Walford Hughes remembers the 'magic lantern' at Aberystwyth Coliseum

Description

Transcription: W: The decade between 1925 and 1935, I think was the heyday of theatre and cinema. The Aberystwyth Dramatic and Operatic Society (I had a job to remember that title then; goes back a long time!) but all my family, my mother, my sisters were delighted to be involved. C: So, if you were born in 1920, and the Coliseum became a cinema in 1933. Do you remember anything before then? W: Oh, yes! There were films with a very primitive kind of machinery. First of all, we used to go to slide shows. It was a pretty important day when the slides came. Now, everybody went! But sometimes it turned out to be a dreadful disaster! *laughs* Either the machine wasn't working or something would go wrong! The man who was putting the slides on; he was at his wits end most of the time! Getting the slides into the machine because he couldn't see, you see. He didn't have the special lighting; he would do it in the dark and from the light reflected by the screen. We were all up by it- outcast causing all sorts trouble sitting in the six pence seats, but there we are! C: As part of the slide shows they would show some little films... W: Yes, there would be, there would be something of that kind, yes. The slide show was the easiest way to show something and display it to the public. C: I've heard as well that before it became a cinema, that's 1933, there used to be political meetings at the Coliseum. You would have been very young, but I don't know... W: Yes, I can remember my father coming back. He was a good talker, but that's all he did: talk! *laughs* He would make a short remark or something like that, and that was his summing up. *laughs*