Summer 1976, Britain was sweltering in an extraordinary heatwave.
In an average suburban street in Brighton, the cheery bells of an ice-cream van ring out.
Children rush from their houses desperate for a Zoom lollipop or a choc-ice with weird yellow ice-cream inside.
Sauntering lazily behind come the parents, bringing with them their foldaway chairs and flasks of tea, because this ice-cream van isn’t just bringing Zoom lollipops and choc-ices with weird yellow ice-cream inside, but also John Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
“Solaris, The Conversation, Deer Hunter,” remembers Maureen Walters.
“I saw some wonderful films through the arthouse ice-cream van scheme back in the seventies.
“Every weekend, we’d listen out for Pat in his ice-cream van and, after he’d sold all his Zoom lollipops and choc-ices with weird yellow ice-cream inside to the kids, he’d set up his portable screen and run his projector from inside the van.
The arthouse ice-cream van scheme ran from 1972 to 1981 and brought arthouse films into the suburbs.
“Well, you might be able to see a nice re-release of Tokyo Story in the West End, but in Brighton, we only had the one cinema and all it seemed to show was Disney films, so it was nice to be able to get something a bit more highbrow from Pat’s ice-cream van.”
Whilst fondly remembered, the arthouse ice-cream van scheme did throw up a few problems.
“Oh lummie, yes. You see, we didn’t always know what the films were about,” continued Maureen.
“I remember once, there was a screening of Last Tango in Paris and the kids were all out playing on their bikes while we watched the film, and it got more and more racy until it got to that bit with the butter.
“Young Gary must have seen it, because there was this cry, and we all looked round to see he’d done himself a terrible mischief with his Chopper.”
Sadly, the scheme was abandoned in the early eighties with the video rental boom and middle-aged suburban couples found themselves with ready access to swathes of pornography.
“It was a lovely idea, the arthouse ice-cream van scheme, but I think it was of its time.
“I mean, new films are 3D and surround sound and ultra HD and whatnot.
“Pat would never be able to fit all that in his van, he’d have no room for those choc-ices with the weird yellow ice-cream inside.”
Perhaps one day, when ice-cream vans have the cinematic technology necessary, we might see a return to those heady days but, for now, the arthouse ice-cream van scheme remains a fictional slice of history.
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