Theatrical release poster of 'Atlantic', 1929 (via Wikipedia)
In August 1995 G.W. Pleasance of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk contacted CCINTB in response to an article about the project in a regional newspaper and later that year took part in our postal questionnaire survey [GP-95-289GQ001]. In addition to completing the questionnaire he composed and typed a six-page essay [GP-95-289PW001].
Born in 1922, Mr Pleasance grew up in Shepherds Bush, west London. On leaving school at the age of fourteen he found work as a factory hand, later progressing to cinema projectionist and electrician.
His 'motion picture autobiography' covers the period between around 1930 and 1950. While he vaguely remembers being taken to the cinema at the age of about four, the real beginning of his interest in filmgoing, he says, came a few years later: "The first all talking film I can remember seeing was Atlantic (1929), a German/British production of the Titanic disaster, it was showing at the New Park Cinema, Shepherds Bush."