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A fourteen year old page boy

My father, Ronald Leslie Barber, was 14 years of age when he started work as a page boy at the Astoria cinema in Brighton. Ron had hopes of becoming a projectionist but this did not work out and instead he did an apprenticeship as a book binder, before joining the Navy in 1939, just before WWII.

The photograph here shows the staff at the Astoria on parade, in what would have been about 1934; Ron was born in 1920. The Astoria was opened in 1933 according to another article on this site, so this photograph was taken not long after. My father is the young boy on the left, looking as pleased as punch with himself.

Astoria Cinema Staff c1934 - Page Boy on left is Ronald Leslie Barber
From the private collection of Geoffrey Barber

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