MEET Fred Smith - York Odeon Cinema's oldest surviving employee.

The 81-year-old worked at the Blossom Street picture house on the day it first opened in 1937.

As a fresh-faced 15-year-old, Fred's role as a page boy was to do the jobs no-one else wanted - like sweeping the car park and polishing the manager's shoes.

"My manager was a terror," said Fred, who is supporting our petition to save the Odeon from closure. "If he couldn't see his face in the shoes he made me clean them again.

"In those days the place was really busy and people used to queue round the back. I'm very surprised they want to close it."

Fred, a widower who has two children and six grandchildren, later became the cinema's doorman.

"If the usherettes were busy I used to help show people to their seat," he said. "I used to get tips from couples if I put them on the back row so they could snog!"

Updated: 12:18 Monday, March 01, 2004