A QUARTER of a century ago today cinema returned to Thurso after an absence of almost four years.
The event was greeted with delight by local film enthusiasts as the Moving Picture Show screened A Nightmare On Elm Street: Freddy's Revenge to a packed town hall on February 17, 1987.
It is an occasion remembered well by Darren Manson, who launched his Cinema For Thurso Campaign in 1984 - a year after the Thurso Picture House closed its doors for the final time.
Darren was instrumental in getting Ian Rattray, who owned the Dundee-based Moving Picture Show, to come north. He had been put in touch with Mr Rattray by Caledonian Associated Cinemas - proprietors of the Thurso cinema.
Mr Rattray had been to Caithness many times before when he worked for a photographic company. He had been running his mobile cinema since 1985 and had upgraded his system from 16 millimetre to 35mm film enabling him to show the newest films from the day of national release.
"I began communicating with Ian in January 1986 and it soon became clear that it was going to be viable to run the mobile cinema in Thurso and Wick," said Darren.
At the start of 1987 Mr Rattray completed negotiations with Caithness District Council for the use of the town hall in Thurso and the Assembly Rooms in Wick.
And on Tuesday, February 17, 1987, cinema goers had an opportunity to spend a night at the pictures in Thurso again. Wick was added to the schedule on Monday, March 2, when Eddie Murphy's film, The Golden Child, was shown.
"Later that month we saw our biggest ever attendances with Crocodile Dundee. We had to do advanced ticket sales for three screenings of the film and this created a huge queue running from the town hall in Thurso to the Co-op chemist. When it came to opening the doors for the show all these people had to be moved very carefully to avoid a surge," said Darren.
He explained setting up the cinema for a show took about 90 minutes.
"The projection equipment consisted of a long-play tower with a capacity for 15,000 feet of film and mounted on top was a Fumeo 35 millimetre projector with a one kilowatt lamp which always generated a brief buzz through the sound system when it came on," he stated.
The projector was enclosed in a raised wooden cabin and screened the films to a 10 by 20ft Cinemascope screen.
"The show would open with Pearl & Dean adverts and trailers, then the main feature. With Disney films and some other movies there would also be a short cartoon," said Darren, who pointed out the seats were not the most comfortable.
"That was out of our control but we made a point of feeding customer complaints back to the council and eventually some pop-on cushions were added."
All the staff were issued with company sweatshirts most of which were blue with a white print of the Moving Picture Show logo on the front and back. There was also a red version with black print.
"We had a team of three or four at each show with Ian in charge of ticket sales and projection while me and the others assisted with the various jobs such as sweets, refreshments sales, and ushering. There was also cleaning up to be done after each show."
Read the full story in our picture special in this week's Groat
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