Wigan Album

Dtease, which one was known as the "FLEA PIT" was it the "Empress" or the "Princes" ?. I saw John Wayne or was it Alan Ladd kill a thousand Indians back in the 50s at the flicks, they were the days !.

Just to think I can remember five cinema's in wigan town center in the 60s, now there are none.

You know what JJP, I don’t think I ever went in the Princes. I certainly went in all the others, The Ritz, the Empire, the Court Cinema ,the County, the Pavilion, the Palace. The Empire was a bit rough that’s for sure. With the Empire it was wise to go upstairs, if you sat down below you never knew what might land on your head. If it felt wet you were entitled to fear the worst.
The Ritz was the best though, big screen, plush seats and the lady with the tray who came down the aisle selling goodies. What’s more, unlike today it didn’t cost you an arm and a leg to get in .

I'm sure the Palace was known as the flea pit..I went once and that was enough.

Maureen, they had a Bouncer at the Palace who’s main job was to stop us kids running riot, but every now and then he would come round with one of those hand pumped Flit sprays. It’s debatable if he was trying to get rid of the fleas or us kids.

Owd Viewer I can remember 7 . Ritz County Court Princes Empire Pavilion and Palace.

DTease..I'm more than sure it wouldn't have been you..just the other little varmints lol.

Who remembers George, the bouncer/doorman at The Pavilion? Each side of the screen The Pav, as it was commonly known, had a massive painting of a galleon.

I remember a tall, thin chap wearing a flat cap. But the place stank to man's height - so I always hurried past quick.....

No one remembers the Canada Pictures in Crompton Street,now the Little Theatre
I remember the Ritz opening & seeing Gone With the Wind,which I found too long & boring

The Pavilion had double seats at the back but of little use to an eight years old watching Abbot & Costello

My Dad used to be the projectionist at Canada pictures,and that's where he met my Mam when she was sixteen and he was nineteen.

When you sat upstairs it was like sitting on the side of a mountain, didn't go very often.

Scholes picture house, does anyone remember that ?. I was about five years old when I went with my favourite aunty to watch James Stewart in a film called "Winchester 73" or something like that. My mother told me that as a little girl she often went to the Scholes Picture House, the kids got in for free if the brought empty jam jars with them.

Up to being a teenager it was Scholes Pictures for me - it's the one I remember most. More memories stand out from there than any others. It wasn't even a 'flea pit' it was quite smart with the red plush seats. The wooden 'threepenny' seats at the front, that made your neck ache looking up, was reserved for the kid's Saturday afternoon viewing. I won't mention the films as all of us of a certain age remember them more than any others....above all the queues down the side until the door opened and all the pushing and shoving from kids who couldn't wait to get inside. I can see the owd chap in charge and his female accomplice in her maroon overall trying to keep order without much success - I bet they could have told some tales themselves.

DTease: I wonder how many who may have been tipsy, thought about giving that frog on the shutters a big smacker, and having a wish!

The glory days of going to the cinema and going to the flicks and watching your larger than life, all American film star. Now these days it's soulless multiplexi's with zero charm. And the last time I went the flicks there were CCTV cameras, so now you can't even sit and watch a film without Big Brother watching you. What's the excuse for this?.

When I was about fifteen, or sixteen. I took a date to the Palace. Going to the paybox, ,at the top of that long covered entrance, I was just bout to pay for two front stall seats. My date said “ My mother dosen’t like me going into the front”. I then said. “ One ticket please”. Whether she went into the back stall, I have no idea. My spending money was only five shillings.(25p).

I love that, nice one Albert S.

That's nearly as good as the 'brandy and babysham' date Albert...in the Cherry Gardens ...;@))

Veronica. I remember having, in a few weeks, managed to save enough from my five shilling to allow it to materialise into a ten shilling note. I sat in the front room with the ten shilling note on the floor, in front of me, being full of glee, that I was so rich. 1949/50.

Saturday and Sunday night, I babysat for 5shillings for neighbours around the corner who went to the Harp on Vauxhall Rd for a couple of hours. I squirreled the money away every week - it would be 1958 - it was a King's ransom to me Albert, besides taking bottles back!

Veronica and Albert - your comments remind me of the time I ended up with a ten bob note, just before I was due to go on a school trip.
I thought I was Rothschild.
Come the morning of the trip, my mother took the note from me, and replaced it with 10/- worth of shillings, sixpences, and threepenny bits.
By way of explanation for this action, she told me I was gormless enough to lose the banknote before I had gone the length of the street, and failing that, I might end up getting short changed by an unscrupulous shopkeeper.
She was always a sound judge of character!

Mick L D Mothers’ always know best, and more often than not, on the ball. So are wives’, for that matter.

comment to JJP, there are 2 pictures of Scholes picture house on this site ( in places )

JPP. The Atherton’s that owned the Scholes Cinema, also owned the Regal, in Lower Ince. I believe it was the son that owned the Regal.