Before colour TV, there was black and white. And before that, there was cinema. It’s surprising how, only weeks or a couple of months after their cinema release, many films today are available on free-to-air or subscription-based TV services. You can watch films in the comfort of your home, but something is missing.
Cinemas offer a more impressive experience with their wide screens and sound turned up so loud, even the deaf can hear. Many casually dressed patrons, relaxed in their seats, made a last-minute decision to visit the cinema because there was nothing much on TV. But something is still missing.
What happened to the excitement and buzz around films and cinema?
Recently, I read a travel blog on the internet with the sub-heading, Bulawayo is Boring. An overnight visitor, looking for a tourist experience, may well think that. For me, growing up in Bulawayo was anything but boring.
My first recollections of movies in Bulawayo started when there were only two cinemas.
The old Princess (Prince’s?) Cinema, aka the bug house, seemed to specialise in horror movies like Them, Tarantula, The Fly, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. I remember sitting there through Shakespeare’s Henry V with Laurence Olivier in the lead role. I don’t think it was a horror movie, but for youngsters like me, the acclaimed film seemed never-ending.
A cut above was Bulawayo’s Palace Cinema—social central, you might say, on the corner of Abercorn Street and 11th Avenue. Crowded Saturday mornings were a hive of activity when kids turned up to watch several cartoons and the ubiquitous cowboy film. A wonderful opportunity to swap comics, transfers, stickers and cigarette cards. Regulars sat on the balcony because the kids below often suffered from sticky sweets or bubble gum, ‘accidentally dropped from above,’ just at the start of the programme.
Aside from Saturday mornings, we all dressed for the cinema. Saturday afternoons, a showcase for teenage cool, and we all wore our best for the night screenings.
The audience usually welcomed the Kayser stockings advert with a loud cheer because it signalled the start of the show on either side of the interval. The trailers, Movietone News, a cartoon or other short film preceded the interval, and the main feature followed. During interval at the night screenings, many young men would buy their date a box of Maltesers and a coke.
A visit to the cinema was an anticipated, special occasion, an exciting night out. The cinemas promoted the coming attractions well in advance with huge colourful posters. The epics offered souvenir programmes for collectors and introduced the intermission part-way through the long feature film. It gave you the chance to visit the toilet and buy more refreshments for yourself and your date. And now that the film had teased your interest, it was also an opportunity to buy a souvenir programme if you hadn’t bought one on arrival.
The Palace Cinema showed the best films. That’s where we saw The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, and Elvis’s first movie, Love Me Tender. Cliff and the Shadows played there.
Then, as Bulawayo’s cinema scene expanded, several other venues opened. The Skyview Drive-in on the Johannesburg Road, a perfect fit for Bulawayo’s climate, added much entertainment for the movie-going set.
The Royal (Kine 600) in Grey Street challenged the Palace Cinema for pre-eminence. Several much-anticipated films, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show, screened there.
Soon after, came the Astor Cinema (Rainbow Elite 400), next door to the Royal. The Monte Carlo, a basement cinema in Fife Street, if I remember correctly. And lastly, the Ascot Centre, with a small cinema in their shopping precinct.
We didn’t have all the technology and other exciting diversions of today. But boy, we had fun!
Today, both the Palace and Royal Cinema are churches. With the possible exception of the Rainbow Elite 400, the others have closed. Ah well! You can’t stop progress.
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