Ooh,
I'm on a roll today, a letter in the local paper gave me a mojor flashback to ANOTHER time when i was a kid, it revolved around the summer holidays and the local open air movie theatre, this was heritage listed but is now sadly knocked down, your not going to let a little bit of paper stand in they way of progress are you?
I'm gonna have to bring these blogs up to the present day pretty soon, all this remenicing(sp) is making me feel old(er) :-)
Burrill theatre holds some of
the most vivid memories of my childhood, every summer
my family would up stakes and camp at Bungalow park
for five weeks.
Each night from our tent you would watch the
procession of people heading to the theatre, all
walking zombie like, as if extras from the movie 'The
night of the living dead', the veteran Burrill movie
theatre patrons could be spotted as they carried
pillows with them to cushion their vulnerable
posteriors from the abrasive canvas seats and to stop
themselves being concussed as they reclinded their
heads back onto the 3 inch plumbing pipe that held the
backs of the seats up.
The real smarties in the crowd also brought aerogard
spray to keep the mozzies at bay, it was not unusual
to hear the slapping of ankles and arms then a call of
'Pass the aerogard!'
How i envied the posh people who had their canvas deck
chair seats reserved by having a piece of timber
padded with a dark mustard vinyl covering placed along
the seating.
I remember the first time my dad took me to see a film
there, it looked pretty rough from the outside with
just corrugated walls, but when we walked into the
foyer i thought 'How swish!' they had a candy bar, and
i seem to remember red curtains, a man stood at the
entrance to the theatre in a suit with a bow tie!, he
took our tickets and pulled the red curtain across for
us to enter, i remember looking up at dad with a look
of shock when we were greeted by the sight of the tin
walls, lampost support pillars, a VERY rough cement
floor that petered out to a dirt trail AND the
(in)famous seats, as i sort of described before the
seating consisted of wood posts at either end of a
long row, the front post lower than the back, canvas
was stitched around plumbing pipe that ran across the
posts so it was like a long line of deck chairs.
Being exposed to the elements (did i mention that this
theatre only had about a third of the seats under
cover?, the rest was down the front in the open air)
the canvas seating, and especially the stitching would
become weakend, without a word of a lie i remember
watching a war movie with my dad one night and we
heard what sounded like someones pants tearing, only
to have the seat in front of my dad give way as the
top stitching split, the lady in the seat fell strait
backwards and her head landed in my fathers lap!.
We were always treated and sat in the undercover part,
quite often it would start to rain in the middle of
the movie and you would laugh and think 'Suckers!' as
the crowd down the front fled up the isle to sit on
the cement floor.
I recall watching 'Romancing the stone' and 'Give my
regards to Broadstreet' in the summer of 1984/5,
probably the last time i went to theatre, i remember a
scene in 'Romancing the stone' where they were in the
arid desert and from outside the theatre came a flock
of seagulls drawn to the light and danced and swooped
in front of the screen, it was quite surreal. I dont
think it was uncommon for seagulls to crash into the
screen, they would be drawn to the light and the on
screen scenery that looked like the daylight outdoors.
Whenever it was time for a new movie the octagonal
film containers covered in stickers would be left
outside the shop on the main road to be picked up,
again such vivid memories.
One thing that held a special facination for me (no
idea why, maybe it was the seeds of my future movie
poster collecting hobby being sown) but i always loved
the day when the people would come around and paste up
the new posters of the forthcoming features, i
remember
they were pasted up onto blank squares of tin, outside
the shop they had a special frame and board to paste
them on, but in the camp ground the tin was nailed up
between two tree's just near the amenities block.
I couldnt wait for the poster person to come along
with there tin pot of glue (probably cornflour and
water) and big wide brush and slap the goo over the
old poster, lay over the new one then apply another
coat of the clear paste, by the end of the summer
these posters would be about half an inch thick with
all the layered posters, i can still smell the paste,
and i loved going over to them after it had rained and
poking my finger into them as they were like a big
gooey sponge (i was only a child remember ha ha) i do
remember one movie poster being for Ringo Starrs
'Blindman' a spaggetti western, i've since purchased
that poster.
I suppose it had to be torn down tho, i mean they dont make waterproof digital 5.1 theatre surround sound sytems do they?.
The Tingler xoxo
