Welcome to the Wick Society

About this recording

Going to the cinema has featured in many Wick Voices recordings. Enjoy listening to a number of regular cinemagoers recall their cinema memories.

William (Bill) Budge was born in 1915 and his interview was conducted in the mid-1980s, part of a Job Creation Project funded by the Manpower Services Commission.

He says, "We used to get in there for a penny on a Saturday afternoon, in Aubrey's Old Picture House.”

Mr Aubrey acquired the Wick Skating Rink Hall at the top of Oag Lane and adapted it to show films. Later, this became the Boys Brigade Hall when Mr Aubrey built the new Pavilion Cinema in Wick's High Street.

Graeme Mackay compares the up-market Art Deco style Pavilion Cinema with the more affordable Breadalbane Cinema.

Murray Banks also shares a few stories about Wick's Breadalbane and Pavilion cinemas when long queues would form to see the latest films.

Robert Sutherland remembers a particular Saturday visit to the Breadalbane Cinema when the film broke down.

Eileen Farquhar from Lybster talks about her father and his friend Mackie Donn who toured the village halls of Caithness screening the big movies of the day, Eileen would go too and would sell sweeties and ice creams to the cinema-goers. Film reels would occasionally break, much to the frustration of the audience, and from the age of 12 or 13, she had to learn the art of splicing them together so the show could go on.

James Miller enjoyed going to the travelling cinema in Keiss but he also recalls visits to the cinemas in Wick. Unfortunately, he rarely saw an entire film as he had to leave early to catch the bus back to Keiss.

Donald Harper recites the poem 'Teddy Banjo and Coomie MacPhee' about two local musicians who regularly busked outside the Wick cinemas. The humorous Caithness dialect poem was written by the late William Lyall

Photograph of the interior of the Breadalbane Cinema from the Johnston Photographic Collection.

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