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| The ARCADIA "Picture Show" at Lidcombe N.S.W.
The
nearest "Picture Show"to our home in Berala was the Arcadia Theatre in
Lidcombe - a slow thirty, or brisk twenty minutes walk away. There was a
regular bus service stopping at the corner of our street, running
between Lidcombe and Regents Park. The trains of course went from
Berala(on the Main Southern Line) just one stop to Lidcombe - but we did
not use them for going to "the pictures". After the show, the bus
waited across the way outside the paper shop ( newsagent) next to the
Post Office and always left packed full.
Mum
and Dad always dressed up to go to "the pictures"and, since it would be
past my bedtime, I was in my pyjamas and dressing gown - quite snug in
the winter! At Interval after the Newsreel , a cartoon or two, and
either a documentary (Lowell Thomas'Travelogues were regulars ( "And so
we say FAREWELL to......") or a C Grade movie , Dad(sometimes with me )
would go out to one of the three "Milk Bars"one on either side of the
"Picture Show" and another across the road - his favourite "The Black
Cat". We would have a milk shake and /or an ice cream and take something
nice back to Mum in the "Picture Show" . The Milk Bars were very
heavily crush-packed at interval, and were no place for a lady!.On odd
occasions my older brother Pat would accompany us. He was thirteen years
older than me, and not much interested in this little kid. The age
difference was so great that I looked up to him at all, though I know I
would have welcomed some greater recognition from him.
The
show always commenced with the National Anthem( this was of course War
time but I believe it had always been so.) That was of course, "God Save
the King"( George VI - Father of the present Queen) the film backing it
presented the rolling sea - everyone knew that Britannia ruled the
waves - or as some wag later said, waived the rules- then the Naval
Ensign was superimposed on the waves and the King's profile brought the
whole to a resounding conclusion. EVERYONE stood! I felt proud and
justified -we were going to beat those baddies!
We
usually sat in the left hand front section toward the back ( come to
think of it we still do that to-day).The second rear section sloped
gently back to the entrance doors from the Foyer. Years later when I
went to "the pictures"on Saturday Afternoons with my mate Brien Dryden (
who lived opposite us) we usually sat in this area on the right hand
side facing the screen.Some kids took advantage of the slope to release
an occasional bounty of "JAFFAS"(Chocolate Balls coated with lurid
Orange coloured glaze) toward the occupants on the flat area below. Most
of the films we saw when the War was on were what we would now so
loftily and superiorly call wartime propaganda. Of course our blokes, or
the Poms or even the Yanks had a tough time , but they ALWAYS came out
on top of those nasty, but slightly ridiculous, Nazies and evil little guys from up North. What
else were you going to show people at risk of invasion? The rush to the
EXIT was bad enough to catch the Bus - Heaven knows what it might become
if people were shown how real the threat was!
My
memories of those evenings at "the pictures"with my dear Mum and Dad
are all fond, safe and happy - the simple joy of the childhood of those
days.
It
was in this same "Picture Show"that young , diminutive and beautiful
Elsie Georgina Beckmann had met smart, good-looking John (Jack) Joseph
Dixon , and had been attracted to him because he had, as she said later,
"kind eyes".
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