Going to the Movies

Going to the Movies

Today there is only one cinema in Kingston. But there was a time when we could go to a different cinema every night. In Half Way Tree we had Odeon and in Cross Roads we had the State theatre  Regal and Carib. Of these only the Carib cinema remains .We had the Harbour View drive in Cinema in Harbour View. We had a cinema on Slipe Road. We had cinemas like the Ritz and Gaiety. Odeon is now a transportation depot, Regal is a departmental store and State is a shopping mall. The cinema on Slipe Road is now a church. In the country areas we got to watch reel to reel movies when persons came to put on those shows. They would be triple bills and would mostly be put on in a school room. Most of the shows were Western but after we had karate and kung-fu movies.  We had other cinemas in Kingston and in Spanish Town and in other towns across the island. It seems like the ones in Kingston those have closed down and been put to other use. But a lot of things in Jamaica had changed. They are fewer banks and maybe even fewer business places. Maybe the operators of these businesses have not found it economical to operate from these locations. I think it was more the development in technology that has led to the demise of the cinemas. People were able to rent movies and show them on their television.  They can now buy them on the streets. Please visit the Austin G Mitchell pages at Amazon to have a look at my books.