Remember cinema listings in newspapers?

A page from the Evening press, Wednesday,30th of November 1977 full of cinema listings for films that make the offerings we've had of late in our modern day omniplexes look positively anaemic.

Can you imagine a film like Mandingo being screened nowadays. Or one called Sex Life In A Women's Prison. Or the softcore porn version of Rudolph Valentino's life story? People complain of the permissiveness pervading modern society but we had nothing on the late 70's. Anything went, exploitation to sexploitation. All we get now are CGI cartoons and Marvel movies.

Imagine being able to walk into a cinema and watch Suspiria. Or imagine the trauma of the sticky floors in the Carlton during the run of What's Up Nurse....

You'd never see a Bond film screening in the same cinema as a slice of Ken Russell soft porn these days. Or a film who's USP was it's depiction of domestic abuse. Jesus.

The Island Of Doctor Moreau is one thing but Sex Life In A Women's Prison. I'm almost afraid to google this one. And The Ambassador at the top of O'Connell street showing Voyage Of The Damned, a now forgotten WW2 epic in a cinema that ceased to be years ago.

Look at that for a double bill. The closest you'll get to Dustin Hoffman on the big screen these days is him playing a cartoon panda.

It was a genuine shock to see the two of these playing in Irish cinemas. One being an extremely offensive look at the American slave trade and the other a cause celebre of British censorship in the 70's. God only knows how much of both was hacked out by the Irish film censorship board before they could be screened.

This one is a double bill I'd pay serious money to see. One of the best films of the decade and then one of the worst films of the decade.

I can only imagine how deeply tasteless this one would be. I can fully the imagine the queue of durty salivating aul sleazebags waiting to get in and see it. Grim.

Then in the middle of all the cinema listings is this. In print so small you'd hardly notice it. Star Wars. The phenomenon of the year. Being released 6 months after it's US release. The notice for it tucked away. Little did cinema owners realise it would be the film that would change their businesses forever. The film that would give the public a thirst for ever increasing spectacle. The start of a change that would eventually years later see all these cinemas closed and replaced with soulless hangars designed to maximise profit and minimise choice. Because of this film the variety of viewing in cinemas would never be the same again. Pity.