"Personalities" (A)
‘Personalities of the Cinema Page’ (A):
Ina Rowe – Studio 1 Heanor:
It’s amazing how time flies by during our lives. While writing this autobiography, I went to see the Ripley and Alfreton Operatic Society Production of ‘Me and My Girl’, and was amazed to learn that it was 1968 when I was working part time at the Ripley ‘Hippodrome’; then called ‘Studio 1’ by ‘Star Cinemas’. We were advertising the stage show on screen, with the aid of a small filmlet that had been specially made.
While at the show I joked with the modern day Sales Lady by asking, “Two ‘Cornetto’s’ please, and are you the same girl that I dated at the Chesterfield ‘Odeon’, back in the sixties?” She laughed, replying, “I wasn’t even born then!” I remember when I once had to sell Ice Cream at the Heanor ‘Empire’, something you NEVER saw men do. It was strictly for females then. Not so in today’s equal society!
Ina Rowe, who was on sales one evening, was a little nervous of some rowdy patrons that were in the stalls, so I went and stood alongside of her, under the spotlight. After five minutes or so, she said to me “Bernard, will you take my tray please?” She handed it over, placing the strap around my neck, and I continued to sell the goods, with a rather embarrassed look. She came back some three minutes later, and asked for the tray back, which pleased me.
When the film resumed, we went back to the foyer, and I asked her “Ina, what happened, was it a call of nature?” She replied “Oh no, it was just that my hearing aid battery suddenly gave out, and I couldn’t hear what they were asking for!” I guess that I never thought about that ever happening before, hearing is something we take for granted. As for myself, well I managed to live the joke down, but for a long time afterwards, I was asked where I had left my tray!
“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
Raymond Carrington – Studio 1 Ripley:
Sometimes when I visit nearby towns, I chance to meet people that I have known from past days, and they reminisce about the old times of the cinema.
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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’:
One of the names that have been mentioned several times is that of Raymond Carrington, who was the Projectionist at the Ripley ‘Hippodrome’, when it was ‘Studio 1’ under the ‘Star Group’.
Raymond was terribly disabled from polio, or a similar illness, which had left his legs and arms, twisted, but didn’t prevent him threading up the projectors in any way. Socially he was the most repulsive person that I have ever met, although he had been married, and had a daughter. It was said that he was having an affair with one of the usherettes that also worked there, but if it was true, I couldn’t understand why, or even what she could have seen in him.
I was prepared to accept him as he was, but he rejected me from the start, because we were both entirely different, in our ways of working, and thinking. There was also Derek Hardy, a somewhat slow person, but he would go and carry the programme on Wednesday and Saturday nights, up to the Projection Box as a favour to Raymond. The box was high on the roof of the building, and access was by steel steps on the outside of the building. Once Raymond went up there at 5pm; he stayed there until the end, about 9.45pm. He smoked heavily, turned up sometimes un-shaven, spit all over the steps, drank at least a pint of red wine each day, and when the need arose; he would open the door and relieve himself all over the outside landing.
In summer the whole of the box stank, and no amount of disinfectant would improve the situation. Due to his disability, I didn’t expect him to go up and down the steel gantry several times each night, so I devised a system which with the aid of plastic drain piping, he could pee into a funnel, which then took his waste to a nearby grate, lessening the terrible aroma. Bill Marr, the Manager, found me useful on the bingo side as a checker, and caller, which Raymond didn’t agree with. However it was great experience for me, and enabled me to expand my talents into yet another field. I stayed at Ripley for just over two years, but I was pleased to see the back of Raymond and his revolting habits. He didn’t live long, and I don’t think he would have been lasted in any other job, everyone there helped him in every way they could, but he was not appreciative, but due to my quick thinking I managed to fool him over one or two things.
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’A Personalities of the Cinema Page’
‘Mister Nice Guy – Jack Rudkin’
Studio 1. – Ripley:
Jack Rudkin was a real nice guy, and well liked in the cinema where he worked in a part time capacity. During the daytime, he worked for the National Coal Board (later British Coal), at one of the local collieries. He helped out whenever there was a vacancy at the Ripley cinema, and I always enjoyed the nights we were on duty together, and I recall several times we changed the front of house ‘Readograph’ board together.
There was one particular time we were about to show a film called ‘A Town Called Bastard’, (aka ‘A Town Called Hell’), which was a British – Spanish Western film starring Matin Landau, Telly Savalas, Robert Shaw, and Stella Stevens. Made in 1971, the public opinion on certain words was just starting to change, and I recall Jack saying to me, as we collected the clip on letters which made up the title, ‘We’re not going to put THAT word up there for everybody to see, are we?’ I replied that as it was the films title, we were, and if people objected, then they would phone in I guess.
On the Saturday evening, before I went on to the bingo, I called him on the phone in the box, and said I was ready to change the Front of House. He still wasn’t happy about THAT word, and opposite at the bus stop, there was a large queue of people, waiting for the bus to Derby. I volunteered to climb the ladder, and started spelling out the film’s title. ‘A – T –O-W-N – C-A-L-L-E-D – B-A-S-T-A-R- , I turned and looked over my shoulder, only to see about sixty people all looking directly at me, thinking it’s not THAT word surely! I looked down at Jack who’s face was a bright red colour, and called out to him: “Jack, this last letter is broken, there’s no clip on the back!” as I climbed down to the floor. (It wasn’t broken; I was prolonging the suspense for those at the bus stop).
We pretended to fiddle about with the letter, slyly glancing across the road as they watched us like hawks watching their prey. After five minutes we decided we couldn’t wait any longer, and I started to climb back up the ladder, to complete the word. I was just about to clip the final word onto the sign, when Jack called to me: “Bernard, there’s a bus coming”, so I stopped what I was about to do. The queue boarded the bus, and they all sat down and still continued to watch.
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The bus roared away with a few still looking back, to see if it really was THAT word, and when it was about a hundred yards down Derby Road, I neatly clicked the ‘D’ in position, and yes, it really made up THAT word!
’Made to Feel Special?
Each year ‘Star Cinemas’ presented awards to Managers who had achieved special targets and good house keeping. They spent thousands of pounds having brochures printed with each nominated manager’s picture published inside; with they awarded at the Leeds Headquarters. All people who were invited to attend were also given handsome identity badges, and an invitation card.
I don’t think that there was a Manager or Manageress who didn’t dread a visit from the Regional Manager, but it kept everyone on their toes. Yearly fire inspections, which were needed to get a Fire Certificate, were a nightmare, but by some miracle the Heanor ‘Empire’ managed to get through.
If everything had been strictly above board, I don’t think the ‘Empire’ should have passed. There was a serious structural fault in the roof area, which had been there since the whole building was damaged by mining subsidence in the late 1930s, and also everywhere in the cinema wanted rewiring electrically. I can recall one evening when it was necessary to leave the house lights half way on, and the dimmer switches got so hot, you could have made toast on them!
If it was necessary to isolate one of the projectors due to some fault, we would find that we could not withdraw the fuse carriers; they were of the old ‘pot’ types which were of high amperage, sometimes you could not touch them for the heat. The emergency lighting was of the old kind. This was switched on manually before the show, and remained on until we all went home at night.
All the cinemas had their own little peculiarities, for instance, the Projection box at the newly refurbished ‘Studio 1’ was rebuilt on a steel gantry; this was fine, except on very windy nights. It was possible to tell when each gust of wind blew, because you could feel the box shake, which in turn would produce a slight shake to the picture showing on the screen!
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