Long time standing

I remember the Picturedrome when the film Gone with the Wind was featured to our surprise as normally the Plaza or Hippodrome would have the “big” films. My friend Eileen and I left school (Girls Central, Derby Road) at about 4.15pm and joined the queue that went around the corner. After a while standing, the attendant came along saying, “Two standing room” so we jumped at it and found a few more people standing behind the board. The film was halfway through and this was the interval as it was an unheard of 4 hours, plus interval of about 20 minutes. Two people were leaving and told us we could have their seats as they weren’t coming back for the second half. I can remember how we sat there eating snacks and watching the rest of the film. I remember the next showing of the film would start at 8pm and so we could only stay a short while to watch as our parents would be worried about how long it had been. I really enjoyed the film and it was years later that I finally watched it from the beginning to the end, courtesy of TV.