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Reply to mblog's comment

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Reply to mblog's comment

05.22.04 (7:43 am) [edit]

This is in reply to “mblog’s” comment on my previous post, but thinking it might be long I decided to write it here.
I used to do that thing of turning up at the cinema half way through a movie and staying to that point where you turn to your friends and say, “this is where we came in”. It seems so weird now, but completely normal then. Our local “flea pit” was a grand old lady with lots of red and gold decoration. On Saturdays she hosted a matinee for all the local kids. It was chaos. We’d come up with all kinds of schemes to get in without paying, climbing in through toilet windows was a favourite, and spend our entrance money on sweets instead. My mother’s parting words on a Saturday morning were always, “be nice to the lady with the torch and the moustache.”
What you reminded me of however is something I’ve spoken to many people about and nobody seems to know what I’m talking about. It must have been in the 60’s, a brand of tea (Brook Bond P.G. Tips I think) and they used monkeys in their advertising. From what I remember it was all based on a chimp’s tea party. Anyway, one Saturday we all went along to the cinema to a special P.G. Tips presentation. To get in you had to turn up with an empty packet of tea. I remember the foyer being piled high with empty packets, women dressed up in Indian saris, kids running wild and dozens of chimps let loose in the cinema! It’s true. They just threw a few hundred unaccompanied kids into a cinema with a load of chimps, closed the doors and rolled a few films. What I can’t remember is who came out worse for wear, us or the chimps.
I’m sure this thing was some kind of road-show, but so far haven’t met anybody else who experienced it. Maybe our cinema in Manchester was the first venue and they decided after that it was a bad idea.

posted by: lynne (reply)
post date: 05.22.04 (5:57 am)

Oh man Andaloo. Just the idea of a theater full of kids with chimps running wild (who was more wild, the chimps or the kids?) cracks me up. I have never heard of such a thing!

posted by: SusanofPudlin (reply)
post date: 05.23.04 (6:05 pm)

Oh Dear Sweet Jeeeesus. Chimpanzee bites are so very lethal. The legal part of me does a quick tattoo about the sheer liability factor. Oh good G---awwwd. Kids and ill trained chimps. ANd vice versa.!!!! A nightmare of litigious proportion!

posted by: mblog (reply)
post date: 05.23.04 (7:36 pm)

Reply to: SusanofPudlin

They probably used baby chimps, which of course has its own problems and is very exploitive. But back then, I'm sure nobody worried. After all, they were just animals.

posted by: Andaloo (reply)
post date: 05.23.04 (10:15 pm)

Reply to: mblog
Who are you calling an animal! ;) And we'll have less of the "back then" thank you.

posted by: mblog (reply)
post date: 05.24.04 (1:40 pm)

Reply to: Andaloo

The 60's were a million years ago. If you don't believe me, ask any teenager.

posted by: ReBorn (reply)
post date: 05.25.04 (4:16 pm)

LOL i remember those ads, they went on well into 90s... i used to live in UK then... believe it or not, until i was 22 i was scared of touching PG Tips teabags (i didnt want to turn in to a chimp) ... just look at me now lolll you can never be too careful..
and as usual, a great weblog :)

posted by: Anne-Marie (reply)
post date: 05.27.04 (12:21 am)

I used to work in a cinema and Kid's Club was no fun with or without a hangover lol

posted by: old ex commenteer (reply)
post date: 06.02.04 (12:50 am)

We are the boys and girls are known as, minors of the ABC, and every Saturday all line up to see the films we like to shout aloud with glee,,,.we love to laugh and have a sing song, such a happy crowd are we, we're all pals together, the minors of the A-B-C!

posted by: Andaloo (reply)
post date: 06.02.04 (2:56 am)

Reply to: old
*BWAAAAHAA* That's great! Oh you must be posh if you went to the ABC. Thanks for that, whoever you are.

posted by: Andaloo (reply)
post date: 06.02.04 (3:00 am)

Reply to: Anne-Marie
OMG kids and a hangover...I think I'd rather stick pins in my eyes!