Description:In December 1927 the Crown Cinema opened on Icknield Port Road. One of the youngsters who visited it was Bill Landon of Steward Street. Little did he know he would still be visiting the building over 70 years later, but by then he'd not be watching films but selling bathrooms in it! Bill who is now 82 years old told Norman Bartlam about his working life, which has resulted in him becoming one of the most well known figures in the area.
"We started when I came out of the forces and was demobbed in 1946. I was a railway man and as that didn't pay much I decided to become a builder. At that time the government was licensing service people for trade, so I got a licence and my brother Edward who was a builder left the firm of Price's and joined me. I was given ninety pounds for six and a half years service and put into our new business and suddenly I was a carpenter! Our kid told me to learn as I went along. I've always been a bit handy but not that good! We built an office out of timber in Spring Hill Passage. None of us knew about drawings and things like that but we built them alright. They were delighted, it escalated into more work.
One day we had to push out handcart to the Wolverhampton Road but unfortunately the number we wanted was at the far end past Burnt Tree Island and by the time we got there it was time to come back so we left out handcart there and walked back home! We didn't even start the job that day.
We progressed and bought an Austin Seven and put a body on it, but they wouldn't give us a "C" licence so we got an ex-army lorry with a water browser" We were OK then for a few years and worked with up to 60 men. We had too many jobs going and a lot of stuff went missing so we lost money. We sacked them all and started again and once again began to make money from rock bottom, but we soon got back up the ladder!
By then we had a shop on the corner of Steward Street which sold grates, tiles and glass. We opened seven days a week 6am-7pm. We fitted thousands of grates and became well known, but I'd liked the idea of going into catering. I'd decied to do the catering in part of the shop and my brother carried on in the rest of it. Mom, Dad, and two sisters started to work with me and we built it up to do 100 dinners a day. Mother was a wonderful cook, she was ideal for that cafe. We built up the trade because of our quality.
After a while I went into car sales, during petrol rationing the business declined so I wnet back to the cafe. later i bought a wagon with a "B" licence for carrying goods in a certain area. I was restricted to a 15 mile radius. I went to factories including Lesbrook's metal people in Icknield Square. They gave me a job collecting scrap from the Austin. They were loading it one day and said you've got about two ton and it overhung the truck. They didn't want to keep loading it but I carried on because I needed the money, I'd got a family to keep. "I'll risk it", I said. I kept in the middle of the road and drove slowly. I got to the lights in the middle of Northfield and had to stop. When I tried to start again the metal had gone through the floorboards and all the sheets of metal shot across the road. The police said I'd have to hurry up and get it shifted, but what could I do I was on my own. The wagon was stuck right in the middle of the road! My brother came and he gashed his hand and I had to take him to hospital and ended up paying someone to help me move the remains of the metal.
I got another motor, one with a long wheelbase this time, but eventually it needed to have so much work on it that I had to get rid of it. I was out of work, but only for four days, because I found a job on the meat market with a haulier from Smethwick. When business slackened I was laid off but he still paid me. Eventually I decided that I'd got to earn my wages honestly and I couldn't go on taking his money for nothing so I left.
I got a job back with my brother for about twelve months. By then we'd moved up to Summerhill opposite the Palace and did well. My brother was taken ill and eventually died so I ran the business with his wife before deciding to once again start on my own. We had a little shop next to the baths and my son Tony started to work with me.