- by Jane Crowther
- 27 September 2025
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From Foyer to Flicker: How Cinemas Enchanted Audiences Before the Lights Went Down
11 September 2025
Jane Crowther’s book, Silver Screens: Spectacular Cinemas from Hollywood to Hong Kong is a beautiful celebration of some of the world’s most distinctive picture palaces – so who better to share their own cinema-going memories?
What’s your earliest memory of going to the cinema?
A cinema lobby card showing the traumatic scene in E.T.
My first formative cinema memory is of seeing a reissue of Disney’s Snow White at the Bradford Odeon* and being terrified of the forest and all those peeping eyes. Having never been enveloped in the darkness of a cinema before it seemed extra intense! The next time I recall a cinema trip was to see E.T. – I didn’t finish the film because I was distraught about E.T. dying and my howling disrupted other patrons. My mum had to take me out. It took another couple of goes to finally see the ending.
What’s your most memorable experience at the cinema?
Too many. I loved seeing Ghostbusters as a kid (when the librarian ghost screamed I dropped all my Maltesers). I was bewildered by The Room when I finally got to see it at The Prince Charles. The experience of seeing No Time To Die at the royal premiere in the Albert Hall and being part of an audience that big, gasping when Bond bought it. Recently, I liked seeing a preview of Twisters at the IMAX with Tom Cruise sitting behind me eating popcorn. I also love the first screening you see at a film festival – the promise of what magic you might see over the next ten days. That always prompts a shiver of delight in the Sala Grande at Venice or the Lumiere at Cannes.
If you could only go to one current cinema for the rest of your life which one would it be?
The Odeon Luxe West End in Leicester Square. Comfy seats, well below ground (which cuts out some of the audience phone use) and James Cameron’s favourite for sound and picture quality. Good enough for Jim, good enough for me.
Is there a cinema that’s now closed you’d love to bring back to life?
The ArcLight Cinerama Dome in LA. A piece of 60s nonsense architecturally, the most enthusiastic staff and often talent in the audience. It shuttered during Covid and there’s rumblings of it coming back… but WHEN? I’d also like a time machine to see cinemas in their heydays; the Memphian Theatre in Memphis when Elvis used to go for all-nighters, the Michigan Theatre in Detroit when it was still a majestic palace and not a car park, the Catalina Casino when the stars and studio heads used to sail over from LA to test screen their films.
Do you have a favourite cinema outside of the UK?
You can’t really get more iconic than Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It’s so tacky and marvellous – I love the footprints outside and the state-of-the-art projection inside. It’s probably the only cinema in the world that is a tourist destination in its own right.
*The former Bradford Odeon reopened in August 2025 as Bradford Live.
Further Exploration
About Jane
Jane Crowther is a film journalist who edited Total Film for a decade, has freelanced for numerous outlets and currently edits Hollywood Authentic magazine. She’s the author of the novel, Gatsby, and non-fiction Silver Screens. She has just completed non-fiction The History of Film in 100 Movie Locations (out September 2026). Jane is also the chair of the London Film Critics’ Circle and a Bafta member. (Photo: Yellowbelly)
1965—
Leicester Square
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