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Anonymous
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I love art deco and its lovely to see a picture of the cinema in hayes that i just about remember being there, am i right in thinking there was a little shop attched to the cinema building ? crumbs i was 2 when the cinema closed down, my mother must have seen it being build then demolished in her life time. still i can say the same about the maisonettes in avondale drive.
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MIDDX.NET
Registered: March 2004
Posts: 5902
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Dorothy Wills sent a message to our "Memories" email group about The Ambassador:
Date: Mon Oct 14, 2002 7:25 pm Re: Cinemas in Hayes in the 1950s
........ Saturday morning pictures at the Ambassador were the highlight of the
week where we were treated to full length films mostly of Roy Rogers
and Trigger, Gene Autrey and Champion and Hopalong Cassidy with
Topper. Occasionally we had Rin Tin Tin. We would cheer like mad
for the heroes and boo like mad at the baddies. If you had a
boyfriend you sat and cuddled in the back row.......
The Essoldo was in Hayes, not Hayes End, and neared the entrance to
Lansbury Drive (not Avenue) .... just a point..... My gran took me
to see the first 3D picture there when we wore green and red glasses
supplied by the cinema to give the 3D effect. We were in awe when
cinemascope was introduced as the screen was so huge we did not know
where to look first.
Dorothy
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MIDDX.NET
Registered: March 2004
Posts: 5902
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MIKE ABBOTT wrote to say: In the fifties there were three cinemas in Hayes – one in Hayes town, the Ambassador on East Avenue, and two on the Uxbridge Road, the Savoy, near Yeading Lane, and the Essoldo at Hayes End, near the junction with Lansbury Avenue. There was one theatre – the Regents Theatre – on Station Road. It was located where the NatWest Bank currently sits, effectively the junction of Station Road and Pump Lane. The Ambassador was an Odeon or Rank Organization cinema while the other two belonged to smaller independent groups. In the mid-fifties the Essoldo caused a stir by being the first cinema in the area to have a CinemaScope wide screen and “South Pacific” - one of the earliest films made using this technology – came to the Essoldo c1956. Not to be outdone, the Savoy soon followed with a CinemaScope wide screen. The Savoy was the largest of the three Hayes cinemas with a massive vertical three-arch glass front. The cinema boasted a first floor restaurant and bar and diners could eat before watching the movie, and look out through the vertical glass feature across the busy Uxbridge Road. The Ambassador and Savoy had (limited) car parking at the rear of both cinemas, a feature of growing importance as the number of people buying cars slowly increased through the fifties, although in the late fifties most people in Hayes still got to the cinema either by foot or by the 607 trolleybus along Uxbridge Road, or the 140 bus to the Ambassador. Both cinemas offered ‘Saturday morning pictures’ to children, with the entrance fee being sixpence per child. Sadly it was little more than cartoons and black and white shorts made in the thirties or forties – from The Cisco Kid and Gabby Hayes to Flash Gordon and Superman via Loony Tunes and Mickey Mouse. For fifties children in the long six week summer holiday the cinemas in Hayes offered a distraction especially if there was an American action film on, invariably a Western starring James Stewart, or one based on Greek or Roman history and invariably starring Victor Mature in the lead, or British films which championed second world war heroes in films like “The Dambusters”, “Colditz Castle” or “Red Beret”. In 1955 there was great excitement amongst Hayes kids when Walt Disney’s “Davy Crockett” came to town, perhaps the first film with merchandise – the racoon hat worn by the character in the film, and sold expensively in local shops cashing in on the film’s undoubted success amongst children. Then, films were either classified ‘A’, ‘U’ or ‘X’. There were no restrictions on ‘U’ or universal films, while to see an ‘A’ or adult film you had to be over sixteen or accompanied by an adult. To see an ‘X’ rated film you had to be over 21. The Regents Theatre was popular, especially at Christmas with pantomimes, but, like the cinemas in Hayes, it suffered the loss of audiences to television and eventually closed in the late fifties. In its place went up the building housing the NatWest Bank and behind it a retail area that was occupied by Sainsburys for many decades until they built their ‘megastore’ on the site of St Christopher’s borstal (at the junction of Coldharbour and Uxbridge roads).
** Mike also sent two photographs of the programme for the Savoy Cinema for September 1957, which can be seen in other sections of the site, though we may bring all the cinema material together in one album soon. Note the two ads – one for Rose’s Dairy of 29 Dawley Road, the other for the newspaper shop around the corner from the Savoy in Yeading Lane, E G Smith & Sons.
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hayesboy
Registered: February 2009
Location: Poole Dorset
Posts: 65
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Tue February 3, 2009 14:00
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David James writes: I remember the Ambassador cinema in East Avenue,its really interesting you mention the kids "Saturday Morning Pictures" for 6 pence,for many years I used to play the piano there for the kids to sing,the most popular song was,of course Davy Crockett,for this my wages were 10 shillings,(50p)
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bondyboy67
Registered: May 2005
Location: Selsey W.Sussex
Posts: 60
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Tue February 3, 2009 15:41
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Re the Essoldo, prior to being called this in the 50's it was named "The Corinth" or as we knew it "The Bug hutch". It was quite famous also as the cinema you could bunk in the side door without paying. Those were the days !!!
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the sceenyclan
Registered: August 2008
Posts: 296
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Tue February 3, 2009 16:49
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Thanks for the memories bondyboy, we knew the Corinth as the Flea Pit, a cold old place. Also to Hayes Boy re:the Ambassador and Saturday morning pictures, remember Davy Crockett and Robin Hood sing a longs, the words came up on the screen. Remember Hop a long Cassidy and the little rascals ? what about Co Co the clown from Bertram Mills Circus who used to visit giving road safety lessons. Mum used to give us 2/6 on the way we would go into the Handy Shop in East Ave get some 1/2d shrimps and black jacks, cost 9d to get in the flicks and still had change! Oh happy days
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MIDDX.NET
Registered: March 2004
Posts: 5902
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Thu February 11, 2010 23:57
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Just to pick up on the original post. When it says the telephone exchange was "built 8 years later" (ie, 1969) that must be when building started. We moved to Church Road in 1972 and used the rec regularly of course, and at that time, the exchange was still under construction, with a big crane there (it inspired one or two of my Lego creations at the time). I would say it was completed in 72 or 73.
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