Coventry Cinemas

As far as I'm aware, the Forum cinema was pulled down and it was at least a year, possibly two, before they built the bowling alley and the basement car park on the site.

When the Forum closed in 1962 it was demolished and the rubble was taken to Clifford Bridge Road and deposited to change the course of the river by the two bridges. I remember spending the summer holiday sitting in the cabs of the lorries taking the rubble. Wouldn't be allowed now. 'Elf n safety, eh!

Great story that, Gangan - thanks for posting it (It's little tit-bits like this that are often the most interesting memories)

When I came to Coventry in '67 my first experience of the city's cinemas was a visit to the Godiva cinema on the Highway. I was amazed that there was coffee and biscuits either at the interval or before the film started, I forget which! I was assured by my mates that this always happened. I couldn't believe it. The next visit was to the Savoy in Radford Road to view a film with some vague connection to Rasputin, I can't remember the film. It was a Sunday night and for some reason we arrived late after the film had started, and the girl in the ticket office was cashing up. It was too much hassle for her to take our money and alter her accounts so she let the three of us in free. From the North, I thought Coventry was amazing - free coffee, free showing. To cap it all we went the Alex to watch some slightly risque film a couple of weeks later. Not long into the showing, the film broke down. Good humoured banter from the audience followed - after a couple of abortive attempts to restart the film from beginning, it breaking down at the same point each time, the curtain was lowered but got stuck in the process - more entertaining banter - then the manager came out onto the front to apologies amid the cheerful cat calls as the curtain went up and down, the film flickered intermittently on and off behind him, he giving as good as he got in the process. and then the promise of two lots of free tickets each for future showings of films of our choice ended one of the funniest nights I can recall. Free coffee and biscuits, free screening and free tickets. Some city!!!

Here's a view of the former Gaumont (and Odeon) Cinema building which has only recently opened up following developments on the Coventry University site opposite

Memories. The Empire I used to go to the Saturday morning pictures at the Empire (top end of Hertford Street), and always picked up a roll of Sharps toffees before joing the clamour in the cinema. Sometimes, they were shouting 'we want the film' five minutes into the presentation. The Gaumont Upper circles, grand curtains, the organ, the dome which looked like the night sky.. this was the posh one. My parents wouldn't go to any other cinema. They showed South Pacific and the Sound of Music forever. I would have said that they had the best films here. NOT the two I mentioned already. The Alexandra My 'brother in law to be' as was used to drag me here to watch the risque junk. Oswald Kolle presents 'five minutes of double talk' about the educational aspect of the film, followed up by complete garbage. The audience was generally discerning enough that they wouldn't care if the film was shown upside down and backwards. Some of the horror stuff was marginally better quality. The Paris Never went to much because they rarely showed what I liked, but it was something of a fleapit as I remember. The Lyric Only once, it was five minutes before the dust cleared after I sat down, and the rat under the seat kept asking for more popcorn throughout the presentation.

My most indelible memory of the Paris cinema, when it was the Crown, was sitting watching a film while a man came round with a Flit gun spraying the air above the audience.

Hi all, I seem to remember that at the Crown you got a metal disc for a ticket - can anyone remember this?

In the 50s on a Saturday morning all the kids from Proffitt Avenue would walk through the Black Pad to Windmill Road and attend the kids matinee at the Ritz, which I think was called the Dovedale then. It was chaos while they showed cartoons and a cowboy film. The goodies wore white hats and the baddies black hats. There was always a rescue scene where the posse would thunder round a hill to the deafening cheers of the kids. If you sat in the stalls there was a good chance that a Jubbly carton or ice cream wrapper would land on you. I often went to the Savoy, which was near to my gran's, where, for a shilling kids could watch the main films on Saturday afternoon. I saw films like The Dambusters, Battle of the River Plate and Cockleshell Heroes - all good rousing British stuff. Later, in the early 60s I remember the massive queues at the Gaumont and the Empire for Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday and The Beatles films. Does anyone remember the most hyped film in history? For weeks we were told that the greatest movie ever made was coming soon - Hercules Unchained! What a let down but a triumph for publicity. Innocent days !

I know why we called the Savoy the Flea Pit. One afternoon a long long time ago after coming home from the Savoy I sat in front of the open fire getting warm when my mum noticed I was scratching a lot, she insisted on rolling up my trousers to find my legs were infested with fleas walking up my legs. I was not too impressed, I was stripped and put in the bath while my clothes were burnt on a garden fire. Mum was not very happy and after getting dressed I was marched back to the Savoy. She spoke to the Manager and told him what had gone on, he asked me to show him where I had been seated. The chair I had been seated in was infested with fleas and all the horse hair stuffing was falling out. From his account a tramp had tried to make the seats his home, they found him asleep and removed him. We ended up with free complimentary tickets, needless to say we sat well clear of the offending area, to be fair not the cinema's fault and the affected seats were removed (feel itchy now?). Funny story, on one occasion my dad took me to the Savoy one afternoon (under sufferance I seem to remember), anyway on the way to the Savoy he called into the butchers (Farmers the Butcher) to collect some sausages for dinner later that day. I called into the Savoy Sweet Shop next to the Savoy to get some sweets. We were ushered to our seats, the house lights were dimmed and we settled down to watch the film. I looked over at my Dad who had now opened the newspaper-wrapped sausages and began to suck on one end of a sausage (I can hear you all cringe, but he loved raw beef sausage, testament to Farmers the Butcher I guess). Anyway not long after he had started munching a couple appeared at the end of the row we were seated in "Excuse me" the man said "can we come through" Poor ol' dad, mouth full of sausage, could not make a reply but stood up to allow them to pass (wonder what they thought). At this point the newspaper holding the string of sausage fell to the floor spilling the contents, he could do nothing to stop it then the couple stepped on the sausage lying on the floor, the sausage split open and was now being trodden all along the aisle (what a mess). Dad was not happy and all I could think of was Punch and Judy,lol. He bit off the end of the sausage he had been chewing on and then gave the couple a right dressing. "Why don't you people come at the beginning of the film" he said. The funny thing is the cinema was almost empty. They could have picked any seat in the house but they chose to sit in our row. Can you imagine what a laff we had when my dad told my mum. It made us laugh for a long time after. I hope you enjoyed my dad's story. Colin.

Ha ha! Two great stories!

Thanks Anne I am glad you enjoyed the true story. Thanks Colin

Another odd ode (not really a poem just a saying from a comedian, I cannot remember his name) coming up. I wonder if anyone ever did as we did to get into the cinema to see an "A" rated film (the type of film rated as 18 or a child accompanied by an adult ) As kids it was great to go to the Savoy and watch the latest films, only problem mum and dad would rather go to the Radford pub so if the films showing were "U" rated we were ok but if "A" rated it would mean we could not go, I am not saying that we worked out how to get round this problem, it just seemed the natural thing to do. So having been to the Savoy Sweet Shop and stocked up with sweets, we would stand next to the queue of people waiting to go into the cinema. The trick was to single a courting couple then I would ask the man "can you take me in Mister please" If we were lucky he would say "ok then, but once inside you get lost" and that is what we did, respect. I can never remember ever being turned down and having to go home without getting to see the film. But you had to vet the people. If the couple were mature, no chance, I think they had a bit more respect for the censoring authority. Like all kids we used to mess about, chatting up the girls etc. but it all went wrong one night. A mate and I sat behind two girls we knew and we thought we would have some fun with them. What we did not bargain for was the film, Elvis the pelvis. They soon got fed up with us and one girl stood up and told us "anymore messing about and I will call the manager". That did it, we sat back and and decided to call it a day. Unbeknown to us we had been observed by a group of lads about three rows behind us. A few seconds later from behind came an ice cream, not too sure if it was meant for me or the girls but the fact is it hit the girls on the back of the head, guess what, we got chucked out. Our protest went unheard, anyway it was only Elvis Colin

Some of the stupid things we used to do! I remember watching a film at the Savoy with a friend when just in front of us were two lads, messing about as we had done in the past. They were trying to chat up two girls who were having none of it. Now what the lads did next is beyond belief. One of the girls had very long hair which draped over the chair back, one lad lit a match and began to singe the girl's hair, but what he did not know was she had lacquer spray on. Her hair caught fire - panic, panic - he began to pad the flames out with his hands, at this point the girl turned round to see why he was banging on the seat, she did not have a clue that he had set fire to her hair, he said "sorry for the noise" and got up and left very quickly. Once he had gone we could see the damage he had done, both sides of her hair was normal length but the middle area was gone, almost burnt to he scalp . We shouted to the girl but she told us to go away, thinking we were also taunting her, someone from behind us (a lady I think) came down and told her what had happened. We were questioned but because so many saw us we were ok, she looked a real mess. I was no angel but that was a bit naughty, the worst thing I used to do was to roll fireworks (bangers) from the back of the cinema. We would sit in a empty row at one end, when the film got a bit intense we would crawl along the row, light the blue touch paper then set it rolling down between the seats trying to miss the seat legs, with a bit of luck it would get near the bottom before it went off. It was naughty but to see the couples jump up as the firework rolled down, a bit like a Mexican wave. How dangerous was that the cinema could have caught fire, how would you live with that. Anyway I have nearly grown up now. How about the Bowery Boys? I loved them wonder if anyone remembers them? It's so easy to tell stories about others and condem them but I am holding my hands up on this one. Hope we are still friends. Colin