Bill Cawley was born in Shelton, in 1924, and remembers going to the Prince’s Hall Cinema, as well as the three other cinemas in Stoke, in the 1930s:

"As you know there used to be ‘A’ films and ‘U’ films and when it was an ‘A’ film you had to go with an adult and, incredibly, as an eight year old I’d be standing outside ... me mother was aware of this ... you know it’s incredible when you think about it, I used to go down to the Prince’s, stand outside, somebody’d go in and I’d say ‘Would you take me in please?’ and they’d say ‘Yea, okay’ ... You see it was somewhere to go. My mother used to go out, me sisters would go out - of course they’d go with their friends and I was left on me own. Cinema was a sort of refuge to me, really and I’d go at 5 o’clock and I’d be there until 10 o’clock until it closed ... I’ll tell you something that used to happen, and it’s perfectly true, when I got hungry I used to grope around for orange peel, you wouldn’t believe that, honestly I used to grope around for orange peel in the cinema and invariably I’d find some and I’d eat the orange peel and I’d be alright then."