The Roy Rogers Riders Club operated at the Curzon between 1953 and 1958, later becoming simply the Curzon Cinema Children's Club. Identical in format, this carried on for almost twelve more years, meeting every Saturday morning until June,1970. Both clubs brought to their juvenile audiences a unique selection of features, comedy shorts, cartoons and serials, many of which could not have been seen anywhere else.

The Curzon had huge wine-coloured stage-curtains in front of the screen tabs and there was always a loud cheer when these were opened, this being the signal that the show would start very soon. Originally, the first item on each programme was a short greeting by Roy Rogers himself, who rode on-screen on Trigger, "The Smartest Horse In the Movies". He would then turn the proceedings over to his ranch foreman and Curzon manager, Mr. Spiers, on stage.

His "Good Morning, Children" would be answered by a loud "Good Morning, Uncle Sidney", after which he'd introduce the programme with something like...."And now we have The Three Stooges and Donald Duck". It could have been Andy Clyde and Pluto or several other combinations, but this always brought another loud cheer.

There would then follow the latest episode of a serial, always with a cliff-hanger ending. "Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars", "Atom Man vs Superman" and "The Phantom Empire" with Gene Autry were all early favourites. Then followed the ice-cream interval, and those lucky enough to have bought cartons with the Curzon stamp on the base could claim their prizes, often passes to see forthcoming mainstream features. The main feature was then often a "B" western or comedy.

Sometimes films and shorts, and indeed serials, made by the Children's Film Foundation, were shown. These were specially made for juvenile audiences and mostly featured children as well. At times, Laurel And Hardy, the Bowery Boys, George Formby or Norman Wisdom would turn up. And Old Mother Riley Met The Vampire at least three times over the years!

The copies of these rare films were stored in the old Lyceum cinema on Belfast's Antrim Road and were destroyed when it was burned down. The Saturday morning shows ended on June 27th with "Abbott And Costello Meet The Mummy". Doesn't seem like thirty-five years ago!

RELATED LINKS

Billy remembers the Glory days of the Ritz Cinema in Belfast

More Curzon memories

Brief history of the Curzon