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will get air raid warnings. When we do,
let me say that our theatre is much safer
than the streets. Secondly, if ever an air-
raid warning is received, we’ll tell you.
Thirdly, if an air-raid warning is
received, the police advice is that only
those within five minutes from home
should leave. The show will go on for
those who stay. Fourthly, we are sure
that any who do leave will do so quietly
and without fuss. You will realize how
important it is to keep a cool head. We
can empty the theatre in two and a half
minutes if you help. Finally, our staff
has been trained for an emergency.
They know exactly what to do. If there
ever is an air-raid warning you can have
The Argus Monday 5 Sept. 1939. Source: State Library of Victoria. complete confidence in them. Please

to be allowed to wear trousers when fireman would go on stage and blow tell your friends what our arrangements
working up ladders. At the Granada his whistle as signal for everyone to are - and tell them not to be frightened
Greenwich, there were mild protests drop broom, mop, or paint brush and if I pop up. That’s all.”
at being detailed for needlework on rush to deal with imaginary incendiary On 9 September 1939 cinemas in
“those dreadful, dusty curtains,” but it bombs. Manager Kohn’s favourite trick the outer London ring were allowed to
was not long before overalls and dust was to unroll the hose from the front reopen. Permission for the remaining
caps became the uniform. At the stalls, couple it to a length of hose cinemas came at 9 pm on the BBC
Empire, Edmonton the female staff slung over the circle and proceed to News a week later. More than one
filled as many sandbags as the men; at dowse an imaginary blaze in the manager had to leave home before
the Granada Woolwich where the operating box. His best time was under dawn in order to re-open his theatre on
nearness of the docks caused qualms, two minutes. The local fire chief was time. Matinee business boomed.
the organist played lively tunes while impressed. Transition to wartime cinema going
the other staff worked. With the call-up, staff began to brought changes. Gone were the
It was a strange feeling - working in dwindle. At Greenwich the foreman beckoning neons, the blazing canopy
a theatre that was not functioning and disappeared and arrived two days later lights. Cinemas were swallowed up in
might never re-open, though everyone as a lieutenant in a staff car with a the blackness, and even regular
refused to believe that. It was a ‘matey’ uniformed driver. A week later he was patrons, who had navigated twice a
time that saw the beginnings of the discharged and returned to his job as week for years by such urban lode-
breaking down of the earlier barriers foreman, scrubbing the foyer, but a stars, found that going out was now
between a manager and his staff. few days later the Army, realizing its something of an adventure.
When the cleaning and loss, re-claimed him. The next week he Soon to disappear was the
maintenance jobs ran out and there called again on the manager in the profusion of posters, stills, throw-
were neither bombs nor patrons, the same staff car. aways and hanging cards. Paper
usherettes in one theatre played bowls The position of Chief Operator was Control orders reduced the size of
in the aisles; in another it was the only exempt post amongst cinema posters by eleven twelfths and then
rounders. The war did not feel real. staff. Head Office advised the halved it again. The number of posters
At the Granada East Ham, the immediate engagement by every that could be displayed by any theatre
manager arranged with the doctors at cinema of three or four men between was reduced to ten whereas in peace-
Queen Mary’s Hospital to give lectures the ages of 45 and 50 to fill positions time some cinemas had used as many
in the theatre for his staff and for the from that of foreman to assistant as 300 posters of four different sizes.
staff from two other theatres. In return manager. Usherettes were ready to be The first air raid warning
he arranged dances for the nurses at drafted to café duties, organists were to announced at the Granada Tooting
which the Granada band-leader be coached to double on the manager’s was greeted with a babble of talk;
provided the music. At the Granada typewriter. some mothers and a few fathers left to
Maidstone, on two mornings a week a Bren-gunners appeared on the roof go home to their children, but the
St John Ambulance instructor put the of the Granada Woolworth, and had majority of the audience stayed put.
staff through their paces in first aid and the time of their lives billeted in the For the first few minutes after the
bandaging. The house manager was staff canteen. An Enfield patron program resumed there were uncertain
regularly tied up in inextricable knots. brought in goldfish from his pond and glances this way and that, but with the
Practice runs for gas detection were asked if they could join the Rialto’s staff present in the aisles and showing
undertaken at local gasworks and fish in the foyer fountain and pond. no nervousness, the audience took
heart. This was to be part of life in
sewage farms and sets of silver medals Managers began memorizing their
London during wartime.
were won, but seldom worn. recitation. “Ladies and Gentlemen, after
Theatre fire drill occupied much of every feature I come up on stage and As managers bobbed up and down
the time. At the Granada Woolwich a make my little speech. Naturally we with greater regularity (there were 52
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