Remember Saturday Matinees at the pictures?

[old man emu]

Turn out the lights! Draw back the screen curtain! Keep a firm hold on your Jaffas. It's time to go back and watch again those B-Grade movies that enthralled us on Saturday afternoons.

 

https://www.youtube.com/@CultCinemaClassics

[red750]

Don't remember many, but a favorite was Hopalong Cassidy.

 

[pmccarthy]

Jungle Jim was good. Also The Perils of the Royal Mounties.

[red750]

And of course, the Three Stooges and all the cartoons. Common Saturday afternoon fare in Warragul and Deniliquin.

 

Did other cities have newsreel theatrettes like Melbourne? There were 3 or 4 downstairs theatretttes where Movietone and Pathe News newsreels, and cartoons played on a loop, before TV's became common. Some played feature films. I remember seeing the first James Bond movie, Dr No, in one of those. Nowadays, if they still exist, they are most likely porn shows, with porn movies and sometimes strippers. Haven't been into the CBD for more than 12 years.

[facthunter]

Why would you go to the Movies if you had a motorbike to fix or a model plane to fly or a boat to sail or go body surfing, bushwalking etc.?  Nev

[red750]

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Why would you go to the Movies

I wasn't quite 18, didn't have a car, licence, bike etc., and lived at the YMCA Monday to Friday. Hitch-hiked home to the bush at weekends.

[onetrack]

I spent all my spare time as a callow youth hanging out with mates, riding our pushbikes everywhere, getting into mischief as much as possible, building home-made canoes to float on swamps and in the River, setting up motorists at the evenings, with a wrapped-up cardboard box laying in the middle of the street with a string attached.

One of us would lie in the long grass of a nearby vacant block and pull the box off the road, while we killed ourselves laughing at the motorist and sometimes his passengers, searching for the now non-existent "lost parcel". Most times, we gave ourselves away with giggling.

If it was hot, we were often swimming in the River. We didn't have any money for movies. The old man pulled in about 18 quid a week as a resident painter and interior decorator in the Palace Hotel in central Perth, so money was always tight.

[pmccarthy]

We went to the flicks most Saturday mornings in Leeton when I was nine. A cartoon and a couple of serials, maybe a Three Stooges. It cost a shilling I think.

[old man emu]

8 hours ago, facthunter said:

Why would you go to the Movies if you had a motorbike to fix or a model plane to fly or a boat to sail or go body surfing, bushwalking etc.?  Nev

But going to the Saturday Matinee was simple one part of a very busy lifestyle. From 1:00pm to 5:00pm is only four hours out of a week when more time was indeed spent doing physical stuff nd simply messing about. Saturday mornings playing sport. Sundays out with your mates. 

[willedoo]

Sounds like a busy life growing up in a town or city. I don't remember going to the movies as a kid; they were a long way away. Watched plenty on TV though after we got the power on. 240 volt power, that is. Before that we had a 32V generator run by a Southern Cross single cylinder diesel with a 32 to 240V inverter. It wasn't viable to watch a movie during the day as the power plant had to be running.

Edited February 10, 2023 by willedoo

[nomadpete]

Me too. Movies were an exotic luxury where I grew up. I recall falling asleep in the back of the car at the drive-in which was the closest 'theatre'.

My greatest childhood asset was dad's old bicycle. Lots of riding far and wide on dusty gravel roads in western suburbs of Sydney.

We were the second family in our street to get a TV and it was sometimes turned on several nights a week! Probably a practice that would have benefitted my own children.

[red750]

Although TV's had been around since my early high school days, we didn't have one until a few years after I started work, and was able to rent a 19 in B&W Singer TV (the sewing machine company). Before that we used to visit neighbours or go to a cafe down the road. For the first few years of marriage, we only had the B&W portable TV my wife had.

[facthunter]

There never was one in the house I grew up in. OR a fridge or washing machine or car before I was in my teens. OR Phone ever.. I think we just might have been a bit poor and I didn't realise it.  Nev

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, red750 said:

For the first few years of marriage, we only had the B&W portable TV my wife had.

I bet that was a shock for the obstetrician.

[red750]

Ha Ha.

[willedoo]

Kids are very adaptable. In our day we didn't have the distractions of electronic devices, but were never bored. Improvisation is always there, and you see it in third world countries especially, where a group of kids only need a stick and a stone to make a game of it. Same with growing up in the country; you don't have movie theatres and weekend sport and other facilities, but plenty of horses to ride and yabbies to catch. Riding poddies in the yards at mustering time was always a big hit. There's always something adventurous to do. Cubbies are universal world wide. Doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, rural or urban, all you need is the time and materials. It's hard to visualise it now with all the electronic gadgets in our lives, but back then, we didn't miss what we didn't know.

[Marty_d]

Kids still are.  Yes, they'll happily turn into vegetables if you give them endless screen time, but if you manage it they amuse themselves.

This morning I went into the lounge room and two of them, who usually fight like cat and dog, are sitting together doing a jigsaw puzzle.  When the middle one doesn't have his device he's outside carving and shaping wooden swords (which is great, except he doesn't always remember to put my tools back!)

They still make cubbies too.

[old man emu]

57 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

, except he doesn't always remember to put my tools back!)

For some reason the gene located on the Y-Chromosome for the ability to put tools back where they came from can only express itself in the carrier in Generation 1 after the carrier in Generation 1 has passed it on to Generation 2, where it lies dormant until being passed on to Generation 3.

[rgmwa]

I never had to worry about where my tools were. They were all over at my son's place.

[old man emu]

12 hours ago, rgmwa said:

They were all over at my son's place.

On the Planet of the Lost Axes.

[spacesailor]

I Found, one of my screwdrivers stabbed into the lawn were ' Grandie '  had played with it.  ( teenager ).

spacesailor