| Description | An interview with Paul EDMUNDS, a married man with no children, who is a Cinema projectionist, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Paul EDMUNDS’s father was a Grocer/ butcher, born in England and his mother a Factory worker/ inspector born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
'EDMUNDS, Paul MS2255/2/083 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
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I was born at Loveday Street Hospital on 26th August , 1949…. Memories of a friend who had a television in the 1950s. Father enjoyed DIY, mother made rugs and knitted.
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Not many memories of school.
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Moved to Kings Heath in Summer of 1955. Father worked for a local butcher. Attended Grove Road Infant’s school in Kings Heath.
34” Memories of a shop called Peacock’s in Kings Heath.
1.27 Moved to Bournbrook in 1956. Caretaker of school put on a filmshow and that was Paul’s first introduction to a projector.
2.23 Visits to the cinema as a child. Frequented the ABC Selly Oak from 1957-8. Cinema was a treat. If it was your birthday you would go up on stage. There was the Saturday morning song…and a set of glass slides would come on…and mayhem would break out….Always a colour cartoon at the end of the show. Beginning of the show there would be a little short type film….
4.38 It wasn’t until I actually started to work in cinema in the 1960s…then I did purchase a machine of my own, a 16mm sound machine in 1966 which then started a lifelong interest…
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Had a part-time job before leaving school in an electrical shop. Left school in 1964 and started work with Reliance Telephones in Bradford Street as a trainee telephone engineer. After one month secured a trainee projectionist post at ABC Selly Oak.
1.49 Describes the environment as being like a family. Would have worked for nothing.
2.16 Single screen cinema. Twins and triplets didn’t occur until the early 70s.
2.53 Describes his role in the cinema.
3.36 Completely separate from the audience and never mixed with them.
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During the mornings, before the actual programme starts, there would be members of the projection team to undertake to do maintenance which included…on the actual projection equipment, but also things like heating, ventilation, boilers and also the mundane task of cleaning hundreds and hundreds of light fittings…. Story about a colleague who broke a piece of glass.
1.06 Another duty in the morning was making up films if they had arrived…we would have 2 films on a Sunday, 2 films on a Monday for 3 days, another 2 on Thursday for 3 days, then a Saturday matinee show for the children….A normal programme would consist of always 2 feature films, trailers, adverts, newsreel….a 3 and a half hour programme was quite normal….The cinema was the main event for the evening…..
2.27 Lists some of the cinemas in the South Birmingham area in the 1960s.
3.01 From 1965 to early 70s, a lot of cinema closures occurred.
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History of the Oak Cinema.
1.21 Paid visits to other local cinemas.
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Progressed from 4th to 3rd projectionist.
The major step was second projectionist. This meant that you were actually left in charge, which in those days when we still had full houses, if anything went wrong or the film broke, there was serious problems….it was the motto “The show must go on” at any cost. Story about discovering a tin of Dayset titles.
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Worked as second projectionist up till 1973. Left the cinema and did various jobs. Chief projectionist post advertised at Grove Cinema, Dudley Road and Paul worked there for a sort time.
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Went to work at King’s Norton Cinema until 1978. Describes the environment and charts the history.
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With circuit houses like the ABC and Odeon, they had head offices in London….some head offices tended to be out of touch with what was happening at the local venues. With independent cinema, the manager could have a say with films and if he saw problems, could do something about it quite quickly…. Contrasts with circuit houses.
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Worked as a maintenance engineer at the Midland Hotel in New Street. Describes the experience.
1.57 A cinema job came up at the old JC cinema in Station Street which Classic had just bought…. Account of the interview process. Began working in June, 1980.
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There has been a cinema in Station Street on that site since 1910. The first one was called The Electric Cinema…. History of the building.
1.33 Describes the interior of the cinema.
2.28 Classic were reduced to showing second run films due to the barring system in operation. It was closed in 1984.
3.30 Further changes in ownership of the cinema.
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How the cinema was twinned.
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I left the Tivoli in Station Street in 1990 in June. Offered a job at Midlands Art Centre. Contrasts with other cinemas.
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History of the MAC cinema.
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Describes an exhibition he organised to mark the centenary of the cinema.
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Continued.
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Story about meeting his wife at the cinema in 1969.
2.08 Moved to Selly Oak in 1980 after getting married.
2.27 Now lives in Bournville. History of the Trust and how the community has changed.
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Memories of taking the train to the seaside in the 1950s.
1.28 Visits to Blackpool. Interested in trams.
2.14 Story about school trip to Anglesey.
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I have reservations about computers. Computers for word processing and filing, no problem, and for lots of other applications. We’ve come to a point now in our life, one way or the other, there is a computer or a computer-operated system involved…..Elaborates.
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Views on the environment.
2.06 Uses a taxi for work purposes.
ENDS. |