LAST week, we featured a picture of the ABC Cinema on Bridge Street.

TODAY’S picture is the ABC cinema on Newport’s Bridge St. This stood on the site of the splendid Lyceum Theatre. The ABC replaced the old Olympia cinema that stood in Skinner St and had entertained the people of Newport for 35 years.

The new cinema opened on the 28th November 1968 with Tommy Steele’s musical Half a Sixpence.

My wife and I went to see the film on the first night. The manager was Mr TC Buttle, seats were :- front stalls 5/- (25p), rear stalls 6/6 (32p), lounge 7/6 (37p) – you couldn’t buy an ice cream today for the price of the best seat in the house!

After the cinema closed the building was used for several businesses and today it is an economy hotel.

Dave Woolven, Newport

THE today’s picture is the old ABC cinema in Bridge Street. Before that it was the site of that grand old building – The Lyceum. What a waste for the town when that was demolished! Conveniently opposite the Queens Hotel, it went through several changes of ownership and was eventually closed in 2009. It is now a hotel.

James Dyer, Newport

USED to queue around the block on a Sat morning with my little brothers to watch Robinson Crusoe (remember the music to that one) Chico the rainmaker and the regular feature films.

We used to get given a badge each time we went you had to collect each letter of the alphabet so you would often see children with loads of shiny alphabet letters on their coats and jumpers and doing swaps to obtain a letter they didn’t have.

We were in a group called the minors of the ABC and I still remember the song we used to sing every Saturday morning in the cinema in the early seventies:

“We are the boys and girls well known as, minors of the ABC
and every Saturday all line up to see the things we like and shout about with glee
we like to laugh and have a sing song what a happy crowd are we.....!
we’re all pals together we’re minors of the ABC “
(ABC was shouted at the top of our voices )

Happy Days indeed!

Paul Trewick, Newport