Astoria Cinema - Striding down the wide staircase
Astoria cinema, London Road, Brighton
Image of the Astoria from the 'My Brighton' exhibit
“When ‘El Cid’ came to the Astoria (I must have been around ten at the time) I contrived to see the film three times! Striding down the wide staircase to the closing theme was tremendous (did I escape before the National Anthem?).
“My earliest cinema memory was of the Paris in New Road, where we went to see “Dumbo”. I also recall somewhat later seeing ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ and ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ at the Curzon in Western Road, which I think was my favourite cinema, and going as a family to view ‘A Night to Remember’ at the Odeon, Hove.
“All were big treats as, despite my repeated visits to ‘El Cid’, we only went occasionally to the cinema.”
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Mum and Aunty Dorothy took me to the Embassy and the Curzon in Western Road four times a week as the program changed twice a week. There was a commisionaire at the Embassy and his sister worked in the kiosk – a very nice couple who seemed to have been there forever! We had no TV then!
If my memory is correct, Cinerama films were shown at the Astoria in the late 1950s, probably by a single-projector system. I was still at school then and remember being thrilled at the time by a Cinerama presentation and by “The Charge at Feather River” projected in 3D, albeit it is not regarded very highly now; its portrayal of the native Americans was unsympathetic to put it politely, but probably typical for the time.
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