Hull Cinama`s

What are your memories of Hull cinemas? What did you watch and where?

I don't recall my first cinema experience, but I do remember seeing Bambi, ET, Santa Clause the Movie and many more with my father.

We used to go to Cecil, and I remember standing in the line waiting to file past the picture of John Wayne to go into the cinema.

I also remember dad taking me to see Masters of the Universe at ABC, although I don't remember much of the cinema.

One of my fondest memories was watching one of the Batman films with dad, who fell asleep during the showing, only to wake up afterwards and say "I enjoyed that!"

Oh Mike, I forget how young you are. My eldest daughter is just a bit older than you and the first film we took her to see was E.T. at ABC. She was 4 and she sobbed so much my Mums coat had a huge wet patch . Having said that I think it`s my favourite film of all time.

That movie still touches me. I sat with the children recently and watched it, and they really enjoyed it, but for some reason my wife hates it. I recently did the history for the Cecil Cinema, Tower Cinema, Regal Cinema, Savoy Cinema, and Regent. Hull had so many cinemas, it's a real shame to see that most have them have gone.

I remember the first film at he Cecil.Seven Year Itch with Marelin Monrow.There was only one main film on,and there was a band playing before the main film

Ha ha ha I must have seen dozens of films at the Cecil but the one time that sticks in my mind, I can`t remember what film it was. Sometime in the early seventies I took my middle brother to Cecil soon after it had been refurbished. As we got to the top of the aisle both my feet slipped on the new carpet and I landed with loud humph on my bum. My brother sat in the nearest seat and mumbled " I`m not with you".

Did anyone ever go to The Berkley on Greenwich Avenue? Just out of interest, where there any other 'estate' cinemas in Hull?

I wonder how many people on here realise how many cinemas there were in Hull in the middle of last century. Almost every district had at least one cinema and very often more than one. My first job when I left school in 1955 at the age of 15 was at The Strand Cinema on Beverley Road as a trainee projectionist and I was paid the princely sum of £1.25 (that was one pound five shillings). I was offered another 25p to move to The Tower and did so after a month. The most popular films then were Dean Martin and Gerry Lewis films and I seem to remember that romantic comedies were all the rage as well. Simple times.

I think Willow was the first film i saw in a popcorn house. A'm a film buff these days when the time is there.

Saturday morning ABC, they forced you to stay and stand to the national anthem,when there was far more important things to do,like playing out.

I remember both regent and tower turning into fleapits for the dirty mac brigade.

Savoy Cinema was on Holderness-road, where Boyes is today. It's weird to think that such a cinema was in such a location. Morrill-street, and Sherburn-street aso had cinemas.

I remember going to see Young Guns 2 at cinema for my 12th birthday, my sister took me, and I remember a tramp asleep laid out at the back!

FOZZ wrote:

I remember both regent and tower turning into fleapits for the dirty mac brigade.

Amazing how most of these cinemas made the perfect bingo hall,and diddnt most of them keep their old names,like cecil bingo,langham bingo ect

Cecil already had a smaller room for Bingo, and for many years it advertised as Cecil Film theatre, and Cecil Bingo Hall. Then, after the sale of the cinema, it became the Cecil Bingo.

When Cecil was first opened it had just one large screen, called Screen 1, then in later years this was split in half, to form Screen 1 and Screen 2, then Screen 2 was split further to create Screen 2 and Screen 3.

The cinema was also the first in Hull to hold a license for food and drink and had both a bar and restaraunt. Sadly the 100 seater eatery failed to take off, and this was turned into the small bingo hall mentioned above.

Diddnt ABC open multiple cinemas too,ill bet they would have been realy shocked if they could have had a glimpse into their futures.apart from bingo,there was the invention of the old beetamax,the vcr,and dvds,pirated films,and now pcs,whatever next.

FOZZ wrote:

I remember both regent and tower turning into fleapits for the dirty mac brigade.

Trust you to remember those places, Steve.
I too remember Tower and Regent becoming a little sleazy, although that was mostly Regent. The Tower when I worked there in the 50s was still fairly family oriented. They used to show romantic comedies with stars like Doris Day and Clark Gable and such like. However I do remember that the "naughty" films were shown mostly at The Princes Theatre near Queens Gardens.

Trev, the only other estate cinema I can think of is Rex on NHE.

Estate cinemas were the Rex on Endike Lane serving North Hull estate.The Regis was on Hessle Road seving Gypsyville and Askew Avenue estate.The Royaly was on Southcotes Lane serving Bilton Grange estate.
Quiz What was the largest cinema in Hull with a capacity of 2,800,and which was the smallest with a capacity of 700 and closed in 1960

I used to go to Monica on Newland Ave, now piperclub, and I paid 3d and had to earn it by taking lemonade bottles back to the shop,lol. OMG how old am I?

Sometime in the early 70`s, a boyfriend took me to see Bonnie And Clyde at the Regent. It was already a bit of a flea pit but you don`t care when you`re young do you? Halfway through the film, out the corner of my eye, I noticed a cat walking down our row of seats. I lifted my legs up to let it pass and told my boyfriend. He just said something about it being there to catch the rats and mice. That was it, I spent the rest of the film with my legs perched on the seat in front glancing around for wayward rodents.

like your story about The Regent, Tigerlily. But I really think you were worrying about the wrong sort of rodent. It was the two legged rats in mucky raincoats that were the real predators in the sleazier cinemas in those days.

I always enjoyed the Tower.It was wider than it was long.Stopped after one film late at night because it was the first in Hull to have stereophonic sound,and a test film was shown.My dad knew the manager and only a few were allowed to hear that test.What a treat for a young lad then
Regent was a long thin cinema with only five rows of seats in the balcony,some of which were double seats.
saw Last Tango in Paris there.It was packed.The film was rubbish.But see more on TV these days! Also went to the Stand on Beverley Road once to see a nudist film.It was packed out.Rubbish about nudists playing vollyball,and lots of bouncing balls!And don't forget about getting in to some cinemas free if you brought a jam jar.

Alan I was about 16 or 17 then and was very naive, I don`t think I knew about dirty old men in raincoats. Do now though

Oh, Tigerlily, how times have changed. Nowadays girls of 16 or 17 know more about men with mucky raincoats than is good for them. mind you nowadays they are only interested in the ones with plenty of cash which rules out the majority of the mucky mac brigade. I seem to be wearing my cynical head today, Tiger

I gave my old mac to a charity shop.