Your favourite cinema memory?

[gerx13]

Loved Jimmy Edwards in 'Whack-O' great show which ran in the late 50s, must have caught the re-runs. It also had a less successful comeback in the early 70s.

I have decided to risk moderators wrath and post these despicable images Whack-O! never had to suffer the cane but the tawse and I were on first name terms.  :001:

[The Long Man]

Thanks, gerx for that link. There are some photos of the interior of the Playhouse and the Empire on that site:

http://www.survivingcinemas.org.uk/scotland/inverness.html

Would love to see some more, especially of the restaurant when it was done up for Christmas!

[gerx13]

Wish I could help you there, there must be some but I don't know where? Jimmy Nairns collection of photographs & film must contain some but I don't know who holds them? Scottish film archive have some but nothing on that subject.

The Courier or the P&J archives don't seem to go too far back, must be some out there.

There is a collection of Jimmy Nairn's photos at am baile lots of good shots of Inverness circa 1950 though but not what your looking for.

Link doesn't appear to be working, try this for its front door. Ah it looks like someone has restricted the images, from 30+ pages to 3? shame there were some really good photos.

[The Long Man]

Another great link! Thanks so much, gerx. For anybody else interested, I have just spent the last hour browsing photos of old Inverness including  the old Caledonian Hotel, Fraser & McColls, Benzies, the Carlton etc etc. Some great memories there.

[latviaman]

I can remember going to the Playhouse when there was a sort of Premiere, Jon Whitley et all was a film about two boys in Scotland. That was years ago anyone remember??

[DJS]

Was showing some of the old photos to my father earlier tonight  and he spotted something interesting.

If you look at the two images of the entrance to the Playhouse there is a significant difference between them.  The older b&w image has an air raid shelter in the street outside the Playhouse.  My father remembers leaning his bowsher's bike outside it on occasions.  The film being shown at the time was Edward, My Son starring Spencer Tracey which would date the photo to around 1949.

[Kingsmills]

Does that take into account the fact that it generally took about two years for newly released films to find their way to Inverness in those days ?

[The Long Man]

DJS: that's interesting, I was wondering what that was. What the devil is a bowsher?

[DJS]

a message boy usually on a bike

[L_G]

Thanks, gerx for that link. There are some photos of the interior of the Playhouse and the Empire on that site:

http://www.survivingcinemas.org.uk/scotland/inverness.html

Would love to see some more, especially of the restaurant when it was done up for Christmas!

I was speaking to a gentleman tonight who has some photos as above.  He really burst my bubble when he told me he was often Santa in the playhouse.  Bit scarey to think I used to sit on his knee.  :015: :015:

He's 91 now and used to be the manager of the Empire and the La Scala I think, and he worked in the playhouse.  They were all owned by Caledonian Associated Cinemas and they had over 30 cinemas at one time.  This man is called Mr Findlay and is a real gent.  Great memories, he was talking about what a gurney sod Harry Lauder was, among others.

I told him about this site, so if you have any questions on any of the 3 venues I'll pass them on next time I see him.  He did say he has photos of the restaurant at Christmas though, I'll ask if I could get a copy.  He also said he has a photo of all the staff in the La Scala when he was manager there, they all stood on the stairs for a group shot.  Although he was not the youngest by far he is the only one still living which is a bit sad. This photo has a clear shot of the board with the ticket prices starting from 1 shilling up to 2 shillings for the balcony.  :015:

He has been asked to write down some of these stories and I hope he does, too much information over the years to not pass on.

[Charles Bannerman]

Laura... I just can't believe that any Santa on whose knee you may have sat could be as old as 91!

Ticket prices.. in the mid 60s the cheapest I can remember is 1s for the front stalls on a Saturday afternoon but that may have been the La Scala. The Playhouse might have been 1s 6d. I think balcony prices went up to about 5s or 6s for an adult.

This was the alternative when Caley were away from home. At the time it cost 9d to get into Telford Street, not that we ever paid!

[Caley Mad In Berks]

In the late 50s, prices were about 1 shilling front stalls, 1/6 back stalls, 2/3 back balcony and 2/9 front balcony.  Back stalls were the most popular if you went with a girlfriend, but I'm struggling to remember why!!

[Charles Bannerman]

CMIB... it must be the stage of life you're at!

[gerx13]

I don't recall Mr Findlay, though there is a gnawing recollection in the furthest reaches of my memory. Which annoyingly I can't access, quite frustrating. Would love to hear his stories and it would be great to see his photos.

Its a shame that in 1996, when we were all celebrating a 100 years of cinema. That to my knowledge there was no publication to celebrate the anniversary, focusing on cinemas in the Highland. I say this because there were books celebrating this anniversary in other areas like Inverclyde, the borders..etc .

The surviving cinemas site is a godsend, but is surprisingly lacking in old photos of the LaScala.

[The Long Man]

LG, that's really interesting. You should get in touch with Sheila MacKay who records these sorts of memories for archives of the town, and used them in the book Mind Yon Time (was it called?  somthing like that) Memories of Inverness. Would be very interesting to see the photos, maybe the survivng cinemas website could put them up? if you like, I could maybe hlep out if you want to record his memories.

[L_G]

I think Sheila MacKay has already asked him to put something on paper, but he has never got around to it.  Unfortunately his wife is not keeping well and is in a home.  Although this is very sad it does leave him with quite a bit of time on his own which might be an opportunity to colate some of this stuff.  I asked him to write a few of his memories down.  He's a lovely man with some great stories, especially of the 'turns' from the Empire.

[The Long Man]

Well that's a shame, but do tell him that there's lots of us who enjoy stories of the old town, and it would be nice to preserve them for the future. Give our regards to him, old Santa!

[Scarlet Pimple]

Very absorbing and enjoyable browse through this site. Many memories.

My recollection about early 1950's is that the price of the Playhouse was 2 shillings or two and six for the downstairs seats and 3 shillings and 6 pence  for the upstairs balcony. Queues mandatory for a Saturday night. If you were fed up waiting and a bit desperate you paid the three bob just to get in off the street and into the cimema before the film actually started.

I seem to remember that as you passed the box office inside the La Scala you came to a stairs on the left --probably leading up to the upper balcony.

The Palace was quite a classy clean cinema in my day , perhaps not so large and spiffy as the Playhouse but a pleasant place to be in. The screen seems to be unusually small though in the photos displayed here . The entrance to the Palace seems small in the photos to my eye now but my recollection from my teenage days is an impressive approach and entrance--but no cars at the front.  :006:

[gerx13]

I read in 'The Courier' tonight that Dave Angus has passed away. Dave was the manager of the LaScala when I worked there. He was a cinema manager of the old school. A great man manager and former projectionist, a good one at that. A drawback compare to the modern uni or popcorn sellers we have today, you couldn't BS him with techno-babble when you screwed up.

I had the pleasure to give him a tour of the projection suite at the retail park, when it first opened. He had had a stroke the previous year and was still a bit frail, but he was still razor sharp. He was a great bench mark for me to judge the cinema managers I have worked with, not many came up to his mark.

I always remember his aversion to paying for anything with cash when he could use cinema passes. If we need distilled water to top up the emergency lighting batteries, he would send us across the road to McRae & ***** with a empty bottle and a few passes. It always worked!

My thoughts are with his family at this sad time.

[DMA444]

Re the La Scala, it was opened as Kelso's La Scala Cinema later owned by CAC and did have a restaurant/tearoom (see front of cinema pic attached) the restaurant was on the Strothers Lane Side and when sitting in  the cinema if you looked up to the right, you could see two boxes which were part of the restaurant. 

As stated the Empire Theatre closed in 1970 and I was privileged to be there on stage on the last night, and took several photographs, which you can find at the following link:

 

http://www.scottishcinemas.org.uk/scotland/inverness_empire/index.html

I did some work there over time, when Willie Aird was the stage manager.

On the final evening, at the very end as you can see from the photos , all the stage tabs and cyclorama were 'flown' into the fly tower out of site for ever at the request of John Worth.

There were two performances on the final evening (both sold out) where was everybody when they were needed.  Greedy CAC sold the site to BT...where is CAC now?

About four years ago I went inside the Palace Cinema and took some photos during its last days as Bingo, I'm very glad I did

You will also see photos of the Playhouse not very good quality as they were taken from a movie called 'Movieman' made by an Aberdeen amateur cinematographer called Ron Miller who sadly died.

The master copy of the film is held in the archives of the IAC (www.theiac.org.uk)  and has probably been digitised recently. I gave a copy to the Museum several years ago when I was up home.  The movie is about the life of James S Nairn (Playhouse manager and NE area supervisor of CAC.

Derek Mathieson

 

 

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