I wonder if, among all these memories of Bishop Auckland, anyone remembers the Odeon Cinema Club. The Odeon opened in 1938 as the Majestic. Thinking back 68 years, I might be mistaken but I have a memory of going to one of the very first films there, if not the first - ‘A Yank at Oxford’ starring Robert Taylor. I certainly recall going to some of the blockbusters of the time - ‘The Bluebird’ with Shirley Temple, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with Judy Garland, and the terrifying ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. ‘Terrifying’ did I hear you ask? Yes - funny as well, romantic, but the wicked queen was quite frightening to an eight year old, as was the wicked witch of the west and her airborne monkeys in ‘Oz’.

The Cinema Club started some time late in the war, I think. I say ‘I think’ because when I started to write this piece I raked back in my memory and found myself thinking of fighting for the double seats in the back row. This means I was probably older than 14, hence this must mean 1946; but the club probably started before that.

The Club ran on Saturday mornings, from somewhere around 10 o’clock until 1. The programme included cartoon shorts (as did all normal evening programmes at that time), a main film, and a serial. Despite the number of main films I must have seen, the only one I can remember is ‘The Tawny Pipit’ with the inimitable Bernard Miles. The first serial was ‘Riders of Death Valley’, the next ‘Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe’, then one whose title I don’t remember but which had an intriguing bit in it where the baddies kept vanishing in their speed boat through a door opening in the sea cliff. The main villain also had a splendid weapon for dealing with his enemies, a fountain-pen that shot out a poisoned dart. I spent an age trying to make one of these, but I had too much trouble keeping the elastic bands fastened properly. His used compressed air, of course, and didn’t have this problem. These serials seemed to go on for ever, a bit like those 26 episodes we get on TV. One of their spin-offs was that I became very familiar with the music they used - Mendelssohn and Liszt among others.

There was other music of course, if you can call some of it music. The show often opened with a round of sing-songs with a glittering accordion player (Vera Keenlyside, unless I’m mistaken); and always with the ‘Club Song’, helped by the words on the screen and a bouncing ball to show you where you’d got to:

Is everybody happy? Yes!
Do we ever worry? No!
To the Od-e-on we have come
Now we’re all together
We can have some fun.

The summit of banality? I thought so even then and tried to be doing something else while it was sung by others. Did anybody actually sing it? I expect we probably had a badge too, but I don’t remember one. The main thing about Saturday mornings was that you didn’t have to queue, you came out into daylight, and it was a great place to take girls. I don’t know what happened to these clubs, except that I found one website where someone born in 1948 writes of going to a club in Chester, so I guess they must have been running into the sixties. Anyone know?

Somebody's clock (not mine) has gone haywire - I posted this new item at 16:03.

What a memory Ken. Another piece of history. It restored a memory for me. I recollect the stage at the Odeon full of Dutch children who came here from danger and were fostered out in various house all over the town. Evacues I suppose. After the war some returned to visit the many people in Bishop who they had a great affection for and to thank them for their hospitality. Anybody else remember them?

Two fond memories of the Odeon come flooding back to me... firstly dear Mr.Walter Aylen (probably spelled incorrectly) was the most charming chap who, in the sixties, welcomed children in to the Saturday morning matinee. One Saturday in 1965 or 1966 I lost my 9p entry money on the way to the matinee and Walter let me in for nothing. When I took the money back the following week he wouldn't take it from me for, as he said, "being honest". Second fond memory.... some years later, I played in a rock and pop band touring clubs and other venues throughout the North East. Wd were known as Victoria and our manager got us "gigs" playing to the kids at a different Odeon in the region each Saturday morning prior to the matinee. What is particularly memorable for me is that I left Victoria in the late summer of 1974 and my last ever "Odeon" gig was in Bishop.

Great days

i also have fond memories of the saturday morning picture club as we called it in the early eighties.i recall watching them children film foundations films that we also saw occasionally at school often featuring a young pre-alco cheggers! these were followed by a sweet draw.i distinctly remember winning a curly wurly on one occasion.(they seemed massive then and now they are tiny or is that just me?) after much ket munching and japes we settled down to an episode of the seriously bizarre chico the rainmaker! a show about some kids that found a decapitated head of a red indian called chico who came to life and saved the kids when they were deep in it......usually by making it rain.i even remember the song....

does anybody remember the mush in charge in the dinner jacket? blond bloke bout 9 foot tall it seemed. we called him lurch......

Yeah, I remember Lurch - real name Peter, i think - last seen drinking in Elm Road Club. He looks no where near as scary as he did!
There was some serious Elvis-film exposure an'all - recycling at its best in the 80s! I won the half-time number draw a couple of times - normally some sweets.
It was the first time I'd heard of Kia-Ora - remember the advert?
It's at this point that I own up to being one of the gang throwing liquorice torpedos when the lights went down... kids, eh.

I REMEMBER GOING 2 THE PICTURES ON A SATURDAY MORNING I TOOK MY COUSIN IAN MY AUNTIE WOULD PAY FOR US 2 GO IT WAS THE KIDS CLUB DAY YOU GOT IN FREE IF IT WAS YOUR BIRTHDAY I HAD AT LEAST 4 BIRTHDAYS A YEAR THEN I COULD BUY MORE EVERLASTING TOFFEE TO MAKE MY TOUNGE BLEED RUBBING IT FIERCLEY ON MY TOUNGE
WE WOULD ALL SING JUST A SPOON FULL OF SUGAR AND THE MEDICINE GOES DOWN
WHEN THE PICS WERE OVER I WOULD MAKE MY YOUNG COUSIN GO THROUGH DOCTORS TUNNEL AND SCARE HIM TELLING HIM THE DR WAS HANGING THERE MAYBE THATS WHY HE STILL CANT SLEEP QUITE DISTERBING SORRY IAN HAHAHA

I started a new thread not realizing this one was already there. From about aged 8 in 1963 through till 1967 my friends and I made a "pilgrimage" each Saturday morning to the Odeon for kids club. I've seen pictures of how it looked then and like everything else it looks smaller than I remember it. It's amazing what 6d could buy us back then - a whole morning of cartoons and features with hundreds of other kids. Our kids today don't have anything even close to the fun we had then.

I don't remember being one of the kids who threw popcorn or other sweets around when the lights went down, but then maybe my memory os failing. :-)

not that this adds much to the conversation but my wife's grandfather BOB BOOTH used to work in the cinema he lived in the house next door, i remember my aunt mary saying they used to call him the chuckerouter! from what was said everyone one was scared of him but my mother-in-law says he was a gentle giant.

i remember the saturday club well went religiously and also nicking in when in my teens to watch the stud and bruce lee movies ,been kicked out a few times also ,remembey watching jungle book and the old organ being played with hundreds of noicy kids before they made the 2 screens ,i also tried to buy the odeon and turn it into a bingo and night club but was knocked back by the police with licence..
ken