Going to the movies...1950

Pappy

Pappy

Living the Dream
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Moved back to NY from Florida. 🤓 2025
We, my friend and I, have returned enough bottles to pay our way into Smalley's theater. It will cost us 14 cents for a great double feature. The main show is "Frontier Pony Express" starring Roy Rogers and the second feature is "Africa Screams" with Abbott and Costello. If we wanted to, we could sit through a second showing, but the popcorn and candy was gone. I can remember coming out of the theater and being nearly blinded by the sunlight. On the way home we would talk about the shows we had just seen and joke and laugh about some of the funny scenes.
Ah yes, good times......simple times.....
 

Every Sat'dee arvo us tinlids would go to the pictures to see a couple of filums plus serials and cartoons.***
We were given a shilling which bought a ticket plus something at the kiosk at interval.
There was hardly an adult present at the matinee but behaviour was no worse for their absence.

On Sunday afternoon we went to the council baths (AKA Olympic swimming pool) with our cossies wrapped up in an old towel. Again we had admission money plus a bit to spend at the kiosk. No wonder my teeth were rotten. No fluoride in the water plus an excess of honeycomb to crunch on. The pool was teeming with kids and adult supervision was quite rare here too. As children we were remarkably self sufficient.

***Oz lingo. That's how we used to speak as kids.
 
I like the lingo, neat. Warrigal. I never had fluoride until 4th or 5th grade and we would line up and go in this room where a dentist would apply fluoride with a long stick like a Q tip. That was before they added it to the water.
 

Sounds familiar Warri, but we called 'em the flicks.
The only adults I recall were the Usher Nazis too. We were all 'unaccompanied minors' and all turned up at home in time for tea without having vandalized the neighbourhood. Tch, how much better things are now for PCness and child psychology eh?

Sometimes I'd go with the kids up the road but I always told Mum I was going with them even though I mostly went alone, saved a bit of domestic drama that way. (They had really strict/strange parents and were 'grounded' most Saturdays, poor buggers.)

On reflection I reckon the kids pouring out onto the footpath after the flicks, swordfighting or shooting each was probably the better value of the day, entertainment wise. I lived about a mile from the Ritz and there was always a mob of us heading home in that general direction, mostly boys still in film fantasy land, and every one of 'em Roy Rogers or Errol Flynn.

(Actually I doubt some of them have even grown up yet. )
 
... PS ... wasn't a big fan of going to the 'Barvs' at weekends. It was a good 5 mile round trip hike and we'd be hotter when we got home than when we left. We 'did swimmin' there on sports day from school, Tuesdays from memory, so that was enough for me and we got taken there and back by bus... beats the hell out of walking 5 miles on a scorcher.
 
On the way home from the 'barvs' we would wind our wet towels into a sort of arab head dress to keep cool. The donut roll sat on top of our heads and the rest of the wet towel hung down over our shoulders and backs.

In those days if we were hot we thought nothing of entering someone's front yard for a drink from the garden tap or we would put our heads under the running water to saturate our hair. Being taught well not to waste water we always turned the tap off completely and as far as I remember we were never yelled at.
 
That sounds very much like what we used to do Warrigal, did you used to flick each other with the towels, god that hurt, we could get an icecream cone at the pool and it was dipped in choc & malt powder yummo, the pictures were great as there was entertainment at interval with a singalong with the bouncing ball or blowing balloons till they burst, rolling jaffas down the floor of the cinema lol and i had to have my Choo choo bar i loved them.
When i was little i would catch the train and go about 8 nstations to the swimming pool and would be gone all day, never got into mischief and i was never put in danger by any men, gone are the days when you were safe to play outside without the parents supervising.
 
Jillaroo said:
We used to go Ice Skating at St Moritz and i always wore my luminous pink or green socks , they were so cool and my brother wore his stove pipe pants
Click to expand...

In Sydney, there were two ice skating rinks. THE ICE PALACE, at Moore Park showground, & the GLACIARIUM near central railway at Broadway.

It was a great way to spend 4 hours. The Saturday afternoon movies were another, what with 20 or so serials on each time so it enticed you back the following saturday to see the continuation.
 
Weren't those serials shameless?!! They'd be in a speeding car and 'to be continued' would flash up when the wheels were 2 inches short of the going over the Grand Canyon or something. Then next week they'd all jump out of it, doing half the speed and a football field back from the cliff.

I always felt swindled by that!
 
I remember going to the show (movie theatre) in the early 60's. It was 25 cents to get in, and you could sit and watch the movie, ( i often enjoyed Elvis Presley flicks) over and over. And, it was great, you had a cartoon as well. I remember baby-sitting my 3 brothers, and making them sit through the afternoon matinee , as i watched it at least 3 x lol . They still remind me of that to this day. I think my first Elvis movie was "Follow That Dream"...oh...the good ole days!!
 
After the Barvs we would wrap our togs in towel and hang around our neck then go to the fish n chip shop for a zacks worth of chips wrapped in newspaper
Rip the ends off the newspaper to make a bag and tuck in.Sometimes spend our bus money then hitch hike home
 
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