Posted by bill oliphant
on 1/5/2009, 5:06 am, in reply to "Re: The Ranch sweet shop"
210.50.187.32
Dear June,
No, I don't recall any live afternoon shows at the Ranch - were they pre-war ? I do, however, remember the first post-war appearance of an ice-cream girl at the Ranch - she was mobbed, and disappeared under a surging mob, all brandishing their twopences. For all I know, she may not have survived, poor lass. I've been living in Australia now for half a century, and on one of our trips back home I visited my uncle Tom in the Old Folks' Home where the Ranch used to be -perhaps you knew my cousin Jean (Howe as was)or her sister Marion, who now lives in Spring Gardens.
Cheers,
Bill
--Previous Message--
: Dear Bill,
: Yes I remember Pie Clark and sitting
: at the front in the cinema on forms
: - boys on one side and girls on the
: other. Pie Clark put me out several
: time for sitting on the boys side
: because my brother and his friends
: were there. Wonderful memories. Do
: you remeber the live shows that were
: on at the Ranch on a Sunday
: afternoon?
:
: --Previous Message--
: Dear June,
: Thanks for putting us
: straight. You'll evidently
: remember Pie Clark and the
: window-opener he used for
: disciplinary purposes, and the
: golden days of "Boston
: Blackie" and "Crime Does
: Not Pay' and the fivepennies at the
: front.
:
: Cheers,
:
: Bill Oliphant
:
: --Previous Message--
: Dawsons had the sweetshop next door
: to
: the Grand Cinema in the early 1940's
: - nicknamed The Ranch because of all
: the cowboy films it showed. We used
: to travel from West Auckland to
: Shildon during the war years in a
: pony and trap to pick up supplies
: for the sweetshop
: --Previous Message--
: Dear Billy,
: Your suggestion of
: "Blacketts" does ring a
: bell. I'll very shortly be in
: heaven (I've outlived both Napoleon
: Bonaparte and Socrates) and I'll
: make enquiries up there. If they
: have e-mail, I'll let you know. Do
: you remember the Ranch from those
: days ?
:
: Cheers,
:
: Bill
:
: --Previous Message--
: Could the sweet shop of been
: Blacketts?
:
: --Previous Message--
: Dear All,
: I should also have
: mentioned William Boyd, the
: silver-haired ex-Silent Film Star,
: as Hopalong Cassidy, and all the
: comic reliefs such as George
: "Gabby" Hayes,
: "Smiley" Burnette, and
: Hoppy's sidekick "Lucky",
: played I think by Russell Hayden.
: Turn back the clock, someone !
:
: Bill
:
: --Previous Message--
: 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
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Message Thread:
« Back to thread
