There are so very few memories that we get to keep of our early childhood but I have one that stays with me to this day and I am not sure why, but maybe it was because any outing as a family was very unusual for us in those early years of my life. After returning from the war zones at the end of the war, my father had to work very hard to provide for his new family. He was not qualified at anything in particular, so took whatever opportunities came along.

At this time, our family lived in a nice home in Ronald Street in Wynnum and I was about three years old. We had only recently moved there from the home in Ipswich. Dad had a job driving a Coca-Cola truck delivering soft drinks from the factory to the shops all around the suburbs which was not a big paying job so money was tight.

We did have an old car, I think it was a Ford Prefect but the memories exactly are thin and the car was not important. What was important was that we could, very occasionally, go out as a family, when an outing could be squeezed into the budget. And one of the most popular family outings in this early 50s era was to go to the local movie theatre. In our area. The theater we went to most often was the Imperial Theatre which was built on the Esplanade that followed the coast line of Moreton Bay. Having a theatre in our area and within a reasonably short drive from where we lived was considered quite a modern privilege and everyone knew exactly what movies, shorts, newsreals, and cartoons were currently being shown at “The Imp”.

The plan would be set that on the appointed day, usually a Saturday, we would start to get ready to go to the pictures in the late afternoon. Mum would make sure that Margaret, Bob, and I were bathed, and in our pajamas, dressing gown and slippers, we had our dinner, and were ready to go in plenty of time to get us to the pictures, get the tickets, and get settled into the seats well in time for the very exciting show. Being dressed in our pajamas when going out didn’t seem to be any issue for anyone. All the families were about the same as we were. This is the height of the baby boomers and we were just a part of that enormous cultural progression. It really was a time of innocence and the entire population were very civic minded, no one locked their doors, and everyone worked together for the benefit of the community.

This is the inside of the Imperial Theater at Wynnum in the early 1950s with the rows of canvas "sling" type seats.

Calling this place a theatre is a little bit of a stretch these days since that term also covers places like Her Majesties Theatre in the city, a place of real beauty and opulence and elegance. The Imperial was a large wooden structure that was built more for the practical application that for the aesthetic. The screen was just high enough on the wall that you could be sure to see it over the heads of those in front without any problem. This was just as well because the seats were quite basic. They consisted of a type of X frame at the ends with a low wooden rail at the front and a higher wooden rail at the back running lengthways to form a frame. Between the rails was slung a large sheet of heavy canvas so you made yourself as comfortable as possible in this sling arrangement. The rows were quite long, so a family like ours would spread ourselves out and take up one entire row. I don’t recall it ever being too crowded. In this semi sitting half reclined position in the hammock like seating you were naturally looking up, so that was perfect with the pictures projected high on the back wall.

Every night’s entertainment covered the full set of shows, starting with the national anthem, God Save the Queen, for which of course, we all had to stand up and show our solemn respect for Queen and Country. This was precious because it was still very fresh in the minds of everyone what the country had so recently suffered so that we could have the freedom to go to the pictures as a family and watch good western style entertainment. The theatre would have had in attendance many families who had lost loved ones in the struggle, so not to show respect when the national anthem was played was unthinkable. Then there was the Movietone Newsreal which showed all the news items that were from two weeks to a few months old. But they were films of real events going on in the world that we could watch up there on the big screen in fabulous flicker moving black and white pictures with a crackly sound track, and we were enthralled.

Next came the best part for us. It was the cartoon, and sometimes they even put on two cartoons which was a real treat. It was most often Popeye and sometimes Feelix the cat, maybe others, but I really don’t remember. After the cartoon came what we called a short. This was usually a documentary about wildlife or some other offering from National Geographic or perhaps even a short fiction story that were always interesting. After that came the intermission, and if we were really lucky, we got some not very cool watery drink and maybe some candy. But this sort of extravagance was usually outside the budget allowance for the night, so mum would then break out the sandwiches and bottles of drink that she had bought along from home for us to be satisfied with during the intermission.

The intermission was always an interesting time for me because I always watched in wonder at all the people who had to run out for drinks and seemed to be all going somewhere when there really wasn’t anywhere to go and it seemed silly to chance being late back to see the start of the main attraction for the night. Then, finally the lights went back down, and the feature film started. that mum and dad had really come to see.

A couple of years later, in this very cinema, I got to watch Cecil B. DeMille’s movie of the Ten Commandments. There was no chance that I was not going to see that movie, and I think that if my mother could have found the necessary time and money, we would have seen that one several times. Just seeing that story presented on the big screen was proof enough for mum and lots of other strong believers that her version of god not only existed, but was taking care of all of us, and heaven was waiting for us all once we got through this “vale of tears” existence. It also showed in the biblical story that god didn’t mind killing whole cities of people when they were he decided they were out of line. This was useful at that time as well because it meant that all the killing of the Japanese not so long ago when they were surely out of line with god too, and it was quite okay in the eyes of god so not a sin that threatened to get our own pearly gates pass revoked.

As soon as the lights went down after intermission, and the main attraction was starting, this was our cue to stretch out on the canvas seating. This type of super cheap seats were perfect for the children to be comfortably set down to sleep so that the parents could thoroughly enjoy the movie. They didn’t have those small voices always asking the silly questions about what was going on or what was said on the screen. The children slept peacefully, the mums and dads watched the movie in peace, and the world was a nice place to be again.

I really can remember being shaken awake to find that the film had ended and the lights were on again, and people were all doing the same as we were. They were sleepily gathering up their things including their children, and shuffling out of the theatre to go along home and get into bed. I remember too how it felt to get home at maybe around 10pm which was super late in the night time for us. In the winter time, the house was cold, the floors with only linoleum were cold, and in particular, I remember having to get into a cold bed. The sheets were always just a smooth cotton material, and when you slithered down between the sheets, it was icy cold, and you had to curl up and then wriggle around for a few minutes to try to warm up a small space where you could relax and pretty soon I blinked and it was morning.

A night out to the pictures was a special outing and we talked about it before the event with excited anticipation, and afterwards we talked about it long and often to try to maximize and perpetuate the enjoyment.