MR RAE SKITT remembers Mr Larry Webb, whose father used to own the Chequers Cinema in St Albans.

Mr Skitt said: "He was a mountain of a man.

"He played rugby for Bedford and England.

"We used to all go to the snooker hall above Burtons, on the corner of London Road.

"His father was the owner, not just of the cinema, but of a building firm called Tackie and Burgess, which eventually was taken over by Bickertons.

"They used to live in a big house in Redbourn, near the cricket pitch.

"His dad built all sorts of things mostly big things like hotels.

"Quite often Larry would say: 'Let's go to the pictures.'

"There was always a queue outside the Chequers, but he would just say: 'Two tickets and two ice-creams', they would shuffle people about and in we went.

"Later he got married and lived in his dad's house.

""He owned a helicopter, and he used to go to Paris for dinner with his wife and friends.

"One day, it crashed on the way back and they were all killed.

"This was in the late 1950's. He had left his daughters at home and they were brought up by their grandad."

Mr Skitt read about Tramp Dick, whose brother owned another St Albans cinema, the Grand Palace in Stanhope Road and he also knew another Nostalgia hero, Fred Kalabza.

He said: "I came out of the army in 1953 and I couldn't get a job, so I went to work for the Territorial Army.

"They had two places in St Albans one in Harpenden Road, and one at the bottom of Holywell Hill.

"I went to work where Westminster Lodge now is, and Fred used to be the chief storeman."