A weekly morning of madness - and the odd film, too LES WALTON revisits the "flea pit" of his youth

ITHOUT doubt one of the most significant changes in schools over the last quar- ter of a century is the increasing ac- cess to 'multi -media! During own primary years in the 1940s and 1950s, with the excep- tion of 'practical' subjects, the class- room only contained a blackboard. The only tool a teacher had was a box of chalk. Our only access to the out- side world was books. Even in the 1960s as a young teacher all we had was a Bell and Howell projector and an epidiascope (a machine which projected pages WALT DISNEY =r«s««s from books on to a screen). "The Sign of ., Every week throughout the 60s and 70s I would book films from the 7QRROv Durham County Film Library. Even then some of the older teachers con- sidered that showing films was a PRODUCTIONS LTC. diversion from the real job of 'chalk and talk! To the older teacher, films ' ""'• . - - ' were commensurate with entertain- ment : - here seen in a 1960 film version starring Guy Williams - was a In the 1950s children would main- Saturday morning classic to be seen through a veil of peanut "snow" lobbed ly get their view of the outside world into the projector beam by naughty twins in the rear rows from the local pictures, usually on a Saturday morning. requiring a Parental Guidance (PG) incident had been made into a film it Cinemas were always called 'pic- certificate. would have been X-rated. ture houses' or 'the pictures' in the X certificates were given for many However, the Saturday cinema was 1950s. Our village picture house was reasons. For example The Battleship more than a window on the world. It affectionately known as 'the flea pit! Pctemkir! was rejected for 'inflam- was a window on our village. More than the Co-op and chapel, the matory subtitles' and 'Bolshevik Many years later, as a student, I picture house was the heart of our propaganda' in 1926 and rated X in took my friends back to the village village. 1954 and finally PG in 1987. where my family came from. My There were three shows every In 1954 Saturday morning at the Uncle George and his Mends were week, plus Saturday morning 'chil- 'flea pit' was just plain madness. playing in the local dance band in dren's cinema! Tne adventure serial The contrast with the cane-imposed the Town Hall. Just before 9pm, as I was the highlight of the morning. behaviour in school was dramatic. was wandering across the floor to There were classics which still occur Every week Jake Wilson with his twin ask a girl to dance 1 heard my uncle in the cinema. Zorro, , brother would flick peanuts into the announce over the microphone that , and Gor- projection beam and shout "it's the band were having a break. don. Captain Video and his Video snowing" Everyone in the hall including my Rangers seem to have gone out of Billy Sterling was once thrown out new 'sophisticated' student friends fashion. for peeing on the floor in the back then started placing the chairs in Every week I would fee! quite nig- seats and attempting to float a lolli- rows facing the front. We then sat gled when the hero, who the week pop stick to the front row. down to watch Popeye cartoons. before had actually fall en off the cliff, My father, mother, sister and I Some of the more traditional locals was nowhere near the edge during would go to the cinema every Friday thought that Saturday should be that week's episode. night. "We would shuffle along the 'strictly dancing1 and that the car- Children's matinees had been upstairs front row, waiting patiently toons exemplified the destruction of shown in British cinemas since the as 'Auid George' would unscrew his tradition and lowering of standards. . After the Second World War, wooden leg so we could get to our Even today, when a visitor enters a educationalists raised objections to seats. classroom and the children are the nature of the films being Everyone would have their own watching films on the electronic screened, leading to the Wheare favourite seats. Fred, a local shop- 'white board; there is a little voice Report into juvenile cinema-going in keeper, always sat in the back row inside which says this is not 'proper' 1950. downstairs. One night as my father learning. One result was the creation of the was finding our seats he accidently As parents and grandparents when X certificate, replacing the H certifi- knocked George's wooden leg which we see our children playing with a cate. In 1954 it meant "suitable for fell off the balcony and hit Fred on computer we may think, wrongly, those aged 16 and over" the head. That wouldn't have been 'this is not proper learning! To me and my Saturday morning so bad, but Fred fell off his seat, and Perhaps we should remind our- cinema gang it was incredibly frus- his watch strap caught in the bra of a selves of the days of 'blackboards trating to know that Killers from local beauty. chalk and talk' and embrace the Space and Menace from Outer Space The house lights then came on, present. were rated X certificate. Today these accompanied by the usual stamping Les Walton is chairman of the nims would be considered as only and shouting. Without doubt if the Northern Education Trust