It was the time that a camel arrived in Shirley and went walkabout around Southampton.

Back in the 1920s cinema managers did everything they could to attract customers. The more outlandish the gimmick the better it was, so enter one camel together with the animal’s two handlers.

The Rialto in Shirley was showing Across the Great Sahara, excuse enough to bring a camel to Southampton to publicise the film.

Those days, now more than nine decades ago, were once remembered back in 1997 by the then 81-year-old Charlie House, who lived in Beatrice Road.

“I suppose I was about eight at the time and my parents, Alf and Ellen, used to do some work for the owners of the Rialto,” said Charlie, who moved away from Southampton after the Second World War.

“The cinema was showing this film about a camel train journeying across the Sahara, a fascinating feat in those days, so they decided to bring one of the animals to town.

“The two handlers, who I think were from Algiers, stayed with us and the camel kept in some old stables in Davis Yard at the top of Beatrice Road.

“Although they could not speak much English the handlers stayed with us for more than a week. They were really nice people and with a bit of sign language we got on well.

“I remember the time they heard our gramophone. It must have been the first time they had seen one as they danced around our house so much.

“I thought they were going through the floor.

“Every day they would take the animal out around the streets of Southampton to tell people about the film. As usual loads of kids would follow along behind and on several occasions I would get to have a ride on the camel.”

The Rialto continued to provide entertainment for Southampton filmgoers for another 40 years until finally on November 5, 1960, people said goodbye to yet another of its cinemas as a film flickered and faded on the silver screen for the final time.

The 928-seater cinema had been a favourite with film fans but it finally had to go when its owners, the Rank Organisation, “rationalised” their smaller theatres and so it was a time of cinema closures everywhere.

Some had been lost earlier as the result of enemy bombing and war conditions, then the decline in post-war cinema-going audiences claimed more peacetime victims.

Daily Echo:

The Rialto opened its doors for the first time in January 1921 when the long-forgotten film star Stella Muir (pictured above), who starred in the cinema’s first presentation Heart of a Rose, made a personal appearance.

The last film to be shown was Around the World in 80 Days and among those present to hear the ‘Queen’ being played was Tony Morant, who became the cinema’s second projectionist in 1949.

Earlier that day, during the morning matinee, the manager, Tommy Short, was presented with a cigarette case from the members of the Saturday children’s club.