THE cameras are rolling on Huddersfield’s past this week.
And the celebrations for the town’s Video and Cine Club’s 75th anniversary got under way with terrific news.
The annual film show at Huddersfield Town hall is a complete sell-out.
After a preview for other clubs on Sunday evening, the Festival of Film began last night and will be repeated every evening until Friday. There is also a matinee at 2.00pm tomorrow and on Friday to meet the unprecedented demand for tickets.
Club members have spent months trawling through tins of old film and stacks of video tapes from the club’s archives to put together more than 100 minutes of memories.
Joan Spencer, the club’s secretary, said: “We have spent months putting different reels together for this show in celebration of the club’s 75th year and we are sure it will be an entertaining evening for all.”
The main highlight of the night is a film called Service Partners, which tells the story of a young girl who comes to Huddersfield to train as a nurse in the 1950s.
It includes location shots at the former Infirmary, now Huddersfield Technical College, and a staged road accident which brought traffic to a standstill in the town.
Mrs Margaret Rogers, one of the club’s publicity officers, said: “Service Partners was made by Ernest Taylor, who owned a tailor’s shop on Byram Street. His daughter took the part of the nurse in the film and went on to become a presenter for BBC television. It will certainly bring back a lot of memories.”
Huddersfield Video and Cine Club was formed in 1932 as The Screen Players. It was renamed in 1935 as Huddersfield Cine Club and was given its current name in 1989.
The anniversary films also feature shots of swimming pools in the Huddersfield area, including Holmfirth Lido in the 1930s and the old Ramsden Street baths with children learning to swim just before its closure; clips from a film by Donald Taylor showing life in a Colne Valley mill in the 1950s; the demolition of buildings to make way for the Huddersfield ring road in 1971, and the 1928 Denby Dale pie.
Mrs Rogers added: “Everybody knows about the Denby Dale Pies. Our members have covered the event from 1928 through to the latest event, so it is only right that it should be a major feature in the anniversary show.”
