Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Babes in Toyland had me in wonderland as a youngster
You know a film is special when you go to see it on more than one occasion – but how about six times?
That’s the movie magic I enjoyed at the old Pavilion cinema in Airdrie back in 1961 when I feverishly scampered along to see Disney’s Babes In Toyland.
The film was adapted from an operetta by Irish composer Victor Herbert.
It was first performed on the stage in 1903, with a film version starring the immortal team of Laurel and Hardy released in November 1934.
Babes in Toyland was a Christmas-themed musical extravaganza based on classic Mother Goose nursery rhyme characters that held special appeal for Disney.
In remaining faithful to the original stage production, the Disney version has a theatrical style opening.
Mother Goose and Sylvester the puppet appear spotlighted in front of a blue theatre curtain telling the viewer to “put on your best smile, set free your imagination, and come with us to Mother Goose Village”.
The curtains part to reveal a fabulous studio set where we follow the adventures of Tom Piper and Mary Contrary who fall victims to the dastardly deeds of the villain Barnaby, before the curtains close on a happy ending.
Heading to the cinema in Airdrie at the time held a great sense of occasion and anticipation as “going to the pictures” was a massive event for all the family.
The Pavilion was a warm and comfortable cinema with multi-coloured atmospheric footlights on the stage that lit up the curtain.
When they dimmed to blue, that meant the show was about to start.
I saw all six performances of Babes In Toyland screened at
The Pavilion – and on the final night, I was privileged to receive a poster from the movie, which I subsequently pinned to the door of my granny’s house and, in a flash of childhood fantasy and innocent trickery, told my pals that Babes In Toyland was on in the house – and it was a penny to come in and watch it!
“We want our penny back”, the kids demanded, realising that, in reality, your’s truly was acting out the movie.
All admission prices were cheerfully refunded.
One day when I was ranting and raving about the great Babes In Toyland to Miss Ross, my teacher at Tollbrae Primary School, she asked if I would sing one of the songs from the film.
When I was belting out Castle
In Spain, the girls in the class began to cower and cringe when I sang the line, “surely you must agree that it makes your head whirl to be marrying me, you lucky girl!”
It’s a shame many won’t get to sample the same emotional cinema-related memories in Monklands.
The Showcase cinema in Barrbridge leisure centre is an impressive modern cinema – and isn’t a million miles away from Airdrie and Coatbridge – but I miss the days where both towns were home to cinemas of their own.
Apart from the building that housed the ABC cinema in Coatbridge – now a shadow of its former self – sadly all of the former cinemas have long since vanished, with the Pavilion being demolished in 1973.
But the picture houses and the incredible memories and entertainment that they brought to the masses are no doubt cherished by many readers.
Film was an escape for me when I was a kid as my mum Martha was a widow raising three children on a £5-a-week pension.
A sixpence is all we kids required to enjoy the fantastic Saturday morning matinee at the Pavilion.
Film historian Robert Youngson said it best when he commented: “Progress does not necessarily mean that things get any better.”