Memories: Ken Favell

I received this wonderful email last week from a Mr Ken Favell, who sent in his memories of the Regal Cinema as well as its predecessor, the Broadway Kinema. Here it is in full (I've polished it a little in places):

I was born in Hemingford, grew up in St Ives and remember the cinema very well. I do recollect going to the old Broadway Kinema as a very young child (5ish) and seeing the last of the old serials. The Kinema was quite highly decorated, mainly pale green I think, with trellis and painted foliage both sides of the screen. There were no restrictions on smoking and since most of the audience did, with no air conditioning, we watched the film through a thick fug - an usherette would go around with a highly scented air spray! The place had a definite unmistakable and unforgettable ambiance of its own.

The door on the right of the screen in the photo led to the toilets and was the rear exit for the cinema, leading out to a passageway to the Broadway... and a cheap way in for young boys when the film had started! 

I do remember the name change to the Regal: early 30s I suppose, but although the general audience appreciated the modernisation - better picture and sound - the décor (as in the picture) was not well liked. All over brown stucco effect, dull and soulless.

We used to have a children's matinee on a Saturday, noisy and unruly partly due to the use of bicycle pumps as weapons which we didn't dare leave on our bikes parked round the back. Only one performance in the evening. The programme usually consisted of a short film, often a western - Gene Autry the singing cowboy and Hopalong Cassidy were the favourites; a cartoon: a travelogue: the newsreel; local adverts; and then the main film, in those days black and white of course. And at the end a mad rush to get out before the National Anthem played, for which we were expected to stand to attention.

Fast forward to 1947. Demobbed from Fleet Air Arm, I worked as service engineer for Charlie Warren who had a small wireless shop on the left of the cinema entrance and a workshop in the old grammar school at the end of the Waits. I was married by then and we had the top flat above the cinema, where in the kitchen at the rear we could hear the soundtrack of the films - quite loudly!