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Post by snsurone on Mar 29, 2020 11:48:34 GMT
In post WWII England they always played the National Anthem after the final showing of the evening. So as the words "The End" came up on the screen (or a bit earlier) there was a mad rush for the exit, leaving a minority standing to attention. My parents compromised. If they could get out fast enough they would, but if they were caught by the opening drum-roll they froze at attention as if bewitched. There were five cinemas in our town of 30,000 pop. There were usually three programmes (main feature, B-Picture, newsreel and cartoon - no travelogue for us poor Brits) and members of the audience would enter at any point and (usually) leave once they reached the point in the cycle where they came in, though they could if they so wished sit there and see the whole programme up to three times for as little as one shilling and threepence (about US 7 cents). That is why Paramount's "gimmick" with Psycho was so brave, and I think it did initiate a change of habits. London, my parents were just like the audiences you mentioned. Whenever we went to the movies, we would enter about midway through the film, and then leave after the first part was shown. How I hated that! When I finally moved away, I made it a point of seeing a movie from beginning to end in one sitting. BTW, Hitch was a genius.
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