GOLDEN AGE OF SILVER SCREEN
THE show went on at Slaithwaite’s Winston Cinema while World War II was at its height in 1943. A souvenir programme for July and August of that year urged patrons to get The Winston Habit so they didn’t have to leave the district for Good Entertainment.
Price of admission was 9d, 1s, 1/6 and 1/9, when a shilling was worth 5p in today’s money. Seats could be booked only if you went to the box office in person, while “a telephone will be installed as soon as conditions will allow.”
Films to be shown in the weeks ahead were Judy Garland in For Me And My Gal, Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan in Desperate Journey, Arthur Askey in Miss London Ltd, and the star-studded Tales Of Manhattan. I wonder what the good people of Slawit made of that?
The cinema survived the war but closed in 1958. Two years before, Huddersfield and district had 21 cinemas as the golden age of movie-going began to come to an end.
The list has been used before but is worth using again:
They were Picture House in Ramsden Street; Majestic in Viaduct Street; The New Savoy at Marsh; Premier at Paddock Head; Curzon in Buxton Road; The Grand in Manchester Road; The Plaza in Thornton Lodge; Excelda at Lockwood; Milnsbridge Palace; the Lyceum and the Regal in Moldgreen; Rialto at Sheepridge; Lounge at Newsome Road; Tudor in Ramsden Street; Princess, Northumberland Street; The Empire in John William Street; The Ritz in Market Street; The Waterloo in Wakefield Road; Cosy Nook Cinema at Milnsbridge; The Winston at Slaithwaite; and the Alhambra, Meltham. Plus The Ritz at Elland, The Albert in Brighouse and The Vale in Mirfield.