Description Summary | Glennys was brought up in Mt Albert where she lived until she got married. Glennys talks about her experiences of going to pictures at the Deluxe Picture Theatre in Mt Albert from the 1940s to the late 1950s. She began regularly going to matinees there at a young age. She also talks about her parents regularly going to Saturday evening pictures shows at the Deluxe. Glennys describes the Deluxe Theatre and gives details of the content of the programme at a show: the serials, cartoons, news reels, and the interval, as well as the main features. She talks about the audiences, the clothes they wore, and how people were influenced by the movies and the stars in them. She talks about the kinds of movies (westerns, musicals and ones with “happy endings”) and about the ones she preferred.
She went with her brother to city theatres in the late 1940s: mostly Charlie Chaplin. They went to the Roxy (lower Queen Street), and the St James. Glennys talks about her brother going to see news reels about concentration camps after the war.
At an older age she went to city theatres: the Mercury (1960s). Glennys talks about young dating couples going to the pictures. She recalls Clark Gable and Jean Simmons were popular stars.
Glennys talks about the Civic as being a special place and describes how it was then. She compares the shows with that at the Deluxe. She talks about “Brigadoon” as standing out among the first colour movies she saw, as well as other late 1950s and 1960s films with stars such as Marilyn Munro movies. She recalls seeing “Star Wars” at the St James. |