Saturday Morning Pictures, 1940s, 50s and 60s

The excitement and experience of ABC Minors Saturday morning pictures!

First the queue; then the orderly rush into the 'theatre' with its plush seats and impressive, decorated facades. You could feel the growing anticipation: an effectively full Ritz cinema (not the balcony) with hundreds of excited, expectant school kids, all waiting for the performance to begin.

Then the manager addressed us by speaking from the warmly lit stage. Next the lights dimmed, the screen lit-up, the music started, and all of us began singing - or perhaps shouting would be the better word - the ABC Minors song at the top of our voices!

Tony Woods

The song was sung to the sound of a band playing the marching music 'Blaze Away'. The words were as follows (or very similar).

We are the boys and girls well known as
Minors of the ABC
And every Saturday all line up
To see the films we like, and shout aloud with glee
We like to laugh and have a singsong
Such a happy crowd are we.
We're all pals together.
We're minors of the A-B-C.

The final line was shouted at full blast - especially the A-B-C.

I think we sung the verse twice. There weren't any problems remembering the words or keeping time because the text was shown on the screen and a little 'ball' bounced along above the words in time with the music. I have a feeling that, in the beginning, the text and ball must have been white on a black background, but later they became yellow on a green or blue background.

Tony Woods

Entry cost for Saturday morning pictures - 6d

I remember that the cost of the Saturday Morning Pictures was a tanner - ie a sixpence or 6 old pennies.

Tony Woods

When I used to go to Saturday Morning Pictures at the Ritz in Wallsend Upon Tyne, the entry cost was still sixpence, and we used to call the shows the Tanner Rush. The reason speaks for itself.

Kevin Bell

Some children always got in free via the fire exits. They were of course locked to the outside, but if one child in a group would pay to for normal entry, he could nip through and open the exit for his friends - who presumably contributed to his sixpence.

Nick Ford

[The contribution in the next box show that some managers were well-aware of this ruse and used the monitors to prevent it.]

From 1946, I was made a Monitor for the ABC minors at the Ritz Edgware. This enabled me to gain free entrance, thus saving 6d for extra sweets. If it was your birthday you were invited to join the manager on the stage and be cheered by the audience. The manager's name was Mr Dilley, I believe.

Dick Green

I was born in 1954 and from the age of 9 was a regular attendee at my local Ritz ABC Minors Saturday Morning Pictures. This was in my home town of Luton.

When I was about 14, which would have been in the late 1960s, my mate who was about 18 months older than me was promoted from monitor to head monitor, and he got me a job as a monitor. We were the top dogs and after being briefed on my duties I set to work. It was a bit un-nerving to begin with but soon I was in my stride.

One of my tasks was to wait until the show started, then stand in the exit by the toilets because this was when some of the kids would visit the toilet, then open the adjacent fire exit where loads of other kids would pile in free and slowly mingle into the crowds.

Another task involved the ABC Minors Birthday Club. The manager would take to the stage and announce that after the musical intermission anyone who had a birthday that day could come on the stage and be given an ABC Minors badge. Then the stage would be invaded by hundreds of kids who supposedly had a birthday on that day. An organist would rise from a pit in front of the stage and play the organ to play the ABC Minors theme tune. The words were shown on the screen with a red ball bouncing from one word to the next for the kids to follow.

The organ and organist rising up from the pit

All this was under my watchful eye! My task was to scan the hoards and if I spotted someone who had appeared on the stage the previous week to eject them from the stage.

When the head monitor left I was promoted to head monitor, and suddenly I ran the show. I had seven monitors under me, to hand on my wealth of experience to.

Rick Shirran

I used to go to Saturday Morning Pictures at the New Bohemia cinema near Finchley Central. One vivid memory from there was commemorating the death in 1949 of Tommy Handley, the famous radio and cinema comedian. Several hundred youngsters stood respectfully for a full two-minute silence. Today's generation would find it hard to believe!

Pete Mitchell

The Gaumont British song

We come along on Saturday morning
Greeting everybody with a smile.
We come along on Saturday morning
Knowing it is well worth while.
As members of the GB club
We all intend to be
Good citizens when we grow up
and champions of the free.
We come along on Saturday morning
Greeting everybody with a smile, smile, smile.
Greeting everybody with a smile.

John Barton
As remembered from the Wandsworth Palace cinema

The Regal song

At the Saturday Morning Pictures that I went to in the mid-1940s (the Regal Handsworth in Birmingham), we sang a song to the melody of Lilli Marlene. The lyric, as I recall was:

Waiting at the crossing just outside
The policeman's there to be my guide
for I'm a Regal minor
a regal minor am I...

Can anyone remember the rest of the words?

I wonder how many other cinemas went independently song-wise as mine did. Any feedback?

Bill Robbins

The Century Cinema song

In the 1950s my mates and I used to go to Saturday Morning Pictures at the Century Cinema in Stratford in east London, now unfortunately a block of flats.

From memory, the first line of our song was:

We are the Century Rangers little girls and boys. I can’t remember anymore.

The cinema was packed every Saturday. Life was simple in those days for us.

Jim Grimwood

The smell

I particularly remember the smell of bubble gum and girls' cheap scent at Saturday Morning Pictures at the Odeon in Muswell Hill.

David Dobson

The serial that I remember was The Masked Rider. I also remember Will Hay in The Goose Steps Out, where he ties trainee German spies in verbal knots trying to pronounce "the road to Slough is rough".

Pete Mitchell

I regularly attended Saturday Morning Pictures at the Odeon in Muswell Hill. It showed cartoons, Tarzan serials and main pictures, but it was the main pictures (films) that interested me most. I particularly remember the cowboys and Indians and the Cavalry and Indians films in which the Indians were always the baddies. I was probably the ONLY child in the audience who was VERY pro-Indian !

David Dobson

In addition to the singing and cartoons, at Loughton in Essex there were competitions and exhibitions of the latest fads, such as yo-yo and Hula Hoop demonstrations.

Nick Ford

I certainly remember the competitions. This was at the Ritz in Wallsend Upon Tyne.

I particularly remember the manager being on the stage with an expert adult yo-yoist, who probably travelled around the various cinemas, giving demonstrations, inviting volunteers to have a go and judging the contests. The one trick that has stayed in my mind was called 'Walking the Dog'. He demonstrated dropping the yo-yo to the floor and allowing it to spin across the floor before being made to 'climb' back up the string. My attempts, back home, only resulted in a dull thud and the need to manually rewind the string!

Some competitions were announced the week before, so that girls - it always seemed to be girls - could bring their hula-hoops with them for an on-stage contest. The girl who kept the hoop going for longest was the winner.

Kevin Bell

At the ABC Minors Club in North End Road, Fulham in the late 1950s/early 1960s, we watched Merrie Melodies and the usual Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig. Most serials were black and white and American including a rather tubby Batman and aged superman before the days of Lycra. I enjoyed William Tell and the villain Gestler. Batman scared me. The enemy was played by J. Carrol Nash and the subject matter involved a mine and mind control using a sprung metal device worn on the head. We had The Three Stooges and a couple of series featuring a gang of young American individuals who had scary adventures. I believe Mickey Rooney was a child actor in them.

Steve Crooke

At the Regal in Edmonton, Saturday Morning Pictures could be really hectic as we had about 1000 children from about 5 years to 16 years. But it was great fun. At times, though, they used to run riot, although most of the time they were quite well behaved.

Marjorie Daniells
former usherette at the Regal cinema, Edmonton