Do you remember when weekends were filled with chatter about movies at the bioscope – when families or couples gathered in the great Railway Institute Hall in Glencoe? Movies such as ‘The Karate Kid’ (local resident, Helen, remembers watching that classic with her aunt) were among the many favourites screened in this hall. With a simple interior comprising a screen and chairs (and couches for the elite few), movies could be enjoyed for as little as five cents. 

“The hall was initially opened for railway workers as a recreational area, and before long became the home of the bioscope,” shop-owner Mr M Hansa explained. Bioscopes were renowned around Northern Natal, and Dundee also had its very own theatre. 
Situated on Gladstone Street opposite Nobungani Hardware (where Clothing Junction is currently situated), Dundee’s Savoy Bioscope provided light during the dark Apartheid era. 

Hameed Diljan recalls fondly how he spent ‘numerous Saturdays watching movies with my girlfriend, who is now Mrs Diljan’. He chuckled when he described how ‘black people were made to sit on top, and white people at the bottom’. He described, with a glint in his eye, the difference in comfort with regards to the chairs, and smiled mischievously when he described how as a childhood prank he poured colddrinks on the people’s heads who were seated below him. 

The first movie screened at this glorious bioscope was believed to be ‘Apollo 13’ in 1970. However according to Celia Gold the theater showed other movies prior to that, dating back to the 60s . Sadly, the joy of the bioscope was short-lived due to video shops being introduced, such as MVO Videos, which is believed to be the first shop of its kind in Dundee. This signalled the closure of the bioscopes. 
However, the memories of the much-loved movie halls live on in the hearts of many.