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    Haslemere Cinemas

    Haslemere’s first cinema was the Empire Picture and Variety Palace on Shepherds Hill. The Regal started in Weyhill in 1915 and was still operating when its owners, Haslemere Cinema Company, built the Rex Cinema nearby in 1936. It opened in September with the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, "Follow the Fleet". Seat prices ranged from ninepence in the front stalls to two shillings for the dress circle. In its heyday, the Rex showed the latest films, with frequent changes of programme and twice-weekly matinees. It boasted a large café and a Compton organ, played before evening performances. During the Second World War a British plane got into difficulties over Shottermill. Its engine fell in the auditorium of the Rex, causing damage to the screen and stage. Luckily it happened between film screenings and there were few casualties, though the plane’s crew were all killed. The Rex, like other independent cinemas, struggled to fill seats during the 1970s and 1980s. It closed in 1986 with the film "Pale Rider", starring Clint Eastwood, and was demolished for a housing development.

    Track 9 Watching films at the Rex



    Credit line: Alan Perry talks about the types of films he watched at the Rex cinema as a boy.

    Transcription:

    Interviewer: Did you go to the Cinema?

    Interviewee: Did we go to the Cinema? Went to the Cinema, yes, we used to sit in the 1 and 9s, in the front row.

    Interviewer: This was the Rex?

    Interviewee: This was the Rex Cinema, on a Saturday morning. And we used to sit in the front and I think Jungle Jim, Jungle Jim used to frighten the pants off me. And when there was going to be some sort of beheading or something going on, I’m not sure it actually was but it felt like that to me as a little kid, I used to turn round and somebody from the back used to bellow ’Look round you coward!’ So I had to look round again. And t hen there used to be competitions. Dear Mr…

    Interviewer: Killinger.

    Interviewee: Killinger used to run it, used to run these competitions. Painting competitions and I remember being really upset that my mate won it and I thought mine was just as good. And I’m sure if I hadn’t forgotten it I would have won and not him. As I realised later in life that wasn’t necessarily so but I harboured that grudge for many years ’cause he got a really nice prize. So, yes we used to go to the Cinema and later on we used to go to the Cinema and sit in the back seats, where unfortunately I got called ’octopus’ by a girl, and that really screwed me up for the next two years after that. I was mentally scarred by that.