Glenngoozler Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 (edited) Hi, could somebody Kindly tell me where abouts the stopping place Known as ' the Pictures' on the BCN is situated, thanks Tim Edited May 15, 2021 by Glenngoozler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek R. Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Well, anywhere near a cinema I would guess! Which could be any number of places. Unless someone has a better knowledge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark99 Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 (edited) Seems to have been an almost common evening out for some boaters according to the books I read about the last of the working boatmen. Catching the latest cinema film. Also visting the municipal baths. Edited May 15, 2021 by mark99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Brooks Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Maybe Star City today, I think there is a cinema there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
springy Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Do you mean Star City on the B'ham & Warwick Junction Canal (GU) ? https://canalplan.org.uk/place/pge1 beaten to it by Tony springy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Brooks Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 I suspect the OP is asking about a "place" from days gone by but has given us no idea of where he got that name from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray T Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 (edited) Deleted as not applicable. Edited May 16, 2021 by Ray T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 15, 2021 Report Share Posted May 15, 2021 Could it be "The Pitchers" rather than "the pictures" Sounds like a pub name, but I can't think where it might be. Pitcher & Piano near Gas Street basin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek R. Posted May 16, 2021 Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 Maybe triggered by 'Hemel' & 'Ronnie' stopping off to go to the Pictures going North. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEngo Posted May 16, 2021 Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 I think Tom Foxon described the location of "The Pictures" in one of his two books on boating as a No1. I don't have them handy now, but IIRC it was somewhere between Saltley Junction and Minworth. N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenngoozler Posted May 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 1 hour ago, BEngo said: I think Tom Foxon described the location of "The Pictures" in one of his two books on boating as a No1. I don't have them handy now, but IIRC it was somewhere between Saltley Junction and Minworth. N Thank you . I've managed to find a ref in Maidens trip, putting it on the Bottom road which confirms the same, I'll go look in Tom foxon's Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEngo Posted May 16, 2021 Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 Found the reference above: Pearson Edition, Tom Foxon: No1 p67. "Between Butlers and Holly Lane bridges.........Grand Union boatmen used to refer to this place as 'The Pictures'." It appears to have been a deep length adjacent to Constructors Ltd. N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenngoozler Posted May 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 12 minutes ago, BEngo said: Found the reference above: Pearson Edition, Tom Foxon: No1 p67. "Between Butlers and Holly Lane bridges.........Grand Union boatmen used to refer to this place as 'The Pictures'." It appears to have been a deep length adjacent to Constructors Ltd. N Found it ! , goes on to say when tied up there he visited the local ' Flea pit ' . I heard that expression a few times as a boy.. THANKS AGAIN Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Brightley Posted May 18, 2021 Report Share Posted May 18, 2021 I'd never heard of this reference before and I've been puzzling why boatmen should stop there instead of going to the pictures in the centre of Birmingham. But of course the cinemas in the city centre were quite a walk from Sampson Road or Camp Hill top. I've done a bit of googling and there was a cinema literally just across the road from the canal on Kingsbury Road- so possibly the closest to the boatmens' route anywhere in the area. It was called the Apollo and it opened in 1930 and closed in 1960, being demolished shortly afterwards. OS map and photos attached (all from the net). Boaters could have moored on the wharf, walked out of the wharf gates, crossed the road and they were there. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tacet Posted May 18, 2021 Report Share Posted May 18, 2021 The Pictures is an interesting phrase. In my experience it is reasonbly common in some circles - but rather derided in others where it is viewed as baby-talk for cinema. I wonder if the term arose from a distinction with alternative forms of entertainment, such as the music hall. And whether it pre- or post-dates "the talkies"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mack Posted May 18, 2021 Report Share Posted May 18, 2021 If that cinema was built in 1930 then it was probably equipped for 'talkies' from the start, and if not it would soon have been so. According to Wikipedia over 60% of British cinemas were fitted for sound by the end of 1930. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo47 Posted May 19, 2021 Report Share Posted May 19, 2021 (edited) It was always "The Pictures" in my part of East London in the 1950's, when referrng to picture palaces in general, never "The Cinema" or "The Flicks". Edited May 19, 2021 by Ronaldo47 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek R. Posted May 19, 2021 Report Share Posted May 19, 2021 (edited) 'The Flicks', most likely due to the flickering images of early cinema. And who as a child didn't draw a series of matchstick men in different stances on numerous pieces of paper, then flick them with one finger whilst holding them in the other hand to see the drawn image move! The Movies. Motion pictures projected on a screen - the 'pictures'. Saturday morning 'pictures' was always a favourite. Sixpence was the entrance fee, cowboys & Indians, science fiction with bean can space ships with sparklers for 'propulsion', and if you were 'rich' and didn't mind queuing, a tiny tub of ice cream (with the bottom very near the top!) from the girl at the front during the 'intermission'. Red velvet covered fold-up sprung seats on cast iron frames - watch your fingers! Being guided by a torch to your seat after lights down - always a thrill. Gaumont, Odeon, The Ritz, The Palace, Apollo, The Empire, The Rex. Our local Rex was always called the Flea Pit. Lots were former theatres come music halls that installed the big screen and the management began installing 'sound'. Our Odeon still had the organist playing upon entry, to sink down out of sight upon the beginning of the show, always preceded by a Pathé News clip. Then came television. No queuing, and a jam sandwich & tea while watching. So few years ago. The Gaumont became a Bingo hall and later an ethnic Church, stripped of former glory, but the memories remain. Everything passes eventually. Edited May 19, 2021 by Derek R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenngoozler Posted May 19, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2021 On 18/05/2021 at 12:48, John Brightley said: I'd never heard of this reference before and I've been puzzling why boatmen should stop there instead of going to the pictures in the centre of Birmingham. But of course the cinemas in the city centre were quite a walk from Sampson Road or Camp Hill top. I've done a bit of googling and there was a cinema literally just across the road from the canal on Kingsbury Road- so possibly the closest to the boatmens' route anywhere in the area. It was called the Apollo and it opened in 1930 and closed in 1960, being demolished shortly afterwards. OS map and photos attached (all from the net). Boaters could have moored on the wharf, walked out of the wharf gates, crossed the road and they were there. Absolutely superb, nice one. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted May 19, 2021 Report Share Posted May 19, 2021 20 hours ago, Tacet said: The Pictures is an interesting phrase. In my experience it is reasonbly common in some circles - but rather derided in others where it is viewed as baby-talk for cinema. I wonder if the term arose from a distinction with alternative forms of entertainment, such as the music hall. And whether it pre- or post-dates "the talkies"? Certainly when I was a boy in Sheffield in the early '60s people spoke of "Going to the pictures". "Talkies" was an outmoded word by then, because nearly all fiulms had been talkies for the last 30 years. I do remember "flicks" being used. When I was at university the Students' Union always showed a "Sunday Flick". But that word too became outmoded - until revived big-time in recent years by Netflix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo47 Posted May 19, 2021 Report Share Posted May 19, 2021 (edited) The image did flicker noticeably in the very early days of cinema, when projectors were effectively cameras in reverse, with a single shutter that obscured the film gate when the film was being transported to show the next frame at around 16 frames per second. The problem was solved well before the First World War by the invention of the multi-blade shutter with 3 (sometimes 4) blades to produce 48 (or 64) flicks per second with a 16 frames per second silent film film. When the talkies came in, they upped the frame rate to 24, not to reduce flicker, but to increase the linear speed of the film in order to achieve an acceptable frequency response with the optical sound track. A two-bladed shutter was used rather than a three-bladed one in order to obtain the 48 flicks per second of silent films while producing as bright an image as possible. A silent film projected using a silent film projector shouldn't exhibit flicker, and I suspect that the special effects that many TV programs use in a misguided attempt to simulate silent film, have never seen one projected properly. Showing a silent film at its correct speed with the 2 - bladed shutter of a standard sound projector does however produce a noticeable 32 flicks per second, and Bell & Howell for one, used to offer a three-bladed shutter option for their 16mm sound projectors for flicker-free projection of silent films. . Edited May 19, 2021 by Ronaldo47 typos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hastings Posted May 20, 2021 Report Share Posted May 20, 2021 I'm nearly 75, and I went to the Pictures regularly in my teens - the 1950s-1960s. I lived in a Thames-side town in Buckinghamshire, and going to the cinema was universally known as "going to the Pictures". The Flicks was hardly used, and was a slang term. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Morgan Posted May 20, 2021 Report Share Posted May 20, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, Hastings said: I'm nearly 75, and I went to the Pictures regularly in my teens - the 1950s-1960s. I lived in a Thames-side town in Buckinghamshire, and going to the cinema was universally known as "going to the Pictures". The Flicks was hardly used, and was a slang term. And we referred to the film itself as a picture, as in "That was a good picture". The use of "pictures" to describe cinemas and the films they showed has quite an exalted pedigree. The 'Oscars' are award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Edited May 20, 2021 by Tom Morgan correct my grammar! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree monkey Posted May 21, 2021 Report Share Posted May 21, 2021 On 19/05/2021 at 23:43, Ronaldo47 said: The image did flicker noticeably in the very early days of cinema, when projectors were effectively cameras in reverse, with a single shutter that obscured the film gate when the film was being transported to show the next frame at around 16 frames per second. The problem was solved well before the First World War by the invention of the multi-blade shutter with 3 (sometimes 4) blades to produce 48 (or 64) flicks per second with a 16 frames per second silent film film. When the talkies came in, they upped the frame rate to 24, not to reduce flicker, but to increase the linear speed of the film in order to achieve an acceptable frequency response with the optical sound track. A two-bladed shutter was used rather than a three-bladed one in order to obtain the 48 flicks per second of silent films while producing as bright an image as possible. A silent film projected using a silent film projector shouldn't exhibit flicker, and I suspect that the special effects that many TV programs use in a misguided attempt to simulate silent film, have never seen one projected properly. Showing a silent film at its correct speed with the 2 - bladed shutter of a standard sound projector does however produce a noticeable 32 flicks per second, and Bell & Howell for one, used to offer a three-bladed shutter option for their 16mm sound projectors for flicker-free projection of silent films. . Excellent, all of that was completely new to me, thanks for that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo47 Posted May 22, 2021 Report Share Posted May 22, 2021 (edited) Heres some of my source material, from 1923 and 1949. I guess once a satisfactory standard had been developed, there wasn't much need for further research, or interest in how the estabished systems had been derived. The 1923 article (from a 5-volume edition that I found in the library at work) is the only place I have seen any mention of the early research into flicker elimination. I have seen several assertions in the popular press that the 24fps speed was introduced to reduce flicker. If flicker had been a problem, then the three-bladed silent film shutter would have continued to be used. The more blades, the greater the loss of illumination, and as only two blades were needed for flicker-free projection of sound films, once silent films were no longer being distributed to theatres, two bladed shutters could be adopted to provide as bright a picture as possible. Kinematograph 1923.pdf Ilford Cine 1949.pdf Edited May 22, 2021 by Ronaldo47 typos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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