A Chippenham octogenarian was a special guest at the 75th anniversary of the Astoria Cinema.

Peter Baker, 85, got to cut the cake at a special screening of the Wizard of Oz, the Judy Garland classic released in 1939, the year the Astoria opened in Marshfield Road.

As a young lad he watched the cinema being built in six-and-a-half months by Frank Wilkins of Bristol, who also built the Bristol Hippodrome.

Ten-year-old Pete went with his father to see The Citadel on the Astoria’s opening day.

He recalls the early days, when it was a large, undivided auditorium with 800 seats, twice as many as it has today. Back then it was not the only cinema in town. The Gaumont in Timber Street stayed open until 1974, by which time it known as the Classic.

Mr Baker, who lives in Downing Street, said: “I spent a lot of my youth at the Astoria. I had my first date there when I was 18, it was very good. We didn’t have a first kiss, you didn’t do that in them days.”

Mr Baker started working at Westinghouse when he was 14 and during the war tested electrical equipment for aircraft. He said: “In those days, in the ’40s and ’50s, it was a three-hour show – the main film and an hour-long B film – and you could stay all afternoon. It cost two and thrupence upstairs, that’s 20 pence, and one and ninepence downstairs.

“There have been a lot of changes, such as stereophonics. We didn’t have a TV until 1952. We were the first ones in Chippenham to have one.”

The Astoria was prompt in delivering widescreen and played The Robe in cinemascope five months ahead of Bath cinemas, in August 1954.

When it was bought in 1967 by the Leeds-based Star Group, late night shows were introduced and the building underwent major structural changes to create a bingo hall and social club, which reduced the cinema size to 450 seats. In 1973 the auditorium was divided into two of equal sizes, giving the Astoria multiple screens.

It changed its name to Cannon Cinemas in 1985 and then to Reel in 2007 when Reel Cinemas took over the lease, but was converted back to its original name last month after S and K Entertainment Ltd stepped in as management.

A couple of years ago, the cinema went from 35mm films to digital and 3D, and is now they are branching out into broadcasting live theatre productions.