FOND memories of Glasgow’s old picture houses have flooded in since our feature on the city’s great cinema history.

Betty McKechnie, who sent us a lovely photograph of her family – mum, aunt, sister and three cousins - taken in the Gorbals in the 40s, said: “I am 81 years old, born in the Gorbals, and I loved it, dirt puddles and all.

“We lived in the picture halls. The closest to us was the Paragon. Cowboys in the afternoon, great films at night, and games in the street until 10 o’clock.

Glasgow Times:

“I remember the war, ration books, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth when we all got a wee tin of sweets – so exciting. Then there was the dancing – the Locarno, Barrowland – getting a lumber. We had such great laughs.

“I can’t say the young ones will ever have the fun we had.”

Glasgow Times:

Dan Harris, originally from Maryhill, sent us a romantic memory of the George Cinema near Charing Cross.

“My wife Marion and I spent our first date there in November 1948,” he recalls. “Above the entrance was a model Forth Railway Bridge, complete with a working model train.

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“The cinema opened as the Norwood and was covered in wall mirrors and glass fittings. At the opening ceremony in 1936, the owner, the eccentric Yorkshire millionaire, AE Pickard, used a crowbar to smash the glass doors.”

Glasgow Times:

And Jean Hamilton, of Garrowhill, said: “Some readers might remember when we all had to stand up at the end of the movies to listen to the national anthem.

“You didn’t have to sing along with it – none of us youngsters ever did – but you had to stand up to listen or woe betide you…”