One of Christchurch’s biggest movie buffs is calling it quits after serving up ice creams and popcorn for more than six decades.
Ninety-one-year-old Lang Masters has sold his much loved Hollywood Cinemas in the suburb of Sumner so he can finally retire.
On Saturday, friends, family and supporters turned up to the cinema to pay tribute, and to give him a ‘Sumner Hero Award’ for his service to the community.
Masters told 1News that he was feeling “a bit nervous” on his last day.
He said he started showing films in his father’s garage as a teenager, before taking charge of seven cinemas with the help of his late wife, Maureen, under the name Masters Theatres.
“When the soldiers came back from the war and they had no house I suppose and they rented these places in the transit camp, so I had a cinema there,” said Masters.
He spoke about how much film has changed over the years, including the technology used.
“The films came in 20-minute reels in those days, there might be six for a film. You had to take the heads and tails off and join them all up.
“But now it’s all in a box and that’s all there is. Digital, just push it in and you’re away,” said Masters.
“We used to go all the time to the movies. That’s all I’ve had, that’s the main interest in my life really.
“Favourite film is hard to say but I like that ‘Singing in the Rain’,” said Masters.
Built in 1938, Christchurch’s oldest theatre has been sold and will go into new ownership.
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