Going To The Pictures

The pictures, for those of you who live in our former colonies, means the movies. When I was a kid I loved going to the pictures. Leeds had loads of picture houses to choose from.

I don't remember it being expensive otherwise I wouldn't have gone nearly every week.

above: The Shaftesbury [aka the "Shafs"], pic taken about 1950.

My older brother and his wife took me here often. All that stopped when they took me to see "Old Yeller" and I howled the place down and had to be taken out [they shot Old Yeller]. My older brothers spent quite a lot of time at the Shafs, it had its own ballroom, later a nightclub, but still with the same name, The Star Light Rooms.

Just before it closed, in 1975, the front ten or so rows of seats were removed so it could be used as a Sikh temple.

above: The Tower. Pic taken in the 70's.

My Aunt took me here quite a lot. The last time I went was when The Poseidon Adventure was a new release! [It's now a nightclub]

above: The Regal, pic taken in the 50's.

The Regal was my local cinema, literally just around the corner from home. Pulled down to build a supermarket which then went on to become the very first ASDA.

above: The Plaza. Pic taken in the 60's.

I only ever went to the plaza once. It showed soft core porn. I went with one of my mates to see "Love in 3D". We were 15 and we tried out damnedest to look 18 [it obviously worked]. It was quite plush inside, nothing at all like I had expected, the seat-backs covered in dry jiz, probably! Anyway, because it was a 3D film, you got the cardboard glasses that gave the 3D effect. The film was poo. What made the day was turning around and seeing loads of "dirty old men", all wearing these cardboard glasses. Reminded me of the album cover below!

Anyway, all of the above cinemas are now long gone. Even the Odeon, Odeon Merrion and the ABC have been pulled down. Leeds is not though without a cinema. It has a couple of "Multi-plex" things, which is a polite way of saying a "cinema" with twenty twelve screens, each with only half a dozen seats.

All of this leads me to Cinema Treasures. It covers the whole world but mostly UK & USA. The link is for the UK pages.