Many years ago I interviewed Patricia for an essay that I was writing at the time about the experience of going to see a film in the 1960s and 1970s. I thought I would share that interview.
The 1960s and 70s was an era of enormous change for the film industry; behind it were its 'Golden Years', ahead was an era that would bring significant challenges. This was the era that Patricia, who is now in her sixties, remembers as a young child and adult attending the movies. Patricia grew up in Bridgewater in South Australia but moved to Adelaide as a child. She has fond memories of attending the movies as a teenager through to young adult in the late 1960s to the early 1970s. She would go to the movies with her family or friends. Patricia mainly attended movies in the city-based picture theatres rather than the suburban cinemas. She also worked for several months in the office at Hoyts in Regent Arcade in Adelaide in the early 1970s.
Abridged Transcript
Interview with Patricia
Interviewer – Erica Simpson
Date – 8th June, 2013
E; Can you describe the experience of going to the movies? How did you feel when you were going to the movies?
P; How did I feel? It is more of like going out, really go out. Going to the movies was "it". It was different you spent more time, there were always a cartoon or documentaries and the intermission, and then you would go to snack bar and then it was the "main feature." It was going to the cinema; it was going out.
E; Where were films shown in your home town?
P; My home town was Bridgewater, when I was a child movies were shown in the community hall, they also held church at the town hall, but that was when I was really young. But as a teenager we were in Adelaide, and there was lots of cinema, but you had to go to town to go to the movies, and usually it was just the one cinema.
24th Dec, 1952. Mt Gambier Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/148089620
E; Were all the seats the same price and quality, or were there better and worse seats? Were there ushers? What was the theatre itself like?
P; There was always ushers, when you bought a ticket it was for a particular seat and the usher always showed you to the seat, they had a torch; they didn't just stand at the door and take your tickets. I think some daytime sessions were less than going to an evening session. I don't remember when you stopped getting specific seats.
E; You worked at Hoyts I believe, what was your role?
P; I was a junior and only worked for a few months, it was a small office about 9 people in the office, and then there were the ushers, projectionists and other staff. It was good fun, because you knew that behind that door were people "going to the movies" and that was good fun, there were people coming and going and always really busy.
Rundle Street Adelaide c 1962. Photo courtesy SLSA [PRG 1712/1/47]
https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+1712/1/47
E; How often did you go and with whom would you go? Did you dress specially or get dressed up to go to the movies?
P; Yes you did tend to make more of an effect, you dressed up, you did your makeup and hair, but people did make more of an effect back then if they went out. I didn't go a lot, except that time when I worked at Hoyts, I only had to pay 10 cents, so I saw a lot of movies then. I would have been about 17 at the time. I don't recall thinking that going to the movies was expensive, not like it is now.
E; What did you call 'going to the movies'? (e.g. 'the pictures')
P; It was the whole experience, then you went to the pictures, now you go see a movie. It was "the" entertainment, nowadays it is just different you go to see a movie then go off somewhere else.
E; Can you remember the introduction of any new moving image technologies (e.g. Widescreen or Cinerama or Imax; colour; Super 8' home movies'; digital sound)?
P; Quakevision- for Earthquake the movie, your seat shook whenever the Earth moved on screen. It was great fun and you worried about the cinema going to collapse. Luckily when I saw Towering Inferno, they didn't set fire to the seats.
E; What was your experience of the theatres in the city compared to those in the suburbs?
P; There were cinemas in Glenelg, I think I saw Woodstock there it was the only place in town it was showing so I had to go there. The suburbs tended to show less mainstream movies possibly less likely to sell many tickets were at the smaller suburban theatres.
E; Can you recall a 'typical' movie program (e.g. double bills, a short film then a feature, newsreels, cartoons etc)? Did you ever go to a matinee?
P; There was a short movie or documentary or even cartoon to start, then you had intermissions, some ads for upcoming movies, and then the main feature. We normally went at night, evenings, I don't remember going to the cinema during the day at all. Oh, I did once go to a matinee with a friend and her parents and it was meant to be Tarzan, but it was a western, I was really disappointed, never liked westerns since.
E; Did you have a preference for one sort of theatre over the others? What was the reason for the preference? What factors were behind your choice of theatre?
P; Cinema showed different movies, so you went to where the movie was that you wanted to see. I don't remember wanting to go to a specific cinema over another, they were all much the same in cleanliness and upkeep.
E; What were the principal reasons you went to the cinema? Were there particular actors or directors you made a point of seeing? Why?
P; Directors, no. Actors, not really, I would go for the movie, I like I suppose you would call them melodramatic stories, sort of real life stories. Although I did like Steve McQueen and did go see a movie because he was in it.
E; What other sorts of entertainment did the cinema compete with? What prevented you from going to the cinema as often as you would have liked to?
P; Roller skating. I didn't go to the pubs or nightclubs, or I just watched TV or listened to music.
E; Can you summarise the role of movies in your social life?
P; You would go with friends and family, it was entertainment, it was just fun, although it was an important form of entertainment.
E; How did you go about choosing what films to see? How would you describe the amount or kind of choices you had, when it came to deciding which movies to see?
P; I went for the story, but I guess you are asking was there a lot of choice? Some cinemas might show more alternatives, others showed the bigger movies. I think the city cinema chains tended to show the bigger pictures, but each cinema tended to show a different picture so sometimes you might go to a movie that was easy to get to rather than see a movie showing at a cinema that was more difficult to get too.
E; What kinds of genres of films did you routinely see? Did you enjoy westerns? Why or why not? Which ones do you remember seeing? Did you enjoy musicals? Why/why not? Which ones do you remember?
P; Not "surprise" westerns, I wouldn't choose to go see a western. I liked "disaster movies" which were popular in the early 1970s. But no didn't choose specific genres, although I did like the more real-life dramas coming out of England in the late 60s early 1970s.
E; Do you remember any scandals involving films or film stars, or films that were banned in Australia? What can you remember about controversies around movies in your day?
P; Women in Love, I was working at Hoyts at the time and the vice squad used to came several times to watch it, it was a joke in the office how often they turned up, they didn't have to pay to see it, but they came quite a lot to check that it wasn't violating any rules. Mostly it was an art movie so the crowd that came to see it tended to be the more "art crowd" Texas Chainsaw Massacre was banned in Australia (in 1975) and didn't surface for many years later.
E; As a child, do you remember seeing films that were 'too adult' – scary or complex or violent or generally not suited to a child audience? Do you remember how the film was regulated? In what ways can you see that films reflect the way in which society has changed? What are some films you can think of that 'push the boundaries' of what's acceptable?
P; I didn't really see many movies as a child; we couldn't afford it there were a lot of children in my family, so it would have cost my parents a lot.
E; What would you say is the main way that movie-going has changed between the historical era discussed in this interview, and the present day?
P; It's a lot more casual experience, you normally only see one movie, there are no preshow or intermissions anymore. A lot more people used to go to the movies they seemed larger and always full, nowadays the cinemas are smaller, and less people attend.
E; In what ways might movie-going 'then' and 'now' still be similar?
P; You still go to a cinema and see a movie, but that is really the only "same" about it.
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