Looking Back

The Cinema House, Barker's Pool, opened May 1913 and closed in August 1961. The Cinema House was demolished later that year.

If the film classification was an A, meaning children had to be accompanied by an adult, you could go up to a complete stranger and say: “Can you take us in with you mister?”

The child would give the adult a tanner for their ticket, the adult would purchase them, and in order to establishment relationship, sit with the child all through the film. Unbelievable!

Of all the things exported to us from the States, the western movie was up there at the top.

How many of you remember ‘Get offa yer horse and drink yer milk!’ or shouted, ‘drop yer gun Kincaid’? Cowboy heroes were many and varied then, but were usually men’s men, pitting their wit against villainous characters like wily Indians and an unforgiving landscape.

Monica Dyson portrait. Picture Scott Merrylees

In Sheffield every Saturday morning, scores of children queued outside the Ritz, Star, Plaza, Essoldo and Forum and many more in a time when there seemed to be a cinema in walking district of every home.

Eyes like saucers would follow the escapades of the Lone Ranger with his horse Silver, trusted friend Tonto with Scout, Hopalong Cassidy with Topper, Roy Rogers and Trigger or Gene Autry with Champion. The moment when the Lone Ranger shouted, ‘Hi Ho Silver’ and rode off into the sunset to the strains of the ‘William Tell Overture’, was indelibly stamped into young minds for ever.

Saturday morning film shows were a great time for children to let off steam. The manager of the cinema would sometimes stop the film halfway through to threaten children who were behaving badly.

Everyone stood at the end for the National Anthem which depicted the Queen on her horse at the Trooping the Colour.

Studio 7 Cinema, The Wicker, Sheffield, pictured in 1968. Originally the Wicker Picture House which opened in 1920. The cinema finally closed in 1987 and was demolished.

The cinema manager Uncle Bernard, at Stocksbridge Palace Cinema, stood by the side of the screen and pretended to pat the horse. When the picture zoomed up to show the Queen in close-up, he was patting part of the Queens anatomy, provoking laughter. Everyone looked forward to this little Saturday morning comic routine!

The most popular cowboy was John Wayne. He never made the transition successfully to any other kind of film as can be remembered when he played a centurion in ’The Greatest Story Ever Told’ and uttered the immortal words ‘He truly wars the son of Gawd!’

Director George Stevens told him to say the words with awe. So Wayne said ‘ Awww, he truly wars the son of Gawd!’

Unfortunately with Westerns came stereotyping of the American Indian. The cowboy would always be the good guy with the Indian ending up being chased and shot. Many early films portray the Native Americans as savages and murderers whose sole aim was to kill or kidnap women or children. The only ‘good’ Indian in early western films was Tonto the Lone Rangers side kick. However, he was always depicted as less intelligent than his boss.

Wayne’s private views gave rise to concern.

A proposed yearly ‘John Wayne Day’ was rejected at Congress because of his remarks supporting white supremacy and the selfishness of Native Americans in wanting to keep land for themselves.

Given the bigot that he was, I wonder what he would have made of ‘Brokeback Mountain!’