Wartime Cinema

Bill

"The cinemas closed for the first few days of the war, but then opened again. They were closed for a week but then the government realised they needed to keep them open for morale purposes and stop people flocking to the pubs instead."

Betty

"The ODEON was very nice. Didn't last long. Bombed out. It came back after the war, in 1950. You sat through the air raids. You'd paid your money so you were going to have your money's worth. Never thought about changing seats to where it might be safer. Our attitude was 'What is to be, will be'."

Bill

"Most of the time it came up on the screen if you wanted to go to an air raid shelter. Most people really ignored it."

Dorothy

"They put a slide up on the screen during an air raid, 'Those wishing to leave may do so but the programme will continue.' They usually stayed and if it was still raging, the usherettes, rather than go home at half past ten at night, we used to just go down into the intake room - that's where all the light switches and knobs and things are – and we used to put palliases on the floor and just lay there until it was all over. They were given the choice of leaving or staying but the majority decided they were just as safe as walking the streets. Big pieces of shrapnel used to fall and you could get injured with shrapnel."

Reg

"Of course, the war had some effect on the cinemas. The Rex in Lewisham got bombed. I was in there the night it actually happened in 1945. One came down next door. It didn't do it a lot of good. We were told that, 'An air aid is in progress.' Some it was a slide on the screen, others had a permanent illuminated sign - that lit up. You could stay or go. If you went, you didn't get your money back. You were safer where you were."

Ronald

"For me I was in the army – 1940. I saw a film every day – every night. They put a different film every night in the army. So I saw 5 films every week. God knows what they were. Horrible things – all American of course."

Peggy

"You felt as though you really knew what was going on when you saw the newsreels. It wouldn't have been much if they'd left that out."

Bill

"The news was one of the main elements of the programme. It was a bit later than the newspapers, of course, but it was the only way of seeing – visually – what was going on. And most people round Deptford couldn't read!"