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I thought this was some new phenomenon about people who spent their lives viewing apartments for sale to check out the view from the balcony!
Similar memories to TG, Cinemascope, Graham and Dogplant.
Most of the cinemas when I was a kid were Odeons with an upstairs circle and, as the guys have said, it was more money. Sat there for big films with mum for trips in school holidays up to London, like A Bridge too far and similar WW2 blockbusters.
Most of those cinemas, as dogplant said, had their downstairs stalls converted into 2 small cinemas after that so we had Odeons 1-2-3 s and ABCs. The annoying thing was that they werent totally soundproofed so you used to get explosions and loud music filter through in the big circle while you were watching your movie. Heaven help if yours was a quiet drama and downstairs was Midway or something.
The advantage of those 3 screening cinemas was that once the film had started and the usherette had wandered back to reception you could leave your seat wander along the corridor to the next screening. As a teenager, the times I paid for an A or AA film (age 14 and above) and then nipped along to see an X (18). Having seen Sleeper on TV I went along to see Annie Hall, expecting more of the same slapstick. After the first ten minutes I was bored out of my mind - so popped along to see the second half of Emmanuelle. I was only kid in my school to have seen it!
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Loved sitting in the balcony. Local movie theatre, the Sewickley Theatre, in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, had a small balcony.
However, it was only for "adults," i.e. those over 12, as I recall.
At that theatre, back in the 50's, children paid 20c (!) and "adults" paid 35c. (Can you believe how long ago that was!)
Later, prices went up, though I'm not sure what they were.
The balcony was slanted a little more, with less heads in front blocking the view.
As a kid, I could accompany my older brother up there, but not go alone. I can remember seeing SILK STOCKINGS with him one afternoon.
Later, it was kind of a thrill to be able to walk up those Art-Deco-carpeted stairs to join the other adults for the picture. I sat up there many times, to see many, many films.
The fancier movie palaces in nearby Pittsburgh had huge balconies, and some of them, though no longer showing movies, are now venues for concerts and theatre shows.
(Interestingly, though the outer design of the theatre was more Colonial in presentation, it did have a few interior Deco details, such as a marvelous mural on one of the walls, depicting a woman in a flowing gown, sitting on a cloud, holding film reels. I used to refer to her as "The Goddess of the Film Cans." I understand the building still stands, though it closed as a theatre long ago, and is currently some kind of market area, with different dealers.)
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