1948 London, England

Pauline van der Vos

1936

Elephant and Castle, London

Interviewed on February 5, 2022

by Marisa Conner

I can still remember the excitement I felt going to see a film for the first time. I was the baby of the family and had not yet been allowed to attend the movie theatre, so I felt very grown-up when my two older sisters, who were already married, surprised me one day to take me to see The Red Shoes. It was 1948 so I was around 12 years old and I can recall walking hand in hand with my sisters towards the brilliant lit-up signs on the exterior of the theatre that made it seem so luxurious and special. We were very lucky in Elephant and Castle as there were two theatres opposite each other that seemed to try and go over the top on their signage in order to draw viewers in. We went to the Trocadero which was ever so grand. I remember there being carpet on the floors and looking up to see ornate architecture on the inside walls. At the back of the theatre, there were double seats. These cost a little extra but it is where boys would take their dates. I remember thinking how fun that looked and how I wanted to go when I was older. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to sit there as your grandad was overseas in the Dutch Army so we never had any dates to the cinema until we were much older.

I cannot remember much about the plot of The Red Shoes but I remember being enamored by the actors and crying at parts as it was a dramatic love story. It was a British film that starred Moira Sheer. Sheer played this elegant ballerina who was the kind of character that young girls and women admired and envied all at the same time. Anton Warlock also starred in the film and I vaguely remember there being some romantic scenes, that again made me feel very grown-up. There was no food or drink allowed inside the theatre, however, in the entrance, there was a small ice cream stand where you could buy a neatly wrapped block of ice cream (similar in appearance to a stick of butter). Although, I do not remember much about the film I do know how ecstatic I was to have finally been inside the theatre and got to see the stars in action.

My first visit instilled a love for the cinema within me. I only lived a 10-minute walk from the Trocadero and after I had been to see The Red Shoes my father allowed me to join a cinema club. A number of my friends from the local primary school joined and every Saturday morning we would go to the theatre to see two films at the expense of a sixpence. It was delightful. In those days there would be an A and a B film which meant our whole morning would be filled with watching the stars perform. There was a short pause in between the two films, but this did not mean the entertainment stopped! At the end of the first film, the stage floor would open up to allow an organ to rise from below. The organ would fill the intermission with wonderful music which is something I miss about the theatre today.

By being in the cinema youth club I was able to see a wide range of films, however, I do recall seeing a lot of westerns as this is what the boys would always be demanding to see. One thing I loved about the cinema is how we were exposed to films set in America, a place I had heard a lot about. I had only been out of London once and that was during the war when I was evacuated to the countryside, so the fact that the theatre showed American films gave us all a glimpse of what life was like in the United States.

Despite how different the experience is today, going to see a new film with my friends and my grandchildren is still so much fun and the magic of the movies has not disappeared yet- even 74 years later!