The Movies

You know you're getting old when your grand-children cannot understand what you're going to do when you announce,"We're going to the bioscope!" 

"Bioscope? Huh? Is that the procedure where the doctor shove a pipe with a go-pro camera into your insides to look at your tummy?" was about the closest explanation they could think of.

This made me think about the "official" explanation, rather than the medical rendition:  A Bioscope show was a music hall and fairground attraction consisting of a travelling cinema. The heyday of the Bioscope was from the late 1890's until World War I. Bioscope shows were fronted by the largest fairground organs, and these formed the entire public face of the show. A stage was usually in front of the organ, and dancing girls would entertain the crowds between film shows. Films shown in the Bioscope were primitive, and the earliest of these were made by the showmen themselves. Later, films were commercially produced.

During my childhood, the so-called "cinema" was still known as a "bioscope", and the ones in the larger cities with usherette/waitresses serving light refreshment old drinks and teas were "tea-room biscopes" featuring looping films. You would simply walk in while the film was being shown, sit down and place your refreshment order and pay for it including your admission fee to a roving  waitress. We didn't live near any big city, so I probably only went to such a tea-room about three or four times.  It was only in my teenage years that I could go to a "bioscope"-- I only remember one -- which had a South African undertone about life in some fishing village somewhere. Hmmm.
Oh yes, and that 1959 epic,"One man's fight, against the might,of Imperial Rome!"

One Man's fight against the might of Imperial Rome - Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur

In later life:  I have to admit that you can probably count the number of movies I've seen in the last 20 years and my fingers. I suppose I've never been much of a movie addict -- I guess its a bit of my old concentration/ attention span problem, the same one which blocks the reading of books. Give me an  interesting documentary or biography, then I'm all eyes and ears.

In the last month, I've been to the movies twice, would you believe?

The movies themselves are not significant in themselves. "Holmes" is the tale of Sherlock himself, to wit: an ageing Holmes returns from a journey to Japan in search of a rare plant which should counteract the effects of aging, especially a failing memory. He tries to give attention to the unsolved case which ended his career. Hmmm.

And then "Far from the madding crowd." I remember that we had a copy of it on the bookshelves, but I cannot remember ever having even tried reading the introduction, let alone Thomas Hardy's fine words.  Shame on me.Mmmm.

But its not the novelty of the act of going to bioscope the movies, but rather the venue where we saw the movies: The Shoreline in Waikanae.

  

The Shorline is what I would call a "boutique bioscope" with huge comfortable sofas and plenty of cushions,justthe berries for a lazy slouch like me -- I'm really a professional slouch on a couch!