cinema

The thing about cinema in Mexborough is that , as it is so long since there was a proper picture house in the town , almost all recollections about it can be deemed to be golden age.

I don’t remember most of the town's cinemas , although some , like the Hippodrome , I have at least heard of. I only actually remember the Majestic , but having visited similar cinemas of the time I can say it was absolutely representative of its genre.

Officially, dedicated film theatres , or picture palaces. Unofficially , and affectionately, known as flea pits.

These were all single screen venues with two tiers of seats. Stalls on the lower level , and a Balcony which was very useful for throwing things from ,without being seen from below.

There would be, typically,  two “Houses” which consisted of a main feature , a Bond film or whatever , and a second feature , known now as  B movie ( although this lends it a cult status mainly undeserved in the UK ). 

This could be anything from a “Looney Tunes” cartoon if the main feature was over long , to an independent drama with unknown stars , or a documentary.

The second house started with the support feature , and replayed the main feature afterwards. If you were a cinema glutton you could stay all the way through and watch the main film twice. More likely , though you would arrive late for the first house and then stay just long enough to see the bit you missed ... 

We weren’t offered an experience in those days. There was no IMAX or MotionMaster , although some of the seats wobbled a bit. No , we just went to the Pictures , or Flicks.

The programme usually changed twice a week and in the sixties and early seventies it was often the only chance we got to see films in colour.

I never saw a commissionaire at the Majestic , but I understand many local cinemas had them. There was a ticket desk , which just sold tickets , and a kiosk where you could buy sweets and soft drinks ( especially Kiaora). If you wanted anything else there might be some Westler’s hot dog sausages boiling , and an usherette would bring a tray of choc-ices  out between films.

For folk brought up in the digital age , the term Flicks , refers back to the earliest type of moving picture. “What The Butler Saw” machines had drums containing lots of individual photographs which spun around quickly , flicking the pictures past the viewing aperture to create an illusion of movement.

Film projection works on the same principle of running lots of sequential images past the projector lens to create the moving images on screen.

In the old days of the golden age , the films occasionally overheated and snapped causing the film to stop abruptly, usually at a crucial moment.

The usual audience response was a slow hand clap , while the projectionist tried frantically to fix the problem . If he was lucky the slow clapping would be too loud for him to hear people shouting  “ Put a Bob in It !” or even worse “ Gerrof and milk it …”