Dear Spurtle,
When I was about 10 years old, I used to travel from Pilton up to the Ritz Cinema on a Saturday morning to sing the song of the ABC minors along with an audience of other kids.
I think there were various things on offer, but I only had enough for a bus fare either way and entry money. I think they occasionally showed a serial, but somebody else would need to confirm that.
Everybody seemed to enjoy the singing, and you felt part of a community and more so as the Second World War had just finished.
Bob Sinclair
Australia
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EDITOR:–The Ritz Cinema on Rodney Street, which opened in 1929, was the first movie theatre in Edinburgh designed to show ‘talkies’. It survived until 1981. Lee Dalgetty’s interesting synthesis about the ‘courting picture house’ appears on @edinburghlive here and includes archive film footage of the structure being built.
Do any other readers have memories of this Broughton institution’s life and times? If so, please contact us at: spurtle@hotmail.co.uk
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