The silver screen comes to Wymondham
Relive the glory days of the Saturday pictures as a special cowboy show comes to the old Regal
Roy, Gene and Hoppy are riding again, the stars of a special film show in Wymondham on Sunday to revive the glory days of the Saturday pictures – when the kids took over the cinemas.
All week it was the grown-ups who packed the movie houses, but come Saturday, the children took over.
For them it was the highlight of the week, when they could cheer and shout as their heroes rode across the silver screen.
The likes of Roy Rogers and Trigger – the smartest horse in the movies – Hopalong Cassidy and the sweet-voiced Gene Autry.
All three will star in a special cowboy show at the old Regal Cinema in Wymondham, now part of the Ex-Services Club.
For those of us who were there, we will never forget the wall of sound. The extraordinary noise as we cheered our heroes, booed the villians and stamped our feet most of the time.
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The show, organised by Michael Armstrong of the Regal Experience Group, will give picturegoers a chance to relive those children's matinees of the 1940s and 1950s when the Regal had a Chums Club and several cinemas in Norwich, had their own club for kids.
There was the ABC Minors Club, complete with its own monitors to keep order, the Guamont had its own club and of course Norwich had its very own 'cowboy' cinema – the much-loved Theatre de Luxe, known as 'The Ranch House'.
As Michael says, the Chums Club reunion will be a wonderful chance to relive old memories if you were there at the time and also a chance for a younger generation to see how their grandparents enjoyed themselves.
On the bill will be:
The Bells of Coronada (1950), starring Roy Rogers and Trigger. That old horse could cook you breakfast!
The North of the Rio Grande (1937), with Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and Gabby Hayes.
The singing cowboy Gene Autry in Strawberry Roan (1948). And to add to the atmosphere members of the Norwich Ghostriders Western Club will be turning up in full cowboy costumes.
The show will start at the Ex-Services Club on Sunday at 2pm. Tickets cost �5 and are available by calling Michael Armstrong on 01953 603246.
