Changing times

On Sunday I was helping with a community cinema show in the Colintraive Hall,  using equipment that was grant aided by Creative Scotland during the pandemic.   It  - along with  the chosen picture Operation Mincemeat - was well received and awoke memories of my Cinema Sgire days when I toured the Western Isles showing movies in lots of village halls.

The got me thinking about how film going has changed.   

Last night, for example, I watchword the Powell/ Pressburger 1941 Second World War propaganda film "The 49th Parallel" on my laptop at home , drawn to it because of hearing the Vaughan Williams opening music on the radio earlier in the week.  In contrast ten days ago I  saw the new Gaelic film "Duthchas "  in the lovely and very comfortable Screen Machine parked at the shinty pitch in Tighnabruaich .  

Today  however I was in Dunoon and walked past what until 1974 was the "La Scala" picture house, part of the Green's chain .  When it  opened in 1936 it had almost a thousand seats but now all that is left is the facade with the ground floor converted to shops.   The same fate has befallen the old George Cinema in Troon which I attended often as a child.  

I managed to find on line an image of it when in full operation, thanks to the Scottish Cinemas and Theatres Archive, and I have included that as an extra photo, just for contrast.    There is of course still a cinema operating in Dunoon, the "Studio" which this week is screening the romantic comedy "Ticket to Paradise".  

Which often the cinema was, of course.....or at least to a momentary escape from life's cares.