大象传媒

During 1939 to 1940 I worked first as an usherette and then, later as a cashier in a cinema in Yate, called the King鈥檚 Cinema. The cinema at that time was built near what was known then as The Concrete Slab Factory. I believe it was something that came into being after the 1914-1918 war. This was situated opposite Yate train station.

Our new Manager

During my time there, our Manager and one Projectionist was called up to serve in the British Army. In his place came a new Manager, named Mr B. He had not been in the job long before the public and staff noticed how, when the Newsreel was showing, he seemed to have German sympathies, he would never comment on the British part and seemed to be offended if you mentioned anything derogatory about the Germans. He would often tell me that I was a typical Aryan German type (I suppose because I was fair skinned, with blonde hair and blue eyes).

Anyway, he used to tell us he had to catch the last bus to Old Sodbury, where he was lodging. Mr B used to tell us that he had to go home early in the evenings because the last bus was the quarter-to-ten in the evening. What we didn鈥檛 know at the time was he came back to the cinema, and he used to leave there after midnight and when the police would ask him what he was doing, he would tell them that he was the Manager and that it was his responsibility to see that everything was ready for the next day鈥檚 showing.

One night, I and one of the usherette girls went out to the nearest pub for a drink. By this time I was cashier at the cinema and, as we all cycled to work in those days, I used to leave my lights and pump in the cash desk.

On this particular evening, we left our cycles in the cinema, so we went back to collect them. I then walked through the cinema to collect my cycle lights and pump that I kept in the kiosk. I opened the office door to find Mr B blocking my way, in the kiosk I saw the lights on and the pink curtains which we had draped around the front of the kiosk, untied and pulled all around the glass frontage. On trying to go in and pick up my things, Mr B again stopped me from entering it; and was met with some not very nice words to which I replied in a not a very young-ladylike manner, and was promptly sacked.

Work was no problem back then and so I got a job the next day in the Parnalls Aircraft Factory, in Yate.

The Black Box

One dinner hour, I bumped into the young lad who helped around the cinema, so I asked him how he was getting on with Old Mr B, and he told me that B was going away, and he had seen him with a big black box, and that when he asked what it was for, he was told to "mind his own business".

The next day when I went home for my dinner, (I lived in Iron Acton with my parents), there were two detectives from Staple Hill Police Station sat on our sofa. They questioned me as to how I got on with this Mr B. I told them about the night I came back to the cinema to pick up my cycle and lamps which I had in the cask desk, and how he was there, and how he stopped me from going into the Box. Strong words had been uttered and he had sacked me. I also told them what the young lad who was still at the cinema had told me about the big black box, and that Mr B was going away at the week-end. I was asked if I knew where he was going, I didn鈥檛 know that, but I recalled him saying that he used to go to Weymouth at the weekend.

Well, he did go to Weymouth, and he was followed, and from there he went to Reading, and he was also followed there, then they arrested him. He was one of the Mosley鈥檚 Black Shirts. The police told me that the night I came back, he was transmitting to Germany, and that every night instead of catching the bus home, he came back to the cinema and transmitted. He kept the transmitter in the roof above the Ladies cloakroom. Also, I learned that he was responsible for the bombing of Parnalls factory. After the bombing I didn鈥檛 return to factory work. I joined the WAAF.

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