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The Cinephone

Great and interesting clip Terry,
thanks for posting.
Ironic how at the time they were the most modern
and futuristic cinemas, and today most don't exist!
 
In the early 1960's I was the 2nd projectionist at the wonderful Cinephone, I would have the honor or working every weekend when in those days programs finished on Saturday night and the new one started Sunday, if you were a regular patron then you may have met the manager, Mr Ron Caton, he lived in Sutton Coldfield, I did have photos of the projection room on 8mm but they seem to have been lost many years ago. I remember using the coffee bar upstairs a lot, Andre Drucker was the boss and we would have many helpings of beans on toast, and a lot of coffee.
Some of the films I had the pleasure of seeing many times were, Mondo Cane, Diary Of A Nudist, The Nudist Story and many more. The old projectors were BTH Mk 2, becuse of the low roof at the back of the balcony the projectors were sitting on 12 inch wooden feet to clear peoples heads, this meant a bit of a stretch to put the 2000 foot reel of film in the top spool box. Sad to say the old building has gone now but I hade a few good years there full time then part time when I started working at Tucker Fasteners.
Those were very happy days in my teen years and will always remember them. I also put together the above video clip with the Jacey logo, not sure if the colors are right but it is close enough. Thanks for ready this post.
 
Hi
i remember when it first opened and they showed all the racey films.i used to borrow my dads gabadene mac to make
me look older than i was
 
Some of the films shown were not as cracked up to be as advertised, after reading the sub titles you missed the action on the screen, did you ever buy any of the Continental Film Revue magazines, I think there was more in those than on the screen, I remeber the Cinephone painted in horrible green and orange colours, do you remember any of the films you saw there.
Andrew
 
Hi andrew
i cant remember any of the films.the only magazine i can remember about films was the picture goer but now we are into another
type of film
 
Caggyken, dont think youl should have advertisd you used to wear a mac' to the cinema, it sets the ming boggling lol.
 
When I was 'playing the wag' (truant) the Cinephone was my go-to cinema. I would go around the back and wait for someone to come out, put my foot in the door as it closed, go in and sit down. The movies were a bit risque as I remember.
 
Yes I went there a couple of times , I remember the first time I went there . Up to the ticket office said what ticket I wanted after getting that embarrassed the ticket woman lived around the corner from me I nearly died . Then sometime after after reading a bit of splurge about five healthy men from five different cities across the globe fainted while watching this film . I thought to myself phwoar we're in for some good stuff here , in the front door paid for the ticket . The film started what a swizz there was little ole me expecting something raunchy , have a guess what it was about . Hair replacement folks , yes to do with hair taking plugs out of mens scalps and replacing the hair follicles so they could regrow hair
 
Williamstreeter said:
. Hair replacement folks , yes to do with hair taking plugs out of mens scalps and replacing the hair follicles so they could regrow hair
Click to expand...

Hi,

I remember seeing that film at school, - they used to show "educational" films in the lecture
theatre at lunchtime. Like a coring tool, they took round sections of scalp from the receding hairline,
did the same at the back of the head, and then swapped them. Yuk!

Kind regards
Dave
 
The Sunday Mercury on March 15th 1959 was advertising "Summer with Monika" at the Cinephone. This was a Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman (Imgar in the advert). It was a film about "the intimacies of an adult love at a tender age". I wish I had seen it. Showing also was "Twopennyworth of Hope", Italian and only shown on Sunday. While banned on Sunday but shown other days was "Clochemerle", described as the funniest French film ever. The advert is shown below. Dave.
P1000818 (2).JPG
 
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Strange that Monika could get up to any antics she liked on a Sunday, yet Clochemerle was banned. I bet Monika was pretty tame 60 years on compared with the BBC, Channel 4 & Netflix! :p

Maurice :cool:
 
Never saw the film Clochemerle but I remember the 1972 TV series. Have actually been to the village on which the story was based Vaux-en-Beaujolais north of Lyon. It even had a Clochemerle sign on the side of a hill.
 
My only claim to fame at the Cinephone was London in The Raw and a French film titled Angelique loosely based on beauty and the beast . After all that debauchery and embarrassment I decided to return to my clean living lifestyle . Yer, believe that and so on .
 
And God created woman, mon dieu Brigitte je vous aime and then 6 months later in Minden BAOR, saw the original in French with German subtitles, that opened our eyes. The following week we went to see a German film , Die Halbstarken, gosh mother would have been shocked, next stop was the Reeeperbahn in Hamburg, my education was complete. After that the Cinephone was pretty ordinary.
BOB
 
The only films I remember seeing at the Cinephone was a double bill of Straw Dogs and Death Weekend. I think they must have moved to horror films at some point and this was closer to that. I'm surprised that there was any difference between And god created woman between the UK and Germany. It wasn't that strong really. Mind you, most of the censorship cuts on films were matters of seconds and flashes.
 
wam said:
The only films I remember seeing at the Cinephone was a double bill of Straw Dogs and Death Weekend. I think they must have moved to horror films at some point and this was closer to that. I'm surprised that there was any difference between And god created woman between the UK and Germany. It wasn't that strong really. Mind you, most of the censorship cuts on films were matters of seconds and flashes.
Click to expand...
Opening titles UĶ Bardot is clothed, Germany, no clothes. There were other similar differences in the films.
Bob
 
Andrew Hope said:
In the early 1960's I was the 2nd projectionist at the wonderful Cinephone, I would have the honor or working every weekend when in those days programs finished on Saturday night and the new one started Sunday, if you were a regular patron then you may have met the manager, Mr Ron Caton, he lived in Sutton Coldfield, I did have photos of the projection room on 8mm but they seem to have been lost many years ago. I remember using the coffee bar upstairs a lot, Andre Drucker was the boss and we would have many helpings of beans on toast, and a lot of coffee.
Some of the films I had the pleasure of seeing many times were, Mondo Cane, Diary Of A Nudist, The Nudist Story and many more. The old projectors were BTH Mk 2, becuse of the low roof at the back of the balcony the projectors were sitting on 12 inch wooden feet to clear peoples heads, this meant a bit of a stretch to put the 2000 foot reel of film in the top spool box. Sad to say the old building has gone now but I hade a few good years there full time then part time when I started working at Tucker Fasteners.
Those were very happy days in my teen years and will always remember them. I also put together the above video clip with the Jacey logo, not sure if the colors are right but it is close enough. Thanks for ready this post.
Click to expand...
Both my mom and dad worked there in the late 50s . My dad was also a projectonist and my mom also helped out . his name was Thomas Morton , and my mom was Jillian Price . I still have a couple of pictures
 
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