Coventry Cinemas

I miswrote myself. I meant to write Barbara Stanwyck, but it came out as Stanwick. With regard to your question - yes, our hero's mother did want him to keep away from boxing, and focus exclusively on his violin-playing.

I believe you may be mistaken here, Wearethemods. The "building" in THE TOWERING INFERNO was a product of the special effects department, shown in long shots of the San Francisco (not New York) skyline. San Francisco was where the film was set. It was a thing of cardboard, paint and imagination, but it was not a real building. The film was shot in in various locations in southern California, but the setting certainly was San Francisco. With respect to the "building", there are those who claim the building was seen to wobble in the long shots I have cited herein. Seemingly, the effects were not all that special. There is no building anywhere that served as the setting for THE TOWERING INFERNO. The building you passed in New York, and I imagine it had loads of concrete and glass, may have looked like the fake of the mid-70s, but I am sure what you saw on Thursday was real. Incidentally, the "building" was supposed to be 1800ft high, which would have made it the tallest structure of its day in the world. I have not been able to determine the height of the "special effect" but it probably was closer to 3ft.

You are no doubt right LongfordLad it might well have been SF, We were in both San Francisco and New York in the last couple of weeks and got the 'Hop on - Hop off ' Buses in each on a particular day (Thursday being NY). I may have got mixed up as the commentators on the buses in each City were continually pointing out places where certain film exteriors were used or where certain Film Stars had residences .

Hi all You might remember "Compo" from Last of the Summer Wine. I have just come across this, that was partly filmed in Coventry. COVENTRY 1945 FILM WITH BILL OWEN Please forgive me if this has been added somewhere else on our site.

i believe there were around 37 cinemas at one time I may have an old coventry evening telegraph with a list of cinemas will see if I can find

philipincoventry, just watched your post on 'Compo' can't believe those days were part of my life. I liked the guy, he bought me a beer in the Leofric bar one early evening no one else in there, the first week of the Belgrade opening (mid fifties I believe) told me how much he was involved in the Belgrade and Coventry. Only the left side of the precinct was built and open then, the right hand side below the Leofric was still being built as I remember, don't ever remember a tunnel as I see in photo's now.

Here's the cinemas listed in the CET for 4th June 1940: The first three are the Rex, Forum and Savoy.

Thanks McSporran It's interesting the way they're grouped by owner. No mention of the Picture House in Smithford Street there, I wonder if it had already been bombed?

Fascinating to see how many cinemas were operating then. My parents came to Coventry in the late 30s and lived in separate lodgings in Earlsdon before they were married in 1940 when they bought their house. Their landladies expected their lodgers to be out all day and out in the evening too. Since neither of them were drinkers the only place they could go when 'courting' was the cinema and went several times a week to those various places. Years later my father refused to ever go to the cinema, I don't think he ever took me once in my entire life. He claimed he had seen enough cinemas to last him a lifetime! If I ever wanted to see a film when I was a child my mother took me.

You soon graduated to 'free admission' at the old Empire though Mister D-Di!!

Saved us a fortune, that did. Happy days!

I- E- YO-CO, I-E-YO-CO- YA CUN-DI Rob, My thought train. I'm thinking of the tram topic, I boarded a tram at Bell-green, got off at Hales street Fire station crossed the road, went to the Hippodrome, Who did I see? could it have been Al Johnson singing 'Sonny boy' then I found my self singing the above and doing the action.(My wife thought I had finally flipped) I know the name of the singer, the name of the film, and I believe he appeared in person at the Hippodrome some time. When we kids came out of the Rivoli after the film, some kid sang those words, and we all did the action, like they do the wave at football these days. Anyone know the singer/actor and the film..

Are you thinking of Al Jolson?

Kaga, I think that the song was from the film Sanders of the River and was sung by and indeed starred the great Paul Robeson. I believe his characters name was B'Sambo.

Paul Robeson: Canoe Song