Posted by bill oliphant on 7/8/2008, 7:29 am, in reply to "Re: The Ranch sweet shop"
210.50.148.189
Dear Barry,
I suspect that I go back much further than yourself. In the 1930s, for example, I used to go to the "Twopenny Rush" on Saturday mornings, not in the Ranch but in a cinema called "The Ritz", in Romford, Essex, where my dad had taken us in his search for work - I was born in Evenwood, but we were "bombed out" from our Romford house in 1940, and our little family hastened back to West where my gran and most of my other relatives lived, so I look on myself as a West Aucklander. Anyway, the cowboys in the Twopenny Rush included such heroes as Buck Jones, Dick Foran (billed as "the Singing Cowboy") Ken Maynard (also to be seen on the back page of the "Tip Top" comic) and Tom Mix, none of whom you will, methinks, have seen in the good old Ranch. Also in the Ritz I was privileged to see Buster Crabbe, like Johnny Weissmuller an Olympic swimmer, as "Flash Gordon". In your day I suppose that the fivepennies at the front were still reserved for young yobboes, boys on the right (facing the screen) and girls on the left, and they would still break out into foor-stamping when the film snapped in the projector. Why wasn't the Ranch preserved as a national monument ?
Cheers,
Bill
--Previous Message--
: Hi again Bill, actually, things were
: very similar in the fifties - there
: was usually a double bill with the
: lesser of the two films NOT a
: cowboy. The programme changed three
: times a week, and Sundays were
: reserved for X certificate films,
: usually horror movies. Pie Clark was
: still 'chucker out'.
: Also I checked something out. Carl
: Wheel definately ran the sweet shop
: next to the Ranch for a time in the
: fifties. He was of german origin.
: It all brings back memories.
: Cheers!
:
: --Previous Message--
: Dear Barry,
: I expect that by your
: time (the mid fifties) things had
: changed, but during the forties
: there was usually a double bill at
: the "Grand", the little
: picture more often than not being a
: "cowboy" (we didn't ever
: call them "Westerns") with
: either Roy Rogers or Gene Autry or
: The Three Mesquiteers or some such.
: And "Pie" Clark it was
: who took tickets and kept, or tried
: to keep, order. Happy days.
:
: Bill
:
: --Previous Message--
: Hi Bill. I know what you mean about
: memory lol.
: I remember the Ranch though very
: well, and used to go there twice a
: week in the mid-fifties and early
: sixties regardless of what films
: they were showing. I recall going
: one night with a friend of mine (who
: shall remain nameless) who had just
: bought a grass snake at Herdmans pet
: shop in Bishop Auckland. He was
: afraid, after buying it, to take it
: home at first in case his mother saw
: it, so he took it with him to the
: Ranch in his pocket. Of course the
: thing wriggled out and escaped
: causing pandamonium downstairs. Not
: many saw the end of the film that
: night!
: Happy days.
: Cheers.
: --Previous Message--
: Dear Barry,
: Thanks for the message -
: I was beginning to think that
: everyone in West had really carked
: it (as they say these days).
: During the war,not only was there
: standing room only in the Ranch
: itself, but also in the little shop
: next door where we used to spend our
: halfpennies. You may be right
: about the name "Wheels",
: but I don't myself remember it.
: But then, at my age, I hardly
: remember anything. As you age,
: three things happen. The first is
: that memory starts to go. And I've
: forgotten what the other two are.
:
: Cheers,
:
: Bill
:
: --Previous Message--
: With regard to the sweet shop next
: to
: the Ranch picture house, I remember
: going in there everytime I went to
: the cimema back in the nineteen
: fifties. As to the owner at that
: time, the name Carl Weel (or Wheel)
: rings a bell. Does that ring bells
: with anyone else?
:
: --Previous Message--
: Hi Bill,
:
: Yes, Dawson rang bells
:
: Lyn
:
: --Previous Message--
:
: Dear Lyn,
: Thanks Lyn - yes, the
: name "Dawson" does sound
: familiar. Do you have any friends
: with whom it rings bells ?
: Cheers,
:
: Bill
: --Previous Message--
: Hi Bill
:
: Could the name of the sweet shop
: owners be Dawson do you think
:
: Lyn
:
: --Previous Message--
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Hi Bill,
:
: I was told that Wheels (could be
: Weighells)had the sweet shop during
: the war then moved to a fish shop I
: think on the end of Post Office
: Square.
:
: Apparently as sweets were rationed
: during the war it was a stick of
: liquorice (the woody variety) and an
: Oxo cube - a halfpenny each - to
: munch on while enjoying the film!!
:
: Lyn
:
: --Previous Message--
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Hi Bill,
:
: Could it have been Wheels.
:
:
: Lyn
: --Previous Message--
: Dear All, I know you're out there -
: can't ANYONE tell me the name of the
: little sweet shop which used to
: stand just outside the Ranch, and
: which sold such fine things as
: Bassett's sherbet licorice (a
: halfpenny a triangular bag), and
: (for the very rich) bars of Aero
: milk chocolate ?
:
: Dear Lyn, It could have been
: "Wheels", but I don't
: recall the (usually crowded) shop
: having that name. On the other
: hand there was a fish shop called
: "Wheels" (perhaps spelled
: "Weighells")just on the
: opposite side of the road from
: P.Rea's ice-cream shop - delicious
: ice-cream, at a halfpenny for half a
: cupful. Oh, happy daus. Were you
: thinking of that ? In any case,
: many thanks for the reply. Bill
:
:
: Dear Lyn,
: I should also have said that the
: Wheels
: fish shop (fish and a pennorth,
: please) was there all through (and
: before) the War, as was the old
: sweet shop. And there were
: another two fish shops in what I
: later learned was called Post Office
: Square.: Cheers again, Bill
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