I can recall the time when the daily Leicester cinema showings covered two pages of the "Mercury!" In my misspent youth, I went with my young lady just about every night of the week. It was first rate cheap entertainment transporting me personally to another world lol! Nowadays it not the same experience at all. No more exotic palaces of architectural delight, in fact, some multiplexes are little more than tarted up sheds with indifferent film projection. Second features and "little" pictures to make up the programme have gone the way of all flesh and you pay an arm and a leg for the privilege of viewing the feature film only. As for refreshments, gone are the days when you could enjoy a tanner tub of ice ceam. My favourite uptown venue was the magnificent Savoy in Belgrave Gate, followed by the Odeon and I remember the relatively brief life of the Essoldo in Granby Street. If my memory serves me correctly, I first witnessed a cinemascope presentation at the latter, was it "The Robe" with a youthful Richard Burton? On more impecunious evenings we went locally to the Ritz or Magna in Wiggy. One evening a week was devoted to the Palace Theatre; the last show I saw there starred the late Fred Emney supported by Miss Great Britain one Violet Pretty who later blossomed in Holywood as Anne Heywood. Oh happy nostalgic days, all gone never to return. A final thought, for some reason we were given complimentary tickets to the Evington to see Arthur Askey, Shirley Eaton, Leo Franklyn et al in "The Love Match!" Today that venue is a Tescos. Ah Well! (sigh with a tear falling in my ale glass).
