Chums Club!

A Memory of Cannock.

Saturday mornings in the 50's were often filled by many a child with a visit to the Danilo cinema in High Green.

That building was indeed a 'People's Picture Palace' with its impressive art deco design facade and a luxurious interior dripping with chrome and rich fabrics for the huge, swathed curtains which were drawn back from the stage to reveal the screen. Even the rabbit warren of broad staircases were carpeted and adorned with polished handrails.

There were even two small shops either side of the main entrance doors, one of which was for ladies' fashion. That had a most attractive young lady working there who had caught the eye of many of us lads. However, she was a bit too old for us as she must have been in her late teens and obviously being courted by a dashing young man named Rex who worked as a car salesman for Bond's garage at the junction of the Old and New Penkridge Roads.

The Saturday morning picture show was always known as The Chums' Club. The stalls would be packed with youngsters set to enjoy all sorts of films, serials with Flash Gordon and the like and of course cartoons. The usual diet of ice-cream and sweets was readily available for a few pence.

Talking about money, it wasn't all that much to go to the Club. However, some young rogues discovered that by sending one of their number in to buy a ticket, he could then sneak to one of the huge fire doors which was operated by the usual push bar mechanism, give that a mighty push to open it and admit the remainder of his chums into the cinema for free!

Using childish cunning, the door which was to be opened was varied. Sometimes it was at ground level. Other Saturdays there would be a gang of lads seen climbing the black painted fire-escape which stood in a passage way between the Danilo and the old Post Office.

This became so common an event that it was extended to other days. An older boy would pay to view all sorts of films, even dubious X rated adult stuff. He would then perform the usual routine to let his much younger mates in.

Eventually the management must have caught wind of this practice. Seeing a number of obviously under ten year olds in short trousers leaving the cinema after a gruesome war film for over 18's suggested that something was going wrong with their systems.

They couldn't lock the doors for safety reasons but a few extra staff patrolling the building did the trick from their point of view and did for the trick played by the kids.