Duke of York’s Cinema Centenary Archive
Interviewee: Gerry Fleet
Interviewer: Alexia Lazou
Friday 7 May 2010
Q.1 Would you like to tell me about your first memory of the Duke of York’s?
“Always living in the area of the Duke of York’s, right from the time I was born, it’s a building which was always there when we were going down the town or going out for a walk or anything, we were always passing it by. But my first real memory goes back to the war time and I can remember going to the cinema with my mother and watching the film and when the air raids happened there used to be a slide, was imposed over the top of the screen, telling you that there was an air raid in progress and if you wanted to leave the cinema, to make your way to the air raid shelters at the bottom of Clyde Road. If you did go out, as you went out you were given a pass ticket so that you could come back in again at some other time and see the rest of the film.”
Q.2 So you used to go to the cinema before you worked there?
“Yep, yeah, we used to go there quite regular as a youngster, first of all with my mother and I can always remember when we used to go down the town, in those days they always had… the stills of the film which was on at the time were in the front cabinets and in the two cabinets by the door, where we used to go in, they had what was coming the following week. So there was always lots of pictures to look at in the frames and we used to go round there a lot, looking at those. And then as… when I was old enough to go to pictures on my own, then we used to go round there with friends and what have we and see all the different films.”
Q.3 And you worked at the Duke of York’s [in the early 1950s], how did you come to do that?
“When I was approaching leaving school age, my mother was working there as a part-time usherette at the time and she came home one day and said to me ‘Oh they’re a bit short of staff round the Duke’s. Would you be interested in going in and helping out and being a rewind boy in the projection box?’ So, wanting a bit of money to do things during the holiday, I agreed and I started round there as a rewind boy. At the time I started, it was when Mr Jordan was the manager and, I believe, the owner of the cinema. He was giving up and Peter Drew-Bear, who was the original senior projectionist, was taking over the role of manager and what have we, and so they were short staffed up in the box, so I started round there.
And we’d go in each day. In the mornings you usually have to start cleaning the projection box, sweeping the floor. There was instructions on the use of projectors, how to lace up the films, how to do the rewinding of the films. After each spool had been shown you had to take it back into the little room behind the projection box and rewind it, making sure that you kept the speed of the spools you were winding constant all the time, and didn’t stop one spool and not the other one, or else the film shot off and shot all over the workshop! And this went on for the whole of the August holiday and at the end of the August holiday I went back to school, and often they would ask me then to go round of an evening when they were short-handed to fill in as a rewind boy again.”
Q.4 Your mother also worked there, didn’t she?
“Yeah, my mother was there quite a few years as a part-time usherette. It was just after the war and things were getting straightened out and sorted out, and so she was working there. And it was always sort of a family atmosphere in there, everybody was very friendly and very chatty and you got to know a lot of the people. And in actual fact, my sister ended up marrying one of the other projectionists who was there at the time when I was working there.”
Q.5 Is there anything you particularly remember about the atmosphere of being in there, either when watching the films or working there?
“As I say, when I was younger we used to go round there and in those days the side entrance in Stanley Road at the back end, near the entrance to the fire station was where we went, being the cheapest seats. And I think in those days it was seven old pennies to get in. But you went in and you were sat in, I think, about one of the four or five front rows. But then you had to be crafty and halfway through the show you got up and went to the loo and come back and sat in the shilling seats, which were further back in the cinema!
But it was always very friendly and you got to know various people who you always saw round there. And in those days, when the cinema seats were all occupied, then you would get the queues forming outside for the different values of seats. And the commissionaire would be there in his uniform, with all his medals [from WW2] on, and come out every so often shouting out ‘So many seats…’ at whatever the price was. People then moved forward and went in.”
Q.6 That was when they had a rolling programme, so people were quite keen to go in at any time, weren’t they?
“Yeah, they went in at any time because it wasn’t a case of at the end of the programme you had to get up and come out. You could sit and watch round again and I can remember some people used to take little packets of sandwiches in there, and go in when it opened and come out late in the evening.” [Laughs]
Q.7 Is there anything else you remember about the entrance? Do you remember anything about the two shops?
“During the war years, from what I can remember, the shops were closed. I can remember the right-hand one as you go in, the doors opening up towards the end of the war for the sale of sweets and ice creams and things. The shop the other side was Mr Jordan’s office and I think even when he left and Peter Drew-Bear took over, I think that still remained the office but the window was always full of stills of films which were coming and different adverts for films and so forth.
I can remember the cash desk. As a youngster it always used to fascinate me the way the tickets popped up out of the table or the top of the machine there, and the lady or the cashier behind the thing pressed the button and the tickets used to jump out at you. And you took them and went round and when you went up the steps into the cinema, then whoever was on the door, the commissionaire or another usherette, they tore your ticket in half and give you half your ticket back.”
Q.8 Could you describe the front of the building?
“Yeah, the bulk of the building, from what I can remember, was a sort of creamy colour paint. But there were sections of the building which had different colour paints, but for the life of me I can’t remember their colours. But the thing that does stick in my mind; round all the round windows up where the projection box was, there was thin neon light tubes round the windows and sort of a filigree type work ran down the side of the front of the building.
And I can remember that in the…when I was in the projection box, one of the things you had to remember was when the street lights came on in the evenings, you had to push the switch over to bring on all the neon lights and they were different colours. From what I can remember there was greens, blues, pinks and yellows. And so from standing outside, looking up at the cinema, it was quite a multi-coloured front that it had to it then. And I believe all the pillars round the entrance were a sort of marble effect paint on them. I’m not too sure what they are now.”
Duke of York’s Cinema Centenary Archive
Interviewee: Gerry Fleet
Interviewer: Alexia Lazou
Friday 7 May 2010
Q.1 Would you like to tell me about your first memory of the Duke of York’s?
“Always living in the area of the Duke of York’s, right from the time I was born, it’s a building which was always there when we were going down the town or going out for a walk or anything, we were always passing it by. But my first real memory goes back to the war time and I can remember going to the cinema with my mother and watching the film and when the air raids happened there used to be a slide, was imposed over the top of the screen, telling you that there was an air raid in progress and if you wanted to leave the cinema, to make your way to the air raid shelters at the bottom of Clyde Road. If you did go out, as you went out you were given a pass ticket so that you could come back in again at some other time and see the rest of the film.”
Q.2 So you used to go to the cinema before you worked there?
“Yep, yeah, we used to go there quite regular as a youngster, first of all with my mother and I can always remember when we used to go down the town, in those days they always had… the stills of the film which was on at the time were in the front cabinets and in the two cabinets by the door, where we used to go in, they had what was coming the following week. So there was always lots of pictures to look at in the frames and we used to go round there a lot, looking at those. And then as… when I was old enough to go to pictures on my own, then we used to go round there with friends and what have we and see all the different films.”
Q.3 And you worked at the Duke of York’s [in the early 1950s], how did you come to do that?
“When I was approaching leaving school age, my mother was working there as a part-time usherette at the time and she came home one day and said to me ‘Oh they’re a bit short of staff round the Duke’s. Would you be interested in going in and helping out and being a rewind boy in the projection box?’ So, wanting a bit of money to do things during the holiday, I agreed and I started round there as a rewind boy. At the time I started, it was when Mr Jordan was the manager and, I believe, the owner of the cinema. He was giving up and Peter Drew-Bear, who was the original senior projectionist, was taking over the role of manager and what have we, and so they were short staffed up in the box, so I started round there.
And we’d go in each day. In the mornings you usually have to start cleaning the projection box, sweeping the floor. There was instructions on the use of projectors, how to lace up the films, how to do the rewinding of the films. After each spool had been shown you had to take it back into the little room behind the projection box and rewind it, making sure that you kept the speed of the spools you were winding constant all the time, and didn’t stop one spool and not the other one, or else the film shot off and shot all over the workshop! And this went on for the whole of the August holiday and at the end of the August holiday I went back to school, and often they would ask me then to go round of an evening when they were short-handed to fill in as a rewind boy again.”
Q.4 Your mother also worked there, didn’t she?
“Yeah, my mother was there quite a few years as a part-time usherette. It was just after the war and things were getting straightened out and sorted out, and so she was working there. And it was always sort of a family atmosphere in there, everybody was very friendly and very chatty and you got to know a lot of the people. And in actual fact, my sister ended up marrying one of the other projectionists who was there at the time when I was working there.”
Q.5 Is there anything you particularly remember about the atmosphere of being in there, either when watching the films or working there?
“As I say, when I was younger we used to go round there and in those days the side entrance in Stanley Road at the back end, near the entrance to the fire station was where we went, being the cheapest seats. And I think in those days it was seven old pennies to get in. But you went in and you were sat in, I think, about one of the four or five front rows. But then you had to be crafty and halfway through the show you got up and went to the loo and come back and sat in the shilling seats, which were further back in the cinema!
But it was always very friendly and you got to know various people who you always saw round there. And in those days, when the cinema seats were all occupied, then you would get the queues forming outside for the different values of seats. And the commissionaire would be there in his uniform, with all his medals [from WW2] on, and come out every so often shouting out ‘So many seats…’ at whatever the price was. People then moved forward and went in.”
Q.6 That was when they had a rolling programme, so people were quite keen to go in at any time, weren’t they?
“Yeah, they went in at any time because it wasn’t a case of at the end of the programme you had to get up and come out. You could sit and watch round again and I can remember some people used to take little packets of sandwiches in there, and go in when it opened and come out late in the evening.” [Laughs]
Q.7 Is there anything else you remember about the entrance? Do you remember anything about the two shops?
During the war years, from what I can remember, the shops were closed. I can remember the right-hand one as you go in, the doors opening up towards the end of the war for the sale of sweets and ice creams and things. The shop the other side was Mr Jordan’s office and I think even when he left and Peter Drew-Bear took over, I think that still remained the office but the window was always full of stills of films which were coming and different adverts for films and so forth.
I can remember the cash desk. As a youngster it always used to fascinate me the way the tickets popped up out of the table or the top of the machine there, and the lady or the cashier behind the thing pressed the button and the tickets used to jump out at you. And you took them and went round and when you went up the steps into the cinema, then whoever was on the door, the commissionaire or another usherette, they tore your ticket in half and give you half your ticket back.”
Q.8 Could you describe the front of the building?
“Yeah, the bulk of the building, from what I can remember, was a sort of creamy colour paint. But there were sections of the building which had different colour paints, but for the life of me I can’t remember their colours. But the thing that does stick in my mind; round all the round windows up where the projection box was, there was thin neon light tubes round the windows and sort of a filigree type work ran down the side of the front of the building.
And I can remember that in the…when I was in the projection box, one of the things you had to remember was when the street lights came on in the evenings, you had to push the switch over to bring on all the neon lights and they were different colours. From what I can remember there was greens, blues, pinks and yellows. And so from standing outside, looking up at the cinema, it was quite a multi-coloured front that it had to it then. And I believe all the pillars round the entrance were a sort of marble effect paint on them. I’m not too sure what they are now.”
This entry was posted in Memories and tagged In Conversation. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
In Conversation: Gerry Fleet 1950’s
Duke of York’s Cinema Centenary Archive
Interviewee: Gerry Fleet
Interviewer: Alexia Lazou
Friday 7 May 2010
Q.1 Would you like to tell me about your first memory of the Duke of York’s?
“Always living in the area of the Duke of York’s, right from the time I was born, it’s a building which was always there when we were going down the town or going out for a walk or anything, we were always passing it by. But my first real memory goes back to the war time and I can remember going to the cinema with my mother and watching the film and when the air raids happened there used to be a slide, was imposed over the top of the screen, telling you that there was an air raid in progress and if you wanted to leave the cinema, to make your way to the air raid shelters at the bottom of Clyde Road. If you did go out, as you went out you were given a pass ticket so that you could come back in again at some other time and see the rest of the film.”
Q.2 So you used to go to the cinema before you worked there?
“Yep, yeah, we used to go there quite regular as a youngster, first of all with my mother and I can always remember when we used to go down the town, in those days they always had… the stills of the film which was on at the time were in the front cabinets and in the two cabinets by the door, where we used to go in, they had what was coming the following week. So there was always lots of pictures to look at in the frames and we used to go round there a lot, looking at those. And then as… when I was old enough to go to pictures on my own, then we used to go round there with friends and what have we and see all the different films.”
Q.3 And you worked at the Duke of York’s [in the early 1950s], how did you come to do that?
“When I was approaching leaving school age, my mother was working there as a part-time usherette at the time and she came home one day and said to me ‘Oh they’re a bit short of staff round the Duke’s. Would you be interested in going in and helping out and being a rewind boy in the projection box?’ So, wanting a bit of money to do things during the holiday, I agreed and I started round there as a rewind boy. At the time I started, it was when Mr Jordan was the manager and, I believe, the owner of the cinema. He was giving up and Peter Drew-Bear, who was the original senior projectionist, was taking over the role of manager and what have we, and so they were short staffed up in the box, so I started round there.
And we’d go in each day. In the mornings you usually have to start cleaning the projection box, sweeping the floor. There was instructions on the use of projectors, how to lace up the films, how to do the rewinding of the films. After each spool had been shown you had to take it back into the little room behind the projection box and rewind it, making sure that you kept the speed of the spools you were winding constant all the time, and didn’t stop one spool and not the other one, or else the film shot off and shot all over the workshop! And this went on for the whole of the August holiday and at the end of the August holiday I went back to school, and often they would ask me then to go round of an evening when they were short-handed to fill in as a rewind boy again.”
Q.4 Your mother also worked there, didn’t she?
“Yeah, my mother was there quite a few years as a part-time usherette. It was just after the war and things were getting straightened out and sorted out, and so she was working there. And it was always sort of a family atmosphere in there, everybody was very friendly and very chatty and you got to know a lot of the people. And in actual fact, my sister ended up marrying one of the other projectionists who was there at the time when I was working there.”
Q.5 Is there anything you particularly remember about the atmosphere of being in there, either when watching the films or working there?
“As I say, when I was younger we used to go round there and in those days the side entrance in Stanley Road at the back end, near the entrance to the fire station was where we went, being the cheapest seats. And I think in those days it was seven old pennies to get in. But you went in and you were sat in, I think, about one of the four or five front rows. But then you had to be crafty and halfway through the show you got up and went to the loo and come back and sat in the shilling seats, which were further back in the cinema!
But it was always very friendly and you got to know various people who you always saw round there. And in those days, when the cinema seats were all occupied, then you would get the queues forming outside for the different values of seats. And the commissionaire would be there in his uniform, with all his medals [from WW2] on, and come out every so often shouting out ‘So many seats…’ at whatever the price was. People then moved forward and went in.”
Q.6 That was when they had a rolling programme, so people were quite keen to go in at any time, weren’t they?
“Yeah, they went in at any time because it wasn’t a case of at the end of the programme you had to get up and come out. You could sit and watch round again and I can remember some people used to take little packets of sandwiches in there, and go in when it opened and come out late in the evening.” [Laughs]
Q.7 Is there anything else you remember about the entrance? Do you remember anything about the two shops?
“During the war years, from what I can remember, the shops were closed. I can remember the right-hand one as you go in, the doors opening up towards the end of the war for the sale of sweets and ice creams and things. The shop the other side was Mr Jordan’s office and I think even when he left and Peter Drew-Bear took over, I think that still remained the office but the window was always full of stills of films which were coming and different adverts for films and so forth.
I can remember the cash desk. As a youngster it always used to fascinate me the way the tickets popped up out of the table or the top of the machine there, and the lady or the cashier behind the thing pressed the button and the tickets used to jump out at you. And you took them and went round and when you went up the steps into the cinema, then whoever was on the door, the commissionaire or another usherette, they tore your ticket in half and give you half your ticket back.”
Q.8 Could you describe the front of the building?
“Yeah, the bulk of the building, from what I can remember, was a sort of creamy colour paint. But there were sections of the building which had different colour paints, but for the life of me I can’t remember their colours. But the thing that does stick in my mind; round all the round windows up where the projection box was, there was thin neon light tubes round the windows and sort of a filigree type work ran down the side of the front of the building.
And I can remember that in the…when I was in the projection box, one of the things you had to remember was when the street lights came on in the evenings, you had to push the switch over to bring on all the neon lights and they were different colours. From what I can remember there was greens, blues, pinks and yellows. And so from standing outside, looking up at the cinema, it was quite a multi-coloured front that it had to it then. And I believe all the pillars round the entrance were a sort of marble effect paint on them. I’m not too sure what they are now.”
Duke of York’s Cinema Centenary Archive
Interviewee: Gerry Fleet
Interviewer: Alexia Lazou
Friday 7 May 2010
Q.1 Would you like to tell me about your first memory of the Duke of York’s?
“Always living in the area of the Duke of York’s, right from the time I was born, it’s a building which was always there when we were going down the town or going out for a walk or anything, we were always passing it by. But my first real memory goes back to the war time and I can remember going to the cinema with my mother and watching the film and when the air raids happened there used to be a slide, was imposed over the top of the screen, telling you that there was an air raid in progress and if you wanted to leave the cinema, to make your way to the air raid shelters at the bottom of Clyde Road. If you did go out, as you went out you were given a pass ticket so that you could come back in again at some other time and see the rest of the film.”
Q.2 So you used to go to the cinema before you worked there?
“Yep, yeah, we used to go there quite regular as a youngster, first of all with my mother and I can always remember when we used to go down the town, in those days they always had… the stills of the film which was on at the time were in the front cabinets and in the two cabinets by the door, where we used to go in, they had what was coming the following week. So there was always lots of pictures to look at in the frames and we used to go round there a lot, looking at those. And then as… when I was old enough to go to pictures on my own, then we used to go round there with friends and what have we and see all the different films.”
Q.3 And you worked at the Duke of York’s [in the early 1950s], how did you come to do that?
“When I was approaching leaving school age, my mother was working there as a part-time usherette at the time and she came home one day and said to me ‘Oh they’re a bit short of staff round the Duke’s. Would you be interested in going in and helping out and being a rewind boy in the projection box?’ So, wanting a bit of money to do things during the holiday, I agreed and I started round there as a rewind boy. At the time I started, it was when Mr Jordan was the manager and, I believe, the owner of the cinema. He was giving up and Peter Drew-Bear, who was the original senior projectionist, was taking over the role of manager and what have we, and so they were short staffed up in the box, so I started round there.
And we’d go in each day. In the mornings you usually have to start cleaning the projection box, sweeping the floor. There was instructions on the use of projectors, how to lace up the films, how to do the rewinding of the films. After each spool had been shown you had to take it back into the little room behind the projection box and rewind it, making sure that you kept the speed of the spools you were winding constant all the time, and didn’t stop one spool and not the other one, or else the film shot off and shot all over the workshop! And this went on for the whole of the August holiday and at the end of the August holiday I went back to school, and often they would ask me then to go round of an evening when they were short-handed to fill in as a rewind boy again.”
Q.4 Your mother also worked there, didn’t she?
“Yeah, my mother was there quite a few years as a part-time usherette. It was just after the war and things were getting straightened out and sorted out, and so she was working there. And it was always sort of a family atmosphere in there, everybody was very friendly and very chatty and you got to know a lot of the people. And in actual fact, my sister ended up marrying one of the other projectionists who was there at the time when I was working there.”
Q.5 Is there anything you particularly remember about the atmosphere of being in there, either when watching the films or working there?
“As I say, when I was younger we used to go round there and in those days the side entrance in Stanley Road at the back end, near the entrance to the fire station was where we went, being the cheapest seats. And I think in those days it was seven old pennies to get in. But you went in and you were sat in, I think, about one of the four or five front rows. But then you had to be crafty and halfway through the show you got up and went to the loo and come back and sat in the shilling seats, which were further back in the cinema!
But it was always very friendly and you got to know various people who you always saw round there. And in those days, when the cinema seats were all occupied, then you would get the queues forming outside for the different values of seats. And the commissionaire would be there in his uniform, with all his medals [from WW2] on, and come out every so often shouting out ‘So many seats…’ at whatever the price was. People then moved forward and went in.”
Q.6 That was when they had a rolling programme, so people were quite keen to go in at any time, weren’t they?
“Yeah, they went in at any time because it wasn’t a case of at the end of the programme you had to get up and come out. You could sit and watch round again and I can remember some people used to take little packets of sandwiches in there, and go in when it opened and come out late in the evening.” [Laughs]
Q.7 Is there anything else you remember about the entrance? Do you remember anything about the two shops?
During the war years, from what I can remember, the shops were closed. I can remember the right-hand one as you go in, the doors opening up towards the end of the war for the sale of sweets and ice creams and things. The shop the other side was Mr Jordan’s office and I think even when he left and Peter Drew-Bear took over, I think that still remained the office but the window was always full of stills of films which were coming and different adverts for films and so forth.
I can remember the cash desk. As a youngster it always used to fascinate me the way the tickets popped up out of the table or the top of the machine there, and the lady or the cashier behind the thing pressed the button and the tickets used to jump out at you. And you took them and went round and when you went up the steps into the cinema, then whoever was on the door, the commissionaire or another usherette, they tore your ticket in half and give you half your ticket back.”
Q.8 Could you describe the front of the building?
“Yeah, the bulk of the building, from what I can remember, was a sort of creamy colour paint. But there were sections of the building which had different colour paints, but for the life of me I can’t remember their colours. But the thing that does stick in my mind; round all the round windows up where the projection box was, there was thin neon light tubes round the windows and sort of a filigree type work ran down the side of the front of the building.
And I can remember that in the…when I was in the projection box, one of the things you had to remember was when the street lights came on in the evenings, you had to push the switch over to bring on all the neon lights and they were different colours. From what I can remember there was greens, blues, pinks and yellows. And so from standing outside, looking up at the cinema, it was quite a multi-coloured front that it had to it then. And I believe all the pillars round the entrance were a sort of marble effect paint on them. I’m not too sure what they are now.”