I have many good memories of movie theatres around the country, for in my wild and wayward youth, I did a lot of traveling, and I did attend my share of films.
I can remember an old movie theatre in Chillicothe OH, that would do midnight showings for the cast of an outdoor drama I was doing there back in the 1980’s. There were, I think, 150 people in the cast, so the theatre owners weren’t exactly losing money on the deal, but it was an opportunity to see first run films after hours. I saw GHOSTBUSTERS there. Still one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. When the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man came around the corner, I literally fell out of my chair with laughter. I sat next to a pretty girl who tried to teach me sign language. That particular summer was filled with all sorts of wonders.
I can remember the old Budd Theatre in Harrison, MI; it was a rare treat to see a movie during those trips to the cabin; usually delegated to a weekend night during my Father’s two week vacations. Sometimes, they would drop off the whole brood to see some children’s based movie…and to prove my age, I can tell you I saw the theatrical release of H.R. PUFFENSTUF. For some reason, however, I remember that they ran several previews of movies that were decidedly NOT children-friendly; there was one called THE MOLLY MAGUIRES, which I learned later in life was about a violent gang of miners in the coal country of Pennsylvania.
Yikes. I can remember nightmares of being buried in coal far beneath the surface of the earth.
I wish I would’ve had a more finely honed idea of what PUFFENSTUF was alllllll about. Well. I found out about that too. Later.
Oh, and don’t get me started on GONE WITH THE WIND. My Mother took us to see it when it was re-released to theatres back in the 70’s for some Anniversary or other…..I still have to leave the room when they’re in Atlanta, cutting off the brave soldier’s leg. You don’t see anything but shadows, and you hear the sounds, but oh….that scene made an impression on me for….well…..almost forty years.
But my favorite memory of movie-going is the old Hills Theatre in downtown Rochester, MI. You can’t argue with the memories of your hometown. It was an eight hundred seat theatre with one screen that died from the community’s infection of multi-plexes. But it had the neon sign and it smelled like popcorn, and you could listen to the soundtrack of the film from the lobby. And the ushers still wore uniforms, and the chairs were red cloth that didn’t rock.
My best friend Drake and I would walk from his house, through the park, and down Main street to the theatre on any given summer night, weather and parents permitting. The ticket seller sat in the little glass booth facing the sidewalk, looking so much like Zoltar the Great, dishing out tickets through the little hole in the bottom of the front glass, enter the lobby with the red and black carpet; buy your popcorn with real butter and a drink…and perhaps some Junior Mints because you can’t go to a movie without them…..find a seat about halfway down, in the middle, and off you go……
The last movie we saw together there was THE REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER. I still have a great love for the Sellers movies; but even after Drake and I went our separate ways (different high schools will do that to you; it’s the age of things, isn’t it?) I still went to that theatre rather than any other in the city; it was more homey….and by the end of its tenure, it was doing double features.
It went away in the mid-eighties, I think; they sold the building and remodeled, and now it’s some kind of multi-store mini-mall thing that I don’t think I’ve ever set foot in. The funny thing is, by the middle of the 1990’s, all the multi-plexes that brought about the downfall would be gone, as well
. But the memories of popcorn and Swashbucklers, and John Wayne and Peter Sellers and Dudley Moore and even that awful, AWFUL, SGT PEPPER movie with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton live on forever.
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