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An Unusual Cinema Experience 馃摻

andy4475Posted for Everyone to comment on, 3 years ago3 min read

Before I start with this article I just want to make it clear that this is NOT a "Film Review" as such, but it is related to the Cinema. A short personal story of my true life experiences from many years ago. In fact, the late seventies in England, United Kingdom.

The Cinema mentioned in my story was located in Balham, South London. It was the "first" and "last" time that I ever saw and heard a working Cinema Wurlitzer. As far as I am aware these wonderful instruments were imported and not made here in my Country. There were very popular in almost all Cinemas just after Word War 2.

Today you can only see them in Museums, quite sad really. As they are an important part of English Cinematic history in my opinion. The Organist would suddenly appear from below the stage playing music (usually classical) then sink back below the stage after playing a few songs. Then the Movie would start...

Cinema-Screen-Shot-2021.png

The above Image is just a Screen Shot from Wiki (link below) that I edited in my Photoshop Software to improve the clarity somewhat.

Original Image Source: [here]

You can read more Technical Information about the various UK "Theatre Organs" from the Wikipedia Website [here]

Now on with my Cinema story...

We always parked the car down a side road as close to the Cinema as possible, and then walked to the Cinema entrance. As this was a very late night special showing of multiple "Vampire" Movies, we came out very late at about 2:00 AM. This was often the case for the "late night" showings, being screened from about 10:00PM until 3:00 AM in the morning on a Friday Night.

Anyway, this particular night when we got back to the car after the main feature films had finished. I turned the key in the ignition, but there was no response. I'm not a Car Mechanic but I very quickly worked out the reason why: Stupidly I left the car "side lights" on while we were in the Cinema.

So what to do now? I was not a member of any Automobile Associations or had any Car breakdown cover. My Girlfriend at that time said she would not phone anyone as family would be sleeping. So we decided to sleep in the car, and phone for help from a Phone Box in the morning. Spending the night in October was not a pleasant experience I can tell you... Freezing cold with no working car heater!

Next morning we were towed home by my Girlfriend's Brother, all very embarrassing really to be honest. However, I can laugh about it now, but not at the time...

A most memorable "Movie Night" experience indeed!
Many thanks for your kind attention, I hope you enjoyed my story ...

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