This is one of those posts that was lost when we moved to the new site.
Behind the little boy with the hoop is a view of the Globe Cinema, showing ‘The Siege of Pinchgut’.
We have tried to recreate as many of the original comments as possible…
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The Globe was the prestige cinema in Stockton and during the early fifites was able to show 3D films. Twin projectors using Polaroid filters were used, and one had to buy the glasses to see the films.
What always amuses me is the number of films which were given “X” certificates. The one I remember in particular was “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, in which the foyer of the Globe had a replica of the robot that accompanied Michael Rennie in his flying saucer. When I eventually did see the film on TV it was a reasonable, but hardly frightening picture
The Globe, amongst a lot of the picture houses in Stockton and Norton hold very dear memories for me, in this instance visits to the Globe for the Xmas pantos and a gift of sixpence as it was a booking via Head Wrightsons where Dad used to work.
Your Dad Walter Laing was a great guy, John, as a lot of the old Head Wrightsons Machine Shop,Thornaby workers who contribute to this web-site will verify.
I remember going with my cousin Linda to the Rolling Stones concert. That was back when Brian Jones was still with them and they may have still been wearing matching outfits. We didn’t intend to scream at the concert – we were serious admirers and much more mature teenagers than those ordinary fans. Needless to say as soon as the screaming started we screamed the loudest. So much for maturity.
I recall going with a girlfriend to see “Blue” at the Globe, and my two memories of that visit were how squashed my legs were against the seats in front and my jealousy at the fact that she said how she fancied Terence Stamp!
I too looked up ‘The Siege of Pinchgut’ and found that it was the last film ever made by the London based Ealing Studios, being largely a box-office failure. It had American actor Aldo Rey playing the lead, with another American female actor in the cast, called Barbara Mullen. Older readers of this website may be surprised (as I certainly was) to remember her later in 1962, as the very convincing softly-spoken Scottish housekeeper ‘Janet’ in the BBC TV series, ‘Dr Finlay’s Casebook’, a role actor Robin Williams later drew heavily upon for his, ‘Mrs Doubtfire’.
This photo, showing the Globe Cinema, stirred up some memories for me. I remembered that the Globe showed some of the the very latest release movies, I checked the film database; the search revealed that “The siege of Pinchgut” was released in August 1959 so the photo was indeed taken early 1960. That info prompted me to search again for the release of the movie “Julius Ceasare” with Marlon Brando and James Mason, My class from St John’s RC Billingham, were taken to a, special showing, for most of the kids around the same age, from many of the schools in the area. Because of the release date info, it must have been late !954. I think the manager around then was a Mr. White, because the children who went to the showing were told by the teacher of our class to write a thank you note to The Manager, for putting the show on. All I remember about that was my letter was not good enough, therefore not chosen. I think one of the girls in the class got that honour. It would be nice to know if any other class members remember the trip or know whose letter was chosen.