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Author Topic: The first movie you ever watched in a cinema Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 12-28-2003 02:12 AM                        Do you remember which one it was? Mine was The Island at the Top of the World. I bought it on DVD, and I am going to watch it now - 29 years after I first saw it in a movie theatre.  |  IP: Logged Richard Greco Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1180 From: Plant City, FL Registered: Nov 2003 posted 12-28-2003 02:21 AM                     My earliest memory of a film in a theatre was: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096895/  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 12-28-2003 04:21 AM                     Disney's 'The Sword in the Stone' in 1963, aged six. The film was ok, but I wanted to see where it came from, and pestered mother to pester one of the staff to get me up to the box. This was agreed to, and I remember being surprised, and rather frightened when I was led up lots of narrow, winding iron steps, wery different to the public areas of the cinema, out onto the roof, in the rain! I clearly remember the unpainted wooden doors, with large red and white enamel 'NO SMOKING' signs on them. I had expected a room with two projectors in, knew there were two, because I had seen the beam move from one port to another during the show, but there were lots of doors leading off a passageway, open to the weather at both ends, very strange, I thought, knowing nothing of early sound era cinema design, nor the requirements of the Cinematograph Act of 1909! I can't remember where this was, there were lots of lcal cinemas then, but I do remember seeing the Letters 'BTH' on the projectors, making it almost certainly an Odeon. The lamps were Kalee gold colour, probably Presidents, and probably dating from the conversion to 'scope, so would have still been quite new then, and there were funny-shaped lens things the same colour on the front, but not in use, that made things go odd shapes when you looked through them. I'd never seen a Varamorph before either. This was almost exactly the same set-up, that our friend from Faversham was runing until a couple of years ago; how many DLP systems will have a working life of over sixty years? There was also an ancient slide lantern and spot, but I think these were long out of use, even then. After a lengthly tour of projection box, rewind room, dimmer room, rectifier room, workshop, film vault which was also disused, but still had a few rusty cans, I wonder what was in them, I was allowed to strike the arc, and sart one of the machines. There was somethng else odd then, a typical programme would have adverts, trailers, newsreel (I think these were still being shown regularly, not just for special events), some sort of short (Odeon used to run 'Look at Life') and the feature, but there were no separate shows, the programme ran continuously, and some people would come and go at any time, maybe arriving at some point during the feature, and leaving when that point came round again! Was this a peculiar British thing, or did it happen elsewhere? Something else odd was that the programme would normally change weekly, but not all of London would get it at the same time. North London would get it one week, South London the next. Previously, there had been three areas, North West, North East and South. Living in the South, you could see a film a week before all the other locals if you took a trip North, which we sometimes did. Of course, this also meant that we never saw a new print in the South, but they always seemed to be in perfect condition.  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-28-2003 05:35 AM                        my first was pinocchio. some other early ones: 101 dalmatians, empire strikes back, star wars (some early rerelease), rustlers' rhapsody, double feature with... care bears movie, sweet liberty, star trek iv (this is the first one i can say where i saw it) fantasia i'm sure i saw several in the years between sw and rr, but that's all that springs to mind. i never really got into film until my last year at college. carl  |  IP: Logged Hugh McCullough Expert Film Handler Posts: 147 From: Old Coulsdon, Surrey, UK Registered: Jan 2003 posted 12-28-2003 07:11 AM                        'Snow White' when I was about three years old at a cinema in Belfast. I remember the wicked Queen scaring the daylights out of me. Still does actually. I believe that when this film was first released in Britain the censors gave it an 'A' certificate. This meant that you could not see it if you were under 16 years of age unless accompanied by an adult. It was subsequently cut to enable it to receive a 'U' certifcate suitable for all ages. Stephen Says quote: the programme ran continuously, and some people would come and go at any time, maybe arriving at some point during the feature, and leaving when that point came round again! This enabled us kids to see the film more than once unless we were kicked out by the floor staff. Not that I would ever have done such as thing.  |  IP: Logged Roger Katz Film Handler Posts: 61 From: Thomaston, CT, USA Registered: Feb 2003 posted 12-28-2003 07:30 AM                     My first movie in a cinema was The Fox & The Hound. I saw it at the Avon Twin Theatres in Avon, CT. Based on the date it was released I must've been nearly 5-years-old at the time.  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 12-28-2003 08:10 AM                     Mary Poppins in 1964. I was 8, and took my 4 year old sister to see it. This was the last film to play at the Plaza Theatre before the BIG remodel before the release of The Sound Of Music in 1965. The 'old' Plaza was very ornate and gothic looking. The 'new and improved' Plaza had lime green drapes everywhere. Also, no more pipe organ. Not that I ever heard it being played, anyway. I must have done a good job with looking after my sister. Mom never took us to movies after that time. Later, I was in charge of both sisters. Never lost one, either.  |  IP: Logged Jeff Stricker Master Film Handler Posts: 481 From: Calumet, Mi USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-28-2003 09:18 AM                     "Snow White" sometime in the early 50's.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-28-2003 09:22 AM                        "E.T." - West Theatre - Cedartown, GA, Summer 1982  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-28-2003 09:45 AM                     "Wonderful World OF The Brothers Grim" For what ever reason I remember asking my dad what those funny lines were to the sides of the picture. I saw the scope version, not the Cinerama Presentation but distinctly remember to this day the join lines in the image. Mark  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 12-28-2003 10:15 AM                     "The Wild One" with motorcycle gang film with Marlon Brando at our neighborhood second run house in 1955. I had a forward thinking mother who also fed me a quota of 1950's Disney fare for emotional balance  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 12-28-2003 10:50 AM                     My earliest memory of seeing a movie in a theatre is The Ten Commandments. I remembered both the film and the interior theatre decor. Many years later, as an adult, I walked into the Clairidge Theatre in Montclair NJ (when it was still intact as a single), and was hit with an incredible sense of deja vu, and realized that this was where I had seen my first movie. My favorite childhood theatre memory was when my father took me into New York City to see How The West Was Won in Cinerama. /Mitchell  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 12-28-2003 10:58 AM                    True Grit I was 7 0r 8 years old.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-28-2003 11:37 AM                        My mom loves to tell this story... I can barely remember it and only vaguely. War of the Worlds. I sat on my moms lap at the Everett Theater. When the serpent like death ray cobra head thing came out of the "meteor", I began yelling "I gotta get outta here, I gotta get outta here". Guess it brought down the house.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-28-2003 12:03 PM                        Summer of 1944 a Red Ryder with Little Beaver Cowboy movie in a theatre in Grenada, Miss., where my father was stationed during WWII. I remember liking the film and went every weekend for the Saturday matinee.  |  IP: Logged

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