Working in Brentwood
One of the towns where I worked briefly many years ago is Brentwood in Essex.
While I was an Assistant Manager in the cinema business, back in the mid 1960s, one of my duties was to go out on relief, in other words to be in temporary charge of a cinema while the Manager was on holiday, or ill, or otherwise absent.
This was usually for a couple of days, but sometimes would be for a week or even a fortnight.
It gave me an interesting insight into how different Managers coped with the day to day problems of the business, and how in some cases they were proactive in drawing audiences.
One of the cinemas which I had to relieve at sometimes was the Odeon at Brentwood. This was situated in the High Street of this old town, behind the ruins of St. Thomas of Canterbury Chapel.
The cinema, alas, was demolished some years ago, but the chapel ruins are still there. Where the Odeon once stood there is now a small indoor shopping centre, featuring among other outlets Wilkinsons and BBs.
If anybody reading this has any connection with Brentwood (Born? Lived? Worked? Ancestors? Relatives?), I will be very pleased to hear from them.
Posted by colin on Friday 27th March, 2009 at 8:56am