IN the 1970s, cinema proprietors in Suva faced a lot of problems with young people who pestered patrons.
Begging for money was common in most cinema theatre foyers of the capital in those days.
A spokesman for the New Lilac Theatre said in The Fiji Times of March 19, 1973 there were 15 to 20 young people “creating a nuisance and ‘choking’ money out of patrons as they queued in to buy tickets”.
He said the youths were mostly “unemployed hooligans” who hassled proprietors.
Their presence had resulted in loss of business “as patrons did not like to be pestered or annoyed”.
“Girls have been the main victims of these irresponsible and shameless people,” The Fiji Times quoted the spokesman as saying.
He said he had phoned the police several times but each time they arrived too late to catch the culprits.
The same pestering behaviour happened outside the Century Theatre.
“We hardly get a full house now because of the embarrassment caused to the patrons who are frightened to come anymore,” a Century spokesman said.
“In some cases, if a patron is reluctant to give money, he or she is roughly shaken by the collar by these young louts who hang around the theatre foyer.”
A spokesman for Phoenix Theatre had the same story to tell.
He said he often noticed youngsters asking for money after they had seen a screened film and would often spend it at one of the city’s hotel bars.
