r2d2<rckleong@hotmail.com>

Cinemas in Ipoh. Ipoh had a number of cinemas that have come and gone. However there are some which are still in business to this day. Below are some of the cinemas that have entertained thousands of patrons from 1955-present.

Star
This was a large, modern designed building (in those days) which was built around 1962. It started off showing English films but at its later life went to mainly Chinese. The locality of this cinema was not the best, built below the road access and in an ex graveyard. It was burnt down around 1970.

Majestic
It was a popular Chinese movie cinema with old school elegance and functionality. Its upstairs seating was quite impressive. Well known for its Wong Fei Hung, Kwan Tuk Hing martial art movies in the 1960s and also some Japanese horror films. Film: Adventures of Shintaro.

Rex
This was a poor cousin of Lido. It was smallish and had some good English, Malay and Chinese films. As it was a Shaw Brothers Ltd cinema, it only showed films that Lido would not be able to fit into its itinerary. It was located near Hume Street. Film: Sargent Hassan.

Capitol
Another Shaw Brothers Ltd cinema situated right in the middle of town. It showed mainly Chinese films. Quite a small sized cinema. Film: Legend of the White Snake Woman (Chinese).

Odeon
Odeon cinema had a majestic air to it with a grand entrance. It was one of the oldest cinemas in Ipoh and had shown great films like Giant with Gary Cooper. Unfortunately it was also thought to be haunted. The basement toilets were particularly creepy. It became a nightclub at one stage when patrons number felled.

Grand
This was a small cinema in Jubilee Park. The distinctive feature of this cinema was its large lighted up advertising board displaying current Shaw Brothers Ltd films. The cinema was quite run down state and patrons often suspected it had fleas infested seats. Film: Tarzan.

Lido
This cinema is still going in Ipoh. It is situated in a high traffic locality (Cockman?s Street) and had shown many epic films (eg Ben Hur, Ten Commandments, Spatacus). A functional cinema owned by the Shaw Brothers Ltd. The Sunday cheap matinee was my favourite.

Cathay
Another cinema still in existence built in close proximity to Lido. It was probably the best designed cinema then with modern comfortable seats and lighting. Best remembered for its midnight specials. Film:?Blue Hawaii?.

Ruby
This was built like a grey rock in Anderson Rd. Not particularly attractive and showed mainly Chinese films generally of lower popularity rating than that shown in the Majestic.

Sun
The only cinema found in old town (North of Kinta River). It was next to the bridge and you can easily miss it if you were not aware of it. It was old, dank and unimpressive. It showed mainly Indian movies. Film: Tarzan.

pocodelatte<fatbob@bluehyppo.com>

Horley Hall misfortune? Pourqoi? Speaking of boarding skools, I had quite an experience at STAR, Tiger Lane. Boy, if walls and mattresses could talk, they'd have laryngitis!! Being a former ACS boy, you probably were aware of the, ahem, 'animosity' between your skool and SMI, my former skool? My former tuition teacher, Leong Wai Mun, also an ACS boy, mentioned a discipline master by the name of Brian Foenander? You probably know the person. Or the name.

(Reply from kayes. Know Brian Foenander? You must be kidding! He was the Boarding Master when I was at Horley Hall before he became the school's Disciplinary Master. Really tough guy to get around :-) But he was relatively soft compared to the then Disciplinary Master ..... MR MOREIRA .... everyone feared him so much that no one dared to ask him for his first name .... it was rumoured his name was T MOREIRA, with "T" standing for Terminator. Most of us referred to him "affectionately" as "Loh Moh" ..... hoping that he would spare us when the time came. I was called to his office just once but I managed to escape a caning by making a strong argument for my case .... picked up this skill from classmates whose fathers were lawyers :-) Funnily, I cannot remember any animosity with SMI. I can only recall that one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen was in Lower 6 in SMI when I was in Upper 6. Obviously, a lot of people "tackled" her and the guy who won was a SMI Upper 6 Science student who had a convertible, a MG Midget. My father bought me a convertible (an "MG B" ) as soon as I finished HSC but it was too late .... she was gone :-( I met her again a few years ago and she still lives in Ipoh near the race course, as pretty as ever.)

pocodelatte<fatbob@bluehyppo.com>

You don't remember the animosity between SMI and ACS? It must have been prevalent during the 70s, when I was in Form 1. Besides the animosity, there were also friendly link-ups, like SMI was linked with Main Convent. ACS was linked with MGS. And so on and so forth. During one talentime contest in 74 I think ? the heats were held at the Catholic Centre (the building across the road from St. Michael's Church), the final at Town Hall ? the mainly SMI and Convent audience booed the entire performance of some poor ACS students. So much so the MC stepped in and warned the audience to stop it or else.

(Reply from kayes. I was in ACS in the early 60s and I suppose the rivalry was not so pronounced then. Anyway, during those days, we always regarded our school as being the best and there was no doubt about it. First school in the country to have a full size swimming pool and to have swimming classes during school time. First school in the country to have a well equipped and completely airconditioned school library. We also staged many Shakespearean plays with stars like MS Manogaran aka Mano Maniam, Romesh Roy and Foo Nyuk Yong. Eddie Chin was our star sprinter. School hockey team coached by Brian Foenander was almost unbeatable. Maybe we didn't have pretty girls in Form 6. SMI edged us out on that one! The Convent was obviously a better feeder school than MGS :-)

kayes<kayes@pc.jaring.my>

Ipoh has always been "famous for pomeloes" even though they actually come from Tambun nearby. Soon Tambun will no longer be connected with pomeloes and people will relate it to the Lost World :-) One of the pics above show Horley Hall (the infamous school hostel) where I had the misfortune to stay for sometime while schooling at the ACS, Ipoh. Gunung Lang is a pretty place and I hope it can be further developed to attract more visitors.