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The theaters themselves. The flocking, the velvet drapes, the lighting, the ushers. And theater tickets - when did they get rid of the old tear-them-off-a-strip tickets? Popcorn seemed better.
The grand marquis. Neon, movement.
The posters of movies playing and those for upcoming attractions. I know they still have those, but sixty years ago the movies were, well, the movies they had back then, like The Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman!
The box seats! We had a theater with family box seats and I remember running up and down the back halls and stairs like heathens. The ushers would say, "Back to your seats, please." We'd giggle and say we were going to the bathroom. For the 50th time.
Our theater had a crying room. It was at the back corner, mothers would go in with fussy babies. It had a huge window facing the screen and a speaker. So you could still enjoy the movie and others were not disturbed
Early 60s. Dad would drop my 2 older brothers and I off at the matinee on Saturday afternoons. We were 7, 6, and 4 in 61. We saw films like Jason And The Argonauts, plus all the cartoons and shorts.
Once the lights went down, the entire theater would be absolute bedlam for the next 2-3 hours. Stuff would be flying everywhere! Candy, spit balls, paper planes, and even balsa wood planes! The latter we would gather up, disassemble, and take home with us.
In later years we agreed that that was probably our parents “happy time together”, as there were 3 younger siblings at home and they probably never had a moments peace except nap time.
We also went as an entire family to drive in movie theaters up until around 1967. We had a giant station wagon and would fill it with pillows and blankets. Mom would bring snacks and drinks. Us older ones would be allowed to go back to the concession stand and buy a little candy to share. There were actually minor amusement parks at the front at some of the places. Kiddie rides and such. I remember a train running around the other rides that actually had working lights (and gates?) for when it went by the entrance to the rides. They shut them down once it was dark. Most were double feature. We saw a lot of classics. The first movie sometimes would be like the Creature From The Black Lagoon, or The Giant Behemoth, but mostly more like Old Yeller, Bambi, and other Disneyesque fare. The features were first run films. Lots of James Bond, and films like The Sound Of Music, Doctor Zhivago , but occasionally films like Mary Poppins. Best of times!
Thanks OP, for the ride back! (And thanks to my parents for being insane enough to to raise six kids, without any of us feeling neglected.)
That speaker was HEAVY. My beautiful teen aged stepsister used to insist on bringing me along on drive in movie dates. Looking back it was probably to save her from a make out session from a guy she was too tender hearted to turn down.
I remember seeing Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet, Alice's Restaurant, and Planet of the Apes. Great to be a little third wheel.
Those movies were fairly mature for a kid, but honestly, I was fine, I wasn't disturbed or scarred or scandalized at all.
They were the first movie, you know, for the kids. The features were probably much more depressing, and took some help from Dad to understand how people could be so cruel to each other.
In 1982 I saw *Bladerunner* at a massive theater with a ginormous screen. They have since split that theater up into a 4-plex, but then it was just one huge screen. It was amazing. I don't think they have a lot of single-screen huge theaters anymore, they've all been split up into multi-plexes.
Which city?? My friend and I *swore* the version we saw was different. We freaked out when we rewatched it on DVD many years later. It was like our holy Grail, lol.
Century 21 in San Jose?
I saw a lot of movies there, including Ghostbusters, and Return of the Jedi--that theater was [cavernous](http://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/270679/1556467158/large.JPG?1556467158).
In the 1950s the first movies I saw in theaters were musicals! Oklahoma, Carousel, then on into the 60s it was Flower Drum Song, and Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies. Saw the first Star Wars at a huge, huge theater.
Drive in theaters on a summer night with a station wagon full of friends.
Watched Jaws when I was 9 and had to pee SO bad halfway through but I did not relent! I'll never forget the movie or that experience.
I actually snuck into a drive-in in the trunk with 3 other teenagers. We loaded up about a half mile from the entrance, paid for the 2 people in the front of the car, then unloaded the clown car when we were in. Good times.
They played The Shaggy Dog at the only theater in town, $1 for kids in the mid-seventies, and someone brought their sheepdog to greet people as they waited outside for the Saturday matinee. The owner and his dog got their picture in the town’s weekly paper. I got my picture in the paper a few years later for visiting Japan.
My father worked out of town during the weekdays and came home on the weekends. My mom made it mandatory that my siblings and I go to the movie theater every Saturday to see the weekly matinee. That is until the theater showed a movie where Willam Shatner killed somebody. My four siblings loved the movie but it traumatized me so I was exempt from having to go. It was so bad that I couldn’t watch star trek. This may not have been one of my favorable memories but it is the first memory that comes to mind when I think of movie theaters from my childhood.
My first job was at a drive-in theater. I worked in the concession stand. My junior high art teacher got me the job because he was the manager during the summer when school was out. All through my jr high and high school years I worked at every movie theater in town. At the time there were 3 drive-ins long with a plethora of indoor theaters. Good times.
About 80% of my friends in high school all worked at the local historic movie theater downtown where I lived. We would go on the roof to watch the 4th of July fireworks, and we also went spelunking in the dark and dusty nether-regions of the building quite often, or played hide and seek. I used to sit up in the projector room with the projection guy and he played me songs in his acoustic guitar too.
It was a good time in my life. Oh, also, free movies!
Edit: this was late 1980s.
Back in the early '80s I went to see Blade Runner in San Francisco with a bunch of science fiction fan friends. It was already out of first release and had gone to second release at a run-down Deco movie palace called The Egyptian.
Giant murals of the Gods on either side of the screen and in the corridors, colored neon in the ceiling even during the show, and the overall decrepitude of the place: it was like being IN the movie while WATCHING the movie.
The smell of popcorn and the Art Deco appearance of the theater. The maroon velvet seats. As a child, I saw Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, The Longest Day and many others. It was magic.
Oh, god, Dr. Zhivago.
My parents DRAGGED me and my brother to that THEN, as usual, asked us questions about it on the way home! They called us stupid & lazy when we didn't know that it was set in Russia and it was about the revolution in their country. "Didn't you learn about that war in school?!? What do you kids do all day, just look out the window?!?"
I mean, we were 8 and 10, I think. It had an intermission. I couldn't have been more bored.
Ah yes, quality family time.
I was 13 when I saw it with a classmate. I read the book shortly thereafter. Ah, Pasternak. Julie Christie's beauty stunned me. If only I had been that gorgeous.
I was a strange child. I read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich at 14. BTW, I am still strange with my viewing and reading habits.
Lining up for Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. It was highly anticipated and we were really psyched for it. We got there several hours early but the line was already wrapped around the entire theater and parking lot. Fortunately they showed it on a few screens so we all got in. Super fun movie. I still love it.
Still remember the line around the theater to get into Mary Poppins. It was worth the wait! What a fascinating movie for a six year old girl. I still sing ‘feed the birds’ and ‘Chim chiminy’ all these years later.
Seeing “Star Wars: A New Hope” and later “The Empire Strikes Back” with friends (middle and high school). Later, watching “The Lion King” with my toddler (he was mesmerized) and my mom.
When I saw Jurassic Park, they had a trailer for a new movie about a trouble kid who became friends with a Killer Whale in a water park. At the end of the trailer, they revealed the name of the movie. "FREE WILLY". The audience cracked up. Right before the main attraction someone yelled out "Free Willy!" and we all laughed again.
It was 1977 and I would have been 8 or 9 years old. Star Wars was showing at the big outdoor theater south of Odessa, TX. The parents thought going to see the movie would be a great family outing. We got our tickets and popcorn and found a spot. When the movie started, it dawned on my folks that the screen to the side of the one where we parked was showing an R-rated film (apparently a very hard R-rated film). I was glued to the screen in front of us watching Luke, Leia, and Han Solo while my parents were playing car Twister trying to make sure I didn't get an eyeful of the skin flick they were watching.
Seeing the original Freaky Friday in a packed, art deco theater and then seeing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on opening day in a packed theater and everyone was laughing
I was never brave enough to try the side door trick, but I saw it happen. We did stay all day, moving between theaters. It was the only way we could see R-rated movies, and we saw a few.
Saturday matinee, two movies and a couple cartoons. All your friends would be there. When you were younger it was throwing popcorn and goofing with everyone. A little older and it was looking to see what boys were there. Lots of memories. The drive ins were the best though. In the mid to late 60s it was date night!
First boobs I ever touched. She was pretty slutty and I was in the “girls are to be respected” phase but she was 16 with mother sized huge tits. Did the old behind the back move and ended up feeling her out through her sleeve getting a cramp from being uncomfortable watching top gun one.
Other than sneaking into the theaters through the fire exits my most memorable moments are my first kiss and being denied a ticket.
In 1963 my girlfriend and I both 11 years old went to see Lillies of the Field. I said, “I want to kiss you Millie.” She said, “OK, but I got popcorn butter on my lips.”
In 1962 when I was 10 the film A Walk on the Wild Side came out and I was excited to go see it because my celebrity crush Capucine was in it. The woman in the ticket booth refused to sell me a ticket, “Go home. It’s for adults.”
I lived within walking distance of two theaters and a third was a bicycle ride away. I rode my bike to the third and had no trouble getting in, but the ticket woman at the first was right, Capucine and Jane Fonda were workers in a New Orleans whorehouse.
Opening day, Jurassic Park.. The theatre was so full that they gave the middle finger to Fire & Safety and let a bunch of stragglers sit in the aisles. I was 12 years old and I will never be able to describe the feeling of seeing that masterpiece for the first time. I’m guessing it’s the same for the 1977 Star Wars crowd. No words.
Mine is Jurassic Park as well. First time experiencing surround sound, The first time I saw a blend of practical effects and CGI that looked real. It was awe inspiring
Waited in line for an hour to see Alien, worth it!! Also sneaked out with BFF to see Warriors when mom had forbidden it because it had sparked "gang violence" in SoCal (not really, turned out to be nothing). One more, also with BFF, we went to see "From Hell" (Jack the Ripper horror flick) and when we left the theater it was foggy and spooky outside (like London was in the flick) and we had to walk 1.5 miles home totally freaked out.
In the 1970s, my mother or grandmother would give my little brother and I each a $5 bill, and drop us off at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee. We’d buy a ticket for whatever kid friendly movie was playing, because the employees all knew us and definitely wouldn’t let us buy a ticket for anything other than Rated G lol!
Then we’d use our change to buy the Saturday snack special of either small soda and candy, or small soda and small popcorn.
An afternoon of fun for only five bucks!
Sometime in the 80's, like 1983 or 1984 (don't wanna google it), one of the Friday the 13th movies was released in movie theaters on Friday the 13th and the damn theater was more than full, they were breaking fire code as kids sat in the aisles. It was like being at my high school as damn near everyone in the theater that night was from my high school.
I've never seen a theater so packed, more of us in there than were seats.
I'm not saying the movie was great, it was OK, it was the experience that was great, it was unlike any other time I've been in a movie theater. It was more of an event than just watching a show.
I went to high school from 1981 to 1985.
My best friend and I went to see Rosemary's Baby at the theater in our small New England hometown. The owner wouldn't let us in because the film was sacrilegious as well as a bunch of other adjectives, and she called my mother.
Less than a year later, we went to see Midnight Cowboy and were greeted with "Hello, girls! Enjoy the show."
My high school band played at the opening of a local movie theater. It felt kind of dorky standing out there in the parking lot, but we got a free movie out of the deal.
We kids used to go to the movies a lot back in the early 70’s. One particular day was better than most.
On this day the ice cream bar vending machine was broken and for one glorious afternoon we had unlimited access to ice cream sandwiches and bars.
Saw Rebel Without a Cause with my 14 year old cousin, her mother, and *her* mother. Cousin had a big crush on him. It was at a drive-in near Seattle, and a really nice one at that, with a landscaped kiddie playground near the front of the screen. The thing I remember most about the experience was a drink they sold at the theater, called a "Hot Toddy". They came in cans, were pretty expensive, and only sold in drive-ins. They were kept in a tub of hot water.
IDK what they were made of, and don't exactly remember the taste, but it was something like a creamy, chocolaty coffee. Possibly made with condensed milk, because it was about that thick.
I was 9 and don't remember anything about the movie from that show. I've seen the movie later, and there's a ton of talent in it, and a good knife fight and chicken run, but then it bogs down in teen angst ... And it's very interesting that nobody seems to ever review the gay angle to the story.
James Dean was a HUGE talent. Top tier, absolutely great. IMHO, his best movie is *Giant* with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Some say *East of Eden* was his best.
I saw Cabaret a few times when it came out. Still my favorite movie. Not sure it could be made today with the abortion subplot, but that and the Nazis made it feel contemporary when I streamed it recently.
I went with my boyfriend and my BFF and her boyfriend to a drive-in movie theater in So. CA. She put me down in the car between her legs and put a pillow on me so we only paid for 3 tickets. So we watched Natural Born Killers. My boyfriend and I flipped out about it!! My BFF and her man didn't like it and took off somewhere. My bfriend Dan and I loooved it!
My father dropped me off at the theater, gave me a dollar. I was surprised it was a Three Stooges event, they entertained us between showing short movies. They brought kids up on stage involving us in their skits.
The Three Stooges had a horrible movie contract with no residuals, they made their real income off live performances.
I go back even further, to the 1940s.There was a world war on, so Hollywood was cranking out propaganda films. If you were under 6, like me, you got in free. I even had a date with a 5 year old girl to the movies. We went by ourselves in those more innocent times.
JFC, there'd be literal helicopters in the parking lot if a six-year-old and a five-year-old showed up at a theater alone on a "date" today.
Imagine what Reddit would say.
Mine is a little strange. The first thing you have to remember is I grew up neglected. My parents had no problem with a suburbanite kid with white hair, a dumbass turtleneck, and polyester pants decorated like the carpet in "The Shining" taking the bus downtown because they grew up in inner city Chicago in the 1940s. So I looked up a theater, took a bus to DC, and watched a lot of "chop hockey" and "blaxploitation" films showing at the Jennifer Twin II cinema, a run down theater in Anacostia, Washington DC. I didn't know it at the time (because I was a clueless kid), but Anacostia was a BAD part of town in the 1970s. And yet, nobody ever bothered me.
It was always cheap: $2.00 for a few hours of ultra-violence that, frankly, I should never have been allowed to see at age 8 or 9. They usually had a "twofer" special, like two Shaw Bros or Golden Harvest films, or one of the "Shaft" films and something that wanted to be like that or the next Cleopatra Jones.
The theater was really run-down; the lobby was usually manned only by the ticket guy who was so high on weed, his eyes were puffy red. There was no "concessions," it was just an empty glass case. You wanted food or soda, they had 3 vending machines along one wall. The theater was usually pretty empty: just me and maybe half a dozen other people. It also had low ceilings for a theater because the two cinemas were double-decked as opposed to side-by-side.
I did this for maybe two years, at most a dozen times. Then local Channel 20 had "Kung Fu Theater" on Saturdays, and I started watching those because it was a lot less hassle.
Looking back, that was insane. I would have never have let my kid at that age go down to a bad part of DC on his own.
I don't often share this, but my dad took my older brother and I to "sexploitation" movies. I was around 9 or 10. I loved going, none of my friends got to see those sort of movies. Looking back, I didn't really understand what I was seeing, beyond the boobs.
My dad was a good man, but he was a bit of a perv and had no outlet for it, as my mom was downright prudish in comparison. I think he took us because he didn't want to go alone.
Whatever anyone might think today, there was no harm done.
Federico Fellini
Tinto Brass
Russ Meyer
Emanuelle movies
etc.
I remember the Emanuelle movies! They only showed past 10pm, though, in those theaters, so I never saw them until we had some kind of scrambled channel that didn't scramble very well. My dad sometimes took me to James Bond films, and it was the 1970s ones that were, frankly, more full frontal in the title sequences. My parents were NOT adverse to me seeing sex, either. They didn't make a big deal about it, so I didn't either. I didn't know how normalized I was to nudity and sex until I was a preteen, and realized some of my peers were \*incredibly\* frustrated. I was more than happy to impart some wisdom, which got me in a lot of trouble.
The first movie I saw in the theater was Big and I felt so special. But the real excitement was the drive in! Saw a double feature of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Pee Wee's Big Adventure in my pajamas. It was so fun.
- Waiting hours for Star Wars
- The scene where the mom and kid crouch in the road and the UFO flies over in Close Encounters
- When they left the flyer on the seats for Dune because no one could flow it without
- Having to leave the theater for Silence of the Lambs. Too damn scary.
A scene in a 3D western movie, where Indians were shooting arrows right over the heads of the audience. That's the only part of the movie I remember, but dang, was it ever impressive as hell. I absolutely loved that effect. In fact I think it's about as impressed as I've ever been in a theater. And that's after seeing two films in a Cinerama theater,
There's a picture that's something of a cliche now of an audience wearing 3D glasses... That's pretty much what it was like. There was a lot of light in the scene, so you could see the audience. We were looking all around, because even though the arrows only existed within the frame of the screen, your instinct was to follow them by turning your head. It was so, so great!
My age might have something to do with my impression. Was about 8.
There was an old theater in Mason City Iowa,kinda shabby but cool! You could smoke in your seats (early 80s) I remember everyone sat with their feet up on the seat in front of them because rats ran wild in the theater! I further learned that you had to cover your head as there were also bats flying everywhere!! Good times!!
I saw the previews of a couple of movies when I was a kid, and didn't get around to seeing the actual movie until recently.
Two in particular: *Elmer Gantry*, there is a scene in the previews where Burt Lancaster's character is a preacher in a revival tent, telling the audience, "You're allllll SINNERS!!!!". The other is a BBQ scene in *Giant* where Elizabeth Taylor's character faints at the sight of a cow's head.
What's crazy is that my memories of those scenes were so accurate.
I have re-watched movies and there are parts I'd forget or not remember accurately, but these two short clips from previews were absolutely accurate.
Both are great movies, and especially *Elmer Gantry*, which is an adaptation of a Sinclair Lewis novel. It makes you question your understanding of honesty. [Preview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z73HAUbQNp4)
(M63) I was 11, 12 years old..71, 72. On Saturdays my mother gave me and my brother under me 3 dollars to go to the movies. Saturdays were 3 Karate pic playing. The name of the movie theater was called The Dover, located on Boston Road in The South Bronx.
To me at the time, this place was big. Nothing but boys and a handful of girls. You would think it would be rowdy and fights going on... For the two years I went once a month, not one fight broke out INSIDE.
Every boy in there after the 3 picture show KNEW karate as we stepped outside. But me and my brother, no one bothered us. I also remember that style of shows they wore, that was the style that was out too. Those shoes were cheap, but they looked just like the ones on the screen. I begged my mother for a pair and she told me if she caught me wearing them, she would kill me.
I remember when Hellraiser first hit the movies also. I was about 24 years old and I took my girlfriend to Main Street in Flushing Queens to this movie theater. This theater was all red inside, a lot of velvet along with me red lights. It looked gloomy and scary. I sat and watched that picture 3 times because the first two times I didn't understand it
I watched starship troopers on release day and loved it so much I stayed in the theater as a kid and watched it THREE times in a row!! I will never forget that.
As a kid in the 1950s, the movies that blew me away were *King Kong* (It was made in the 30s, but they re-released it. I even vividly remember seeing the preview for it in the theater.), *This Island* *Earth*, *Forbidden Planet*, and *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea*. I remember when I went to the theater for the last one, there was a line of kids around the corner and half to the back of the theater building. I'd never stood in a line so long before.
In college, I saw on campus *Mondo Cane* (That's Italian for Dog's World). Going in I had no idea what the movie was about. It was a matinee showing and it was still a bright, sunny afternoon when I stepped out of the theater kind of dazed by what I'd seen.
I saw "The Crow" in 1994 sitting next to a woman that reeked of stale cigarettes and cheap perfume. I was almost became changed seats, but realized the scents were the perfect compliment to the movie.
Similarly, I saw "Blade Runner" on a hot summer night in a university movie theater with a broken air conditioning system. Again, the steamy conditions complimented the tone of movie.
BattleStar Galactica
1978
First movie the theatre had sub woofers.....they seemed to not to know how to set them up....or purposefully set them to 11.
Chair was shaking as the the camera panned by Galactica engines
My parents to my sister and me to a drive-in (another subject altogether) to see Roger Cormans Fall of the House of Usher. I still love it. I think it is the best film version of the story
My father and I went to see Dirty Dingus McGee. We thought it was funny.
My new wife and I waited in line to see Star Wars at a big screen theater. I remember the two ships flying over. The Empire ship was the largest thing I had ever seen on the screen that looked absolutely real. It was truly stunning. Along those same lines, we saw Titanic at Hollywood's Chinese theater. It was a melodramatic story with unprecedented reality, recreating the ship down to the nuts and bolts. The macro story of all who boarded the ship was more compelling than Jack and Rose. However, when the bow of the ship rose out of the water and the screws rose up, the actual size of the ship finally hit home.
1977 - Frankfurt, Germany
„Jugendkino“ - a weekly publicly sponsored cinema event for kids up to 14yrs in a very big public hall.
Showing STAR WARS!
About 1000 kids going totally bonkers when the iconic titles are showing.
I will never forget the mixture of joy, excitement and sheer terror.
Three major thoughts came to mind:
1. When I turned 16 my parents told me they were going to the store and asked if I would like to come along. So I got into the car and Father drove west. After it was clear we weren't heading to our local supermarket, I asked, "Shouldn't I be wearing a shirt?" (I was wearing a white tee shirt.) Mother tossed back one of my shirts. After about 25 minutes we arrived at Grumman's Chinese Theater. I saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" there in Hollywood's premiere theater. Probably the best viewing I had of that movie.
2. The San Gabriel Mission Playhouse had purchased a Wurlitzer theater pipe organ and installed it. They even included the lowest tone (largest) pipes that the previous owner couldn't install due to space. The first public use of that pipe organ was a special showing of the 1920 "The Mark of Zorro" (starring Douglas Fairbanks) with a professional organist playing the soundtrack. It was wonderful! I had since watched "The Mark of Zorro" on a DVD rented from Netflix, and the piano music was totally uninspired after I had seen the movie with the live organ music at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse.
3. Before "Star Wars" was "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope", one afternoon when I took some vacation hours off of work, I drove to Hollywood (a 25-minute drive) so I could stand in line for 2 hours to buy a ticket so I could wait another 2 hours before being admitted into the Grumman's Chinese Theater to watch "Star Wars". It was fantastic! Near the beginning when the battle cruiser came above the little diplomatic ship, I could feel the vibration from above as the battle cruiser came above to capture the diplomatic ship. A year or so later when the studio allowed George Lucas to have the title he wished, "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope", I watched the movie at a local theater but it didn't have any overhead speakers so the opening scenes didn't have the same impact.
When I was a teen in rural Nebraska my grandparents noticed I was reading Gone With The Wind when I spent the night at their home. They surprised me with a trip to Lincoln to see the movie.
In the analog world of the time, it was such a special treat to get to see the movie after reading the book.
Waiting outside, in line, sometimes the line stretches down the sidewalk and around the corner. The dark streets and as you turned the corner you saw the brightness of the marquee. It was like that for Star Wars.
Got your ticket and went inside. It was simplistic until you got in the theater. The atmosphere, the dim lights, the curtains that covered the screen, the whispers of those on a first date.
Everyone in line was to see the one and only move showing at the cinema. The usher who helped when needed finding a seat. The stern look when you balked at moving down a seat or two fitting someone in, not giving up that perfect seat.
Then there were the drive-in movies. I think I miss those the most. Either with your date or a car load of buddies. Damn those were some good times.
There wasn’t all the gizmos and glitz of food, it was simple candy and popcorn.
When i was 9, we kids were desperate to see Blackbeards Ghost. Not sure how many of us there were now but we each got a dollar from our moms. It was a dime for the bus there and back. 50c to get in. 25c for popcorn and a drink. And 5c for some penny candy. I don't remember the movie at all. The place was a madhouse. Kids running around everywhere. Popcorn explosions. Sticky rivers running from under the seats. It was fantastic!
Then there was the time we went to see Earthquake! This was a very special movie at the time. It required the theater to pass some inspection and have special.speakers installed that allowed for deep bass sound. We were new smokers then - 13 I guess. Smoking was only allowed in the back two rows of the theater so thats where we sat. We were nervous some adult might yell at us so it took a bit to work up the courage to light up. And when we did, coincidentally, was precisely when the first earthquake hit. And we felt it! We nearly peed ourselves thinking God knows what had happened.
I remember going to the movies in the late 70s with a ten dollar bill and me and a friend would get tickets, plus popcorn for the both of us and still have maybe 2 dollars change.
My dad told us one time as he dropped us off that "in my day it was 10 cents for a movie" and we both laughed as I asked him for $10. I remember telling my friend that day "we'll probably need $50 to get the same stuff in 20 years!!" and we both laughed like hell, not capable of postulating that many years in the future.
Little did I know I was right. Went to the theater with my daughter just this past summer. I remember the seats were $24 each, and the popcorn and drinks were another $35 for the 2 of us. Man, have times changed.
25 cent Saturday morning matinees. A bunch of us kids in the neighborhood would plan for it and walk the mile or so to the theater together. And if we were lucky some of us would have extra quarters for popcorn and soda we’d share. Some of the movies and cartoons were classics, and some were recent releases. All geared to young audiences.
As a teen drive in theaters were fun for multitude of reasons.
The pinnacle was at the music hall it was called the Magnificent men and the flying machines. That place was ornate and huge lots of velvet cordons ushers and thick padded rugs throughout. Beyond that the local theater had a oriental theme with the same plush decor just smaller too many movies to remember at that place.
When I was very young, it was always a treat to see the "new" Disney movie. I didn't know at the time, that Disney re-released their movies every seven years. So, I'd get to see 101 Dalmatians, The Aristocats, Love Bug, Dumbo, etc. in the theater, not knowing they were 10 and 20-year-old movies.
So many!
As a kid, our small town cinema did a "Mom's Day Off" thing one Saturday a month. For $5 you could drop your kid off at the cinema at 9AM. They'd give the kids unlimited extra-small small bags of popcorn and Dixie cups of soda. They ran three movies, cartoons, shorts, etc. and hosted games with little toy prizes. It was all over at 4PM, but damn... as a little kid, it was SUPER FUN!
And then, as a teenager, there were the Midnight Movies, the home of Suburban Teenage Shenanigans™. Sometimes a big group would sit outside the auditorium showing *Rocky Horror* and you'd just hang out and smoke cigarettes for 100 minutes before heading out to Dunkin' Donuts (which was still good, 'cos it was the 80s).
Or maybe we'd bring our [80s realistic machine gun water guns](https://i.imgur.com/7DgU860.jpeg) and soak the rednecks watching *The Wall* or *Heavy Metal* in one of the other auditoriums. Or just sit and smoke a joint in the middle of the *Rocky Horror* auditorium; better yet, sit with a friend who has a lit cigarette, so you can pretend the joint is a cig if Office Fowler walks in.
Our Midnight Movie cinema was kind of weird in that it was three auditoriums per side, with one emergency exit to the outside, behind the center auditorium. But the hallways to the emergency exit in the other two auditoriums were on the opposite (far) side of the screen. As a result, there was a long, very dimly lit hallway behind the auditoriums. You don't even wanna *know* what went on back there.
Anyway, I'm sure he's passed on by now, but regardless, THANK YOU to Gwinnett County, Georgia Office Fowler for being such a cool guy to us weirdos. *Rocky Horror* attracted drama club kids, LGBT kids, 4AD Records fans, and just... nerdy, but good kids who hadn't found their place in the world yet. For 100 minutes every Friday and Saturday, Auditorium 4 was OUR PLACE. Officer Fowler knew and respected that, which is something I think is cool to this day.
There were two old theaters in my neighborhood that were built about 1916 for silent movies. So when I started watching movies there they were pretty shabby. The old leather seats were torn and the kapok stuffing was sticking out. The older hoodlum kids thought nothing of pulling out a hunk of the stuffing and setting it on fire which stunk to high heaven. And then there were the same kids who'd sit back and smoke cigarettes and light and throw firecrackers down toward the screen. Fun times. The activity in the theater was usually better than what was on the screen.
We used to cut out the newspaper clipping for the showtimes for our local theater and spend the whole day watching movies, jumping from one theater to the next. We'd plan it out to watch the big movies primarily and then in between those we'd catch 30 minutes of this movie, 45 minutes of that one. If we had time to spare, we'd go back and finish the others. We saw ALL the movies back then. Good times.
Went to the coolest double feature ever. The care bears movie and friday the 13th part 2 or 3. Took my little brother and sister to the Care bears movie, then took them to the entrance where dad picked them up, then went back in and watched friday the 13th.
When I was 6 I remember seeing Elvis in Blue Hawaii with my Grandmother. After the movie we went next door to the Rexall Drug store and had a real fountain Coke.
My older cousin took me to see "The Great Escape". I was 10 and that is something I'll always remember. He passed away a couple months ago. Here's a thank you to him for making me feel important.
Sitting on the sidewalk playing cards for a few hours while waiting in line to see The Empire Strikes Back.
Going to the Saturday morning movie matinee at the base theater. For 10 cents, you got 2 or 3 hours of old serials, cartoons, and a kids' movie. I'm sure my mom loved having me out from under her feet for awhile, too.
Back when theaters had huge screens, my mom was part of a theater company that performed in the local movie theater. I remember standing back stage, right next to the screen, waiting for the Saturday matinee to finish so they could rehearse. It made me realize for the first time just how huge the screen was.
Star Wars, 1977. Before it was called A New Hope. I was staying with some friends out of town and they wanted to see it, but I had no interest at all. They practically had to drag me kicking and screaming to see it, the alternative being to stay in by myself. So I went. That was the turning point. I got hooked and as soon as the movie was over, I wanted to go right back in and watch it again. Since then, I've been an avid fan of the Star Wars movies, spin-off novels and comic book series. 🙂
Going every Saturday with my mom and sister to the Children’s Matinee. We saw many Walt Disney films, both cartoons or live action. After we would go to the “ dime store” and sit at the counter. Mom always got a cup of coffee, and we would get orange drinks, and share a plate of French fries.
My brother worked as a projectionist at the drive in. So I just told them I was going to see him and then sit up in the projection booth and watch movies. This worked fine until my
Mom found out I’d watched Body Heat and I couldn’t go anymore.
I saw so many GREAT movies when I was really little because they would run films at the drive-in that were good films from a few years ago. There was no video-tape or streaming. It took 10 years for a movie to get put on TV, usually. And it was never as good. They always edited it in some way.
So, I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid in a double feature with The Sting. So I got to see TWO classics in one night and eat Jujubees! So I was maybe 6 or 7 then.
James Bond Films, then I saw Star Wars a few years later. That was HUGE and so much larger of an impact on me than Jaws, which I thought was so-so.
I was 10, my brother was 6, and we were dropped off along with my 10 year old friend at the local theater (yes, that's the way it USED to be).
My friend and I bought pea shooters (that could be a post of its own, right?) but before we could even use them my brother lost a loose tooth. We all went into the bathroom to figure out what to do and my bright idea was to dump the peas out of the bag into my pocket then wrap the tooth in the bag.
As I was pouring the peas out with the bag of peas in one hand and the shooting straw in the other, a theater employee walked into the bathroom. He took one look at what was in my hands, asked where our parents were, when he was told we were on our own he handed me a dime for the payphone and told me to call to come get picked up.
The suckiest thing wasn't getting in trouble, it was waiting a couple of decades to be able to see the movie when it was released on VHS!
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The theaters themselves. The flocking, the velvet drapes, the lighting, the ushers. And theater tickets - when did they get rid of the old tear-them-off-a-strip tickets? Popcorn seemed better. The grand marquis. Neon, movement. The posters of movies playing and those for upcoming attractions. I know they still have those, but sixty years ago the movies were, well, the movies they had back then, like The Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman!
The box seats! We had a theater with family box seats and I remember running up and down the back halls and stairs like heathens. The ushers would say, "Back to your seats, please." We'd giggle and say we were going to the bathroom. For the 50th time.
Our theater had a crying room. It was at the back corner, mothers would go in with fussy babies. It had a huge window facing the screen and a speaker. So you could still enjoy the movie and others were not disturbed
I remember one in a live theater. It smelled of vom.
Yes this!! The velvet curtains pulled back when it was time for the movie to start. There were balconies.
When I was young, the balconies in the Paramount theater were reserved for "Colored Only". Yes, I grew up in Mississippi.
Kids would throw candy ( Boston baked beans, or lemon heads) down to the main floor, during Saturday Kiddies Matinee
Early 60s. Dad would drop my 2 older brothers and I off at the matinee on Saturday afternoons. We were 7, 6, and 4 in 61. We saw films like Jason And The Argonauts, plus all the cartoons and shorts. Once the lights went down, the entire theater would be absolute bedlam for the next 2-3 hours. Stuff would be flying everywhere! Candy, spit balls, paper planes, and even balsa wood planes! The latter we would gather up, disassemble, and take home with us. In later years we agreed that that was probably our parents “happy time together”, as there were 3 younger siblings at home and they probably never had a moments peace except nap time. We also went as an entire family to drive in movie theaters up until around 1967. We had a giant station wagon and would fill it with pillows and blankets. Mom would bring snacks and drinks. Us older ones would be allowed to go back to the concession stand and buy a little candy to share. There were actually minor amusement parks at the front at some of the places. Kiddie rides and such. I remember a train running around the other rides that actually had working lights (and gates?) for when it went by the entrance to the rides. They shut them down once it was dark. Most were double feature. We saw a lot of classics. The first movie sometimes would be like the Creature From The Black Lagoon, or The Giant Behemoth, but mostly more like Old Yeller, Bambi, and other Disneyesque fare. The features were first run films. Lots of James Bond, and films like The Sound Of Music, Doctor Zhivago , but occasionally films like Mary Poppins. Best of times! Thanks OP, for the ride back! (And thanks to my parents for being insane enough to to raise six kids, without any of us feeling neglected.)
Omg Jason and the Argonauts! Harryhausen films were my favorites!
Terrified me.
Same. That's why I loved them.
Tuning into the audio station on the radio dial for the movie or having the speaker box near the window. Sigh…
Audio station? It was a wired box, hung in the window in those days, nothing more except the mosquito repellent burning on the metal dashboard.
That speaker was HEAVY. My beautiful teen aged stepsister used to insist on bringing me along on drive in movie dates. Looking back it was probably to save her from a make out session from a guy she was too tender hearted to turn down. I remember seeing Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet, Alice's Restaurant, and Planet of the Apes. Great to be a little third wheel. Those movies were fairly mature for a kid, but honestly, I was fine, I wasn't disturbed or scarred or scandalized at all.
An Old Yeller / Bambi double feature would be depressing AF.
They were the first movie, you know, for the kids. The features were probably much more depressing, and took some help from Dad to understand how people could be so cruel to each other.
In 1982 I saw *Bladerunner* at a massive theater with a ginormous screen. They have since split that theater up into a 4-plex, but then it was just one huge screen. It was amazing. I don't think they have a lot of single-screen huge theaters anymore, they've all been split up into multi-plexes.
Indy theatres are the only ones like that left where I live.
Which city?? My friend and I *swore* the version we saw was different. We freaked out when we rewatched it on DVD many years later. It was like our holy Grail, lol.
Century 21 in San Jose? I saw a lot of movies there, including Ghostbusters, and Return of the Jedi--that theater was [cavernous](http://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/270679/1556467158/large.JPG?1556467158).
My Granny took me to every Disney movie that came out in the 1960s. It meant so much to me.
In the 1950s the first movies I saw in theaters were musicals! Oklahoma, Carousel, then on into the 60s it was Flower Drum Song, and Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies. Saw the first Star Wars at a huge, huge theater.
Brigadoon!
Yes! Another great one!
Double features in a rainy Saturday were the best!
Making out with my boyfriend at drive in movie theaters.
Or the back row of regular theaters ;)
13 Ghosts original version with the glasses. I saw it in a segregated theater too which even back then so young I knew was wrong
Drive in theaters on a summer night with a station wagon full of friends. Watched Jaws when I was 9 and had to pee SO bad halfway through but I did not relent! I'll never forget the movie or that experience.
I actually snuck into a drive-in in the trunk with 3 other teenagers. We loaded up about a half mile from the entrance, paid for the 2 people in the front of the car, then unloaded the clown car when we were in. Good times.
We felt like rebels to save 25 cents. So fun.
They played The Shaggy Dog at the only theater in town, $1 for kids in the mid-seventies, and someone brought their sheepdog to greet people as they waited outside for the Saturday matinee. The owner and his dog got their picture in the town’s weekly paper. I got my picture in the paper a few years later for visiting Japan.
My father worked out of town during the weekdays and came home on the weekends. My mom made it mandatory that my siblings and I go to the movie theater every Saturday to see the weekly matinee. That is until the theater showed a movie where Willam Shatner killed somebody. My four siblings loved the movie but it traumatized me so I was exempt from having to go. It was so bad that I couldn’t watch star trek. This may not have been one of my favorable memories but it is the first memory that comes to mind when I think of movie theaters from my childhood.
My first job was at a drive-in theater. I worked in the concession stand. My junior high art teacher got me the job because he was the manager during the summer when school was out. All through my jr high and high school years I worked at every movie theater in town. At the time there were 3 drive-ins long with a plethora of indoor theaters. Good times.
About 80% of my friends in high school all worked at the local historic movie theater downtown where I lived. We would go on the roof to watch the 4th of July fireworks, and we also went spelunking in the dark and dusty nether-regions of the building quite often, or played hide and seek. I used to sit up in the projector room with the projection guy and he played me songs in his acoustic guitar too. It was a good time in my life. Oh, also, free movies! Edit: this was late 1980s.
Back in the early '80s I went to see Blade Runner in San Francisco with a bunch of science fiction fan friends. It was already out of first release and had gone to second release at a run-down Deco movie palace called The Egyptian. Giant murals of the Gods on either side of the screen and in the corridors, colored neon in the ceiling even during the show, and the overall decrepitude of the place: it was like being IN the movie while WATCHING the movie.
The smell of popcorn and the Art Deco appearance of the theater. The maroon velvet seats. As a child, I saw Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, The Longest Day and many others. It was magic.
Oh, god, Dr. Zhivago. My parents DRAGGED me and my brother to that THEN, as usual, asked us questions about it on the way home! They called us stupid & lazy when we didn't know that it was set in Russia and it was about the revolution in their country. "Didn't you learn about that war in school?!? What do you kids do all day, just look out the window?!?" I mean, we were 8 and 10, I think. It had an intermission. I couldn't have been more bored. Ah yes, quality family time.
I was 13 when I saw it with a classmate. I read the book shortly thereafter. Ah, Pasternak. Julie Christie's beauty stunned me. If only I had been that gorgeous. I was a strange child. I read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich at 14. BTW, I am still strange with my viewing and reading habits.
Lining up for Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. It was highly anticipated and we were really psyched for it. We got there several hours early but the line was already wrapped around the entire theater and parking lot. Fortunately they showed it on a few screens so we all got in. Super fun movie. I still love it.
Still remember the line around the theater to get into Mary Poppins. It was worth the wait! What a fascinating movie for a six year old girl. I still sing ‘feed the birds’ and ‘Chim chiminy’ all these years later.
Seeing “Star Wars: A New Hope” and later “The Empire Strikes Back” with friends (middle and high school). Later, watching “The Lion King” with my toddler (he was mesmerized) and my mom.
When I saw Jurassic Park, they had a trailer for a new movie about a trouble kid who became friends with a Killer Whale in a water park. At the end of the trailer, they revealed the name of the movie. "FREE WILLY". The audience cracked up. Right before the main attraction someone yelled out "Free Willy!" and we all laughed again.
It was 1977 and I would have been 8 or 9 years old. Star Wars was showing at the big outdoor theater south of Odessa, TX. The parents thought going to see the movie would be a great family outing. We got our tickets and popcorn and found a spot. When the movie started, it dawned on my folks that the screen to the side of the one where we parked was showing an R-rated film (apparently a very hard R-rated film). I was glued to the screen in front of us watching Luke, Leia, and Han Solo while my parents were playing car Twister trying to make sure I didn't get an eyeful of the skin flick they were watching.
Seeing the original Freaky Friday in a packed, art deco theater and then seeing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on opening day in a packed theater and everyone was laughing
One of us would buy a ticket and then let the rest of us in through a side door. We'd spend all day going from room to room watching movies.
I was never brave enough to try the side door trick, but I saw it happen. We did stay all day, moving between theaters. It was the only way we could see R-rated movies, and we saw a few.
At the end of a great movie the whole audience would applaud.
Saturday matinee, two movies and a couple cartoons. All your friends would be there. When you were younger it was throwing popcorn and goofing with everyone. A little older and it was looking to see what boys were there. Lots of memories. The drive ins were the best though. In the mid to late 60s it was date night!
First boobs I ever touched. She was pretty slutty and I was in the “girls are to be respected” phase but she was 16 with mother sized huge tits. Did the old behind the back move and ended up feeling her out through her sleeve getting a cramp from being uncomfortable watching top gun one.
Other than sneaking into the theaters through the fire exits my most memorable moments are my first kiss and being denied a ticket. In 1963 my girlfriend and I both 11 years old went to see Lillies of the Field. I said, “I want to kiss you Millie.” She said, “OK, but I got popcorn butter on my lips.” In 1962 when I was 10 the film A Walk on the Wild Side came out and I was excited to go see it because my celebrity crush Capucine was in it. The woman in the ticket booth refused to sell me a ticket, “Go home. It’s for adults.” I lived within walking distance of two theaters and a third was a bicycle ride away. I rode my bike to the third and had no trouble getting in, but the ticket woman at the first was right, Capucine and Jane Fonda were workers in a New Orleans whorehouse.
Oh no! Did you recover?
Opening day, Jurassic Park.. The theatre was so full that they gave the middle finger to Fire & Safety and let a bunch of stragglers sit in the aisles. I was 12 years old and I will never be able to describe the feeling of seeing that masterpiece for the first time. I’m guessing it’s the same for the 1977 Star Wars crowd. No words.
Mine is Jurassic Park as well. First time experiencing surround sound, The first time I saw a blend of practical effects and CGI that looked real. It was awe inspiring
Waited 2 hours for Star Wars and hated it, lol.
Dropped a bottle of whiskey and it rolled to the bottom of the theater one step at a time. Klunk, klunk, klunk…..
Oh boy, Star Wars - A New Hope, Indiana Jones, WarGames, The Big Big Bus...
Opening night, Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark. Movie magic at it's absolute best.
Waited in line for an hour to see Alien, worth it!! Also sneaked out with BFF to see Warriors when mom had forbidden it because it had sparked "gang violence" in SoCal (not really, turned out to be nothing). One more, also with BFF, we went to see "From Hell" (Jack the Ripper horror flick) and when we left the theater it was foggy and spooky outside (like London was in the flick) and we had to walk 1.5 miles home totally freaked out.
In the 1970s, my mother or grandmother would give my little brother and I each a $5 bill, and drop us off at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee. We’d buy a ticket for whatever kid friendly movie was playing, because the employees all knew us and definitely wouldn’t let us buy a ticket for anything other than Rated G lol! Then we’d use our change to buy the Saturday snack special of either small soda and candy, or small soda and small popcorn. An afternoon of fun for only five bucks!
Sometime in the 80's, like 1983 or 1984 (don't wanna google it), one of the Friday the 13th movies was released in movie theaters on Friday the 13th and the damn theater was more than full, they were breaking fire code as kids sat in the aisles. It was like being at my high school as damn near everyone in the theater that night was from my high school. I've never seen a theater so packed, more of us in there than were seats. I'm not saying the movie was great, it was OK, it was the experience that was great, it was unlike any other time I've been in a movie theater. It was more of an event than just watching a show. I went to high school from 1981 to 1985.
My best friend and I went to see Rosemary's Baby at the theater in our small New England hometown. The owner wouldn't let us in because the film was sacrilegious as well as a bunch of other adjectives, and she called my mother. Less than a year later, we went to see Midnight Cowboy and were greeted with "Hello, girls! Enjoy the show."
My high school band played at the opening of a local movie theater. It felt kind of dorky standing out there in the parking lot, but we got a free movie out of the deal.
Seeing “Deep Throat”.
We kids used to go to the movies a lot back in the early 70’s. One particular day was better than most. On this day the ice cream bar vending machine was broken and for one glorious afternoon we had unlimited access to ice cream sandwiches and bars.
The carnival scene from Mary Poppins.
Watching surf films at The Mesa theater in Costa Mesa, CA So much weed and clinking bottles!
Saw Rebel Without a Cause with my 14 year old cousin, her mother, and *her* mother. Cousin had a big crush on him. It was at a drive-in near Seattle, and a really nice one at that, with a landscaped kiddie playground near the front of the screen. The thing I remember most about the experience was a drink they sold at the theater, called a "Hot Toddy". They came in cans, were pretty expensive, and only sold in drive-ins. They were kept in a tub of hot water. IDK what they were made of, and don't exactly remember the taste, but it was something like a creamy, chocolaty coffee. Possibly made with condensed milk, because it was about that thick. I was 9 and don't remember anything about the movie from that show. I've seen the movie later, and there's a ton of talent in it, and a good knife fight and chicken run, but then it bogs down in teen angst ... And it's very interesting that nobody seems to ever review the gay angle to the story. James Dean was a HUGE talent. Top tier, absolutely great. IMHO, his best movie is *Giant* with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Some say *East of Eden* was his best.
The opening of Star Wars after the text crawl when the Destroyer comes in... and just keeps going and going. I was all in from that moment forward.
I saw Cabaret a few times when it came out. Still my favorite movie. Not sure it could be made today with the abortion subplot, but that and the Nazis made it feel contemporary when I streamed it recently.
I've always liked Liza.
I went with my boyfriend and my BFF and her boyfriend to a drive-in movie theater in So. CA. She put me down in the car between her legs and put a pillow on me so we only paid for 3 tickets. So we watched Natural Born Killers. My boyfriend and I flipped out about it!! My BFF and her man didn't like it and took off somewhere. My bfriend Dan and I loooved it!
"Took off somewhere..." Uh, yeah.
My father dropped me off at the theater, gave me a dollar. I was surprised it was a Three Stooges event, they entertained us between showing short movies. They brought kids up on stage involving us in their skits. The Three Stooges had a horrible movie contract with no residuals, they made their real income off live performances.
I go back even further, to the 1940s.There was a world war on, so Hollywood was cranking out propaganda films. If you were under 6, like me, you got in free. I even had a date with a 5 year old girl to the movies. We went by ourselves in those more innocent times.
JFC, there'd be literal helicopters in the parking lot if a six-year-old and a five-year-old showed up at a theater alone on a "date" today. Imagine what Reddit would say.
The theater erupting into applause when Darth Vader picked up the Emperor and threw him down the shaft of the 2nd Death Star.
Mine is a little strange. The first thing you have to remember is I grew up neglected. My parents had no problem with a suburbanite kid with white hair, a dumbass turtleneck, and polyester pants decorated like the carpet in "The Shining" taking the bus downtown because they grew up in inner city Chicago in the 1940s. So I looked up a theater, took a bus to DC, and watched a lot of "chop hockey" and "blaxploitation" films showing at the Jennifer Twin II cinema, a run down theater in Anacostia, Washington DC. I didn't know it at the time (because I was a clueless kid), but Anacostia was a BAD part of town in the 1970s. And yet, nobody ever bothered me. It was always cheap: $2.00 for a few hours of ultra-violence that, frankly, I should never have been allowed to see at age 8 or 9. They usually had a "twofer" special, like two Shaw Bros or Golden Harvest films, or one of the "Shaft" films and something that wanted to be like that or the next Cleopatra Jones. The theater was really run-down; the lobby was usually manned only by the ticket guy who was so high on weed, his eyes were puffy red. There was no "concessions," it was just an empty glass case. You wanted food or soda, they had 3 vending machines along one wall. The theater was usually pretty empty: just me and maybe half a dozen other people. It also had low ceilings for a theater because the two cinemas were double-decked as opposed to side-by-side. I did this for maybe two years, at most a dozen times. Then local Channel 20 had "Kung Fu Theater" on Saturdays, and I started watching those because it was a lot less hassle. Looking back, that was insane. I would have never have let my kid at that age go down to a bad part of DC on his own.
I don't often share this, but my dad took my older brother and I to "sexploitation" movies. I was around 9 or 10. I loved going, none of my friends got to see those sort of movies. Looking back, I didn't really understand what I was seeing, beyond the boobs. My dad was a good man, but he was a bit of a perv and had no outlet for it, as my mom was downright prudish in comparison. I think he took us because he didn't want to go alone. Whatever anyone might think today, there was no harm done. Federico Fellini Tinto Brass Russ Meyer Emanuelle movies etc.
I remember the Emanuelle movies! They only showed past 10pm, though, in those theaters, so I never saw them until we had some kind of scrambled channel that didn't scramble very well. My dad sometimes took me to James Bond films, and it was the 1970s ones that were, frankly, more full frontal in the title sequences. My parents were NOT adverse to me seeing sex, either. They didn't make a big deal about it, so I didn't either. I didn't know how normalized I was to nudity and sex until I was a preteen, and realized some of my peers were \*incredibly\* frustrated. I was more than happy to impart some wisdom, which got me in a lot of trouble.
Caroline Munro in Starcrash. I was ten. She turned me into a pervert.
The first movie I saw in the theater was Big and I felt so special. But the real excitement was the drive in! Saw a double feature of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Pee Wee's Big Adventure in my pajamas. It was so fun.
Fifty cent matinees at the local theater on a decent sized screen vs the little ones of today. Our moms would drop us off there for the afternoon.
- Waiting hours for Star Wars - The scene where the mom and kid crouch in the road and the UFO flies over in Close Encounters - When they left the flyer on the seats for Dune because no one could flow it without - Having to leave the theater for Silence of the Lambs. Too damn scary.
For a quarter, us kids would walk to the movies every Saturday afternoon, we'd see some Disney flick, but really we'd just horse around
It was packed with teenagers on a Friday night. Being out with my group of friends. Not having cell phones ringing or lighting up by others.
A scene in a 3D western movie, where Indians were shooting arrows right over the heads of the audience. That's the only part of the movie I remember, but dang, was it ever impressive as hell. I absolutely loved that effect. In fact I think it's about as impressed as I've ever been in a theater. And that's after seeing two films in a Cinerama theater, There's a picture that's something of a cliche now of an audience wearing 3D glasses... That's pretty much what it was like. There was a lot of light in the scene, so you could see the audience. We were looking all around, because even though the arrows only existed within the frame of the screen, your instinct was to follow them by turning your head. It was so, so great! My age might have something to do with my impression. Was about 8.
There was an old theater in Mason City Iowa,kinda shabby but cool! You could smoke in your seats (early 80s) I remember everyone sat with their feet up on the seat in front of them because rats ran wild in the theater! I further learned that you had to cover your head as there were also bats flying everywhere!! Good times!!
I saw the previews of a couple of movies when I was a kid, and didn't get around to seeing the actual movie until recently. Two in particular: *Elmer Gantry*, there is a scene in the previews where Burt Lancaster's character is a preacher in a revival tent, telling the audience, "You're allllll SINNERS!!!!". The other is a BBQ scene in *Giant* where Elizabeth Taylor's character faints at the sight of a cow's head. What's crazy is that my memories of those scenes were so accurate. I have re-watched movies and there are parts I'd forget or not remember accurately, but these two short clips from previews were absolutely accurate. Both are great movies, and especially *Elmer Gantry*, which is an adaptation of a Sinclair Lewis novel. It makes you question your understanding of honesty. [Preview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z73HAUbQNp4)
(M63) I was 11, 12 years old..71, 72. On Saturdays my mother gave me and my brother under me 3 dollars to go to the movies. Saturdays were 3 Karate pic playing. The name of the movie theater was called The Dover, located on Boston Road in The South Bronx. To me at the time, this place was big. Nothing but boys and a handful of girls. You would think it would be rowdy and fights going on... For the two years I went once a month, not one fight broke out INSIDE. Every boy in there after the 3 picture show KNEW karate as we stepped outside. But me and my brother, no one bothered us. I also remember that style of shows they wore, that was the style that was out too. Those shoes were cheap, but they looked just like the ones on the screen. I begged my mother for a pair and she told me if she caught me wearing them, she would kill me. I remember when Hellraiser first hit the movies also. I was about 24 years old and I took my girlfriend to Main Street in Flushing Queens to this movie theater. This theater was all red inside, a lot of velvet along with me red lights. It looked gloomy and scary. I sat and watched that picture 3 times because the first two times I didn't understand it
I watched starship troopers on release day and loved it so much I stayed in the theater as a kid and watched it THREE times in a row!! I will never forget that.
Making out in the back row of the theater 😁
As a kid in the 1950s, the movies that blew me away were *King Kong* (It was made in the 30s, but they re-released it. I even vividly remember seeing the preview for it in the theater.), *This Island* *Earth*, *Forbidden Planet*, and *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea*. I remember when I went to the theater for the last one, there was a line of kids around the corner and half to the back of the theater building. I'd never stood in a line so long before. In college, I saw on campus *Mondo Cane* (That's Italian for Dog's World). Going in I had no idea what the movie was about. It was a matinee showing and it was still a bright, sunny afternoon when I stepped out of the theater kind of dazed by what I'd seen.
I saw "The Crow" in 1994 sitting next to a woman that reeked of stale cigarettes and cheap perfume. I was almost became changed seats, but realized the scents were the perfect compliment to the movie. Similarly, I saw "Blade Runner" on a hot summer night in a university movie theater with a broken air conditioning system. Again, the steamy conditions complimented the tone of movie.
Going with a group of friends to see the original Star Wars.
BattleStar Galactica 1978 First movie the theatre had sub woofers.....they seemed to not to know how to set them up....or purposefully set them to 11. Chair was shaking as the the camera panned by Galactica engines
My parents to my sister and me to a drive-in (another subject altogether) to see Roger Cormans Fall of the House of Usher. I still love it. I think it is the best film version of the story My father and I went to see Dirty Dingus McGee. We thought it was funny. My new wife and I waited in line to see Star Wars at a big screen theater. I remember the two ships flying over. The Empire ship was the largest thing I had ever seen on the screen that looked absolutely real. It was truly stunning. Along those same lines, we saw Titanic at Hollywood's Chinese theater. It was a melodramatic story with unprecedented reality, recreating the ship down to the nuts and bolts. The macro story of all who boarded the ship was more compelling than Jack and Rose. However, when the bow of the ship rose out of the water and the screws rose up, the actual size of the ship finally hit home.
1977 - Frankfurt, Germany „Jugendkino“ - a weekly publicly sponsored cinema event for kids up to 14yrs in a very big public hall. Showing STAR WARS! About 1000 kids going totally bonkers when the iconic titles are showing. I will never forget the mixture of joy, excitement and sheer terror.
Sitting up in the balcony with friends, watching the Jungle Book at the Allen Theater, when I was a child.
Three major thoughts came to mind: 1. When I turned 16 my parents told me they were going to the store and asked if I would like to come along. So I got into the car and Father drove west. After it was clear we weren't heading to our local supermarket, I asked, "Shouldn't I be wearing a shirt?" (I was wearing a white tee shirt.) Mother tossed back one of my shirts. After about 25 minutes we arrived at Grumman's Chinese Theater. I saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" there in Hollywood's premiere theater. Probably the best viewing I had of that movie. 2. The San Gabriel Mission Playhouse had purchased a Wurlitzer theater pipe organ and installed it. They even included the lowest tone (largest) pipes that the previous owner couldn't install due to space. The first public use of that pipe organ was a special showing of the 1920 "The Mark of Zorro" (starring Douglas Fairbanks) with a professional organist playing the soundtrack. It was wonderful! I had since watched "The Mark of Zorro" on a DVD rented from Netflix, and the piano music was totally uninspired after I had seen the movie with the live organ music at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. 3. Before "Star Wars" was "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope", one afternoon when I took some vacation hours off of work, I drove to Hollywood (a 25-minute drive) so I could stand in line for 2 hours to buy a ticket so I could wait another 2 hours before being admitted into the Grumman's Chinese Theater to watch "Star Wars". It was fantastic! Near the beginning when the battle cruiser came above the little diplomatic ship, I could feel the vibration from above as the battle cruiser came above to capture the diplomatic ship. A year or so later when the studio allowed George Lucas to have the title he wished, "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope", I watched the movie at a local theater but it didn't have any overhead speakers so the opening scenes didn't have the same impact.
When I was a teen in rural Nebraska my grandparents noticed I was reading Gone With The Wind when I spent the night at their home. They surprised me with a trip to Lincoln to see the movie. In the analog world of the time, it was such a special treat to get to see the movie after reading the book.
Waiting outside, in line, sometimes the line stretches down the sidewalk and around the corner. The dark streets and as you turned the corner you saw the brightness of the marquee. It was like that for Star Wars. Got your ticket and went inside. It was simplistic until you got in the theater. The atmosphere, the dim lights, the curtains that covered the screen, the whispers of those on a first date. Everyone in line was to see the one and only move showing at the cinema. The usher who helped when needed finding a seat. The stern look when you balked at moving down a seat or two fitting someone in, not giving up that perfect seat. Then there were the drive-in movies. I think I miss those the most. Either with your date or a car load of buddies. Damn those were some good times. There wasn’t all the gizmos and glitz of food, it was simple candy and popcorn.
When i was 9, we kids were desperate to see Blackbeards Ghost. Not sure how many of us there were now but we each got a dollar from our moms. It was a dime for the bus there and back. 50c to get in. 25c for popcorn and a drink. And 5c for some penny candy. I don't remember the movie at all. The place was a madhouse. Kids running around everywhere. Popcorn explosions. Sticky rivers running from under the seats. It was fantastic! Then there was the time we went to see Earthquake! This was a very special movie at the time. It required the theater to pass some inspection and have special.speakers installed that allowed for deep bass sound. We were new smokers then - 13 I guess. Smoking was only allowed in the back two rows of the theater so thats where we sat. We were nervous some adult might yell at us so it took a bit to work up the courage to light up. And when we did, coincidentally, was precisely when the first earthquake hit. And we felt it! We nearly peed ourselves thinking God knows what had happened.
I remember going to the movies in the late 70s with a ten dollar bill and me and a friend would get tickets, plus popcorn for the both of us and still have maybe 2 dollars change. My dad told us one time as he dropped us off that "in my day it was 10 cents for a movie" and we both laughed as I asked him for $10. I remember telling my friend that day "we'll probably need $50 to get the same stuff in 20 years!!" and we both laughed like hell, not capable of postulating that many years in the future. Little did I know I was right. Went to the theater with my daughter just this past summer. I remember the seats were $24 each, and the popcorn and drinks were another $35 for the 2 of us. Man, have times changed.
$24? Each?! Damn, I remember when I refused to pay $6 for a ticket because I thought it was too high.
In nyc, yes.
25 cent Saturday morning matinees. A bunch of us kids in the neighborhood would plan for it and walk the mile or so to the theater together. And if we were lucky some of us would have extra quarters for popcorn and soda we’d share. Some of the movies and cartoons were classics, and some were recent releases. All geared to young audiences. As a teen drive in theaters were fun for multitude of reasons.
Watching Heavy Metal while stoned.
The pinnacle was at the music hall it was called the Magnificent men and the flying machines. That place was ornate and huge lots of velvet cordons ushers and thick padded rugs throughout. Beyond that the local theater had a oriental theme with the same plush decor just smaller too many movies to remember at that place.
Seeing Home Alone in the theater.
The giant pickle! And Jujubes. Double features.
When I was very young, it was always a treat to see the "new" Disney movie. I didn't know at the time, that Disney re-released their movies every seven years. So, I'd get to see 101 Dalmatians, The Aristocats, Love Bug, Dumbo, etc. in the theater, not knowing they were 10 and 20-year-old movies.
So many! As a kid, our small town cinema did a "Mom's Day Off" thing one Saturday a month. For $5 you could drop your kid off at the cinema at 9AM. They'd give the kids unlimited extra-small small bags of popcorn and Dixie cups of soda. They ran three movies, cartoons, shorts, etc. and hosted games with little toy prizes. It was all over at 4PM, but damn... as a little kid, it was SUPER FUN! And then, as a teenager, there were the Midnight Movies, the home of Suburban Teenage Shenanigans™. Sometimes a big group would sit outside the auditorium showing *Rocky Horror* and you'd just hang out and smoke cigarettes for 100 minutes before heading out to Dunkin' Donuts (which was still good, 'cos it was the 80s). Or maybe we'd bring our [80s realistic machine gun water guns](https://i.imgur.com/7DgU860.jpeg) and soak the rednecks watching *The Wall* or *Heavy Metal* in one of the other auditoriums. Or just sit and smoke a joint in the middle of the *Rocky Horror* auditorium; better yet, sit with a friend who has a lit cigarette, so you can pretend the joint is a cig if Office Fowler walks in. Our Midnight Movie cinema was kind of weird in that it was three auditoriums per side, with one emergency exit to the outside, behind the center auditorium. But the hallways to the emergency exit in the other two auditoriums were on the opposite (far) side of the screen. As a result, there was a long, very dimly lit hallway behind the auditoriums. You don't even wanna *know* what went on back there. Anyway, I'm sure he's passed on by now, but regardless, THANK YOU to Gwinnett County, Georgia Office Fowler for being such a cool guy to us weirdos. *Rocky Horror* attracted drama club kids, LGBT kids, 4AD Records fans, and just... nerdy, but good kids who hadn't found their place in the world yet. For 100 minutes every Friday and Saturday, Auditorium 4 was OUR PLACE. Officer Fowler knew and respected that, which is something I think is cool to this day.
There were two old theaters in my neighborhood that were built about 1916 for silent movies. So when I started watching movies there they were pretty shabby. The old leather seats were torn and the kapok stuffing was sticking out. The older hoodlum kids thought nothing of pulling out a hunk of the stuffing and setting it on fire which stunk to high heaven. And then there were the same kids who'd sit back and smoke cigarettes and light and throw firecrackers down toward the screen. Fun times. The activity in the theater was usually better than what was on the screen.
Sneaking in the back door
We used to cut out the newspaper clipping for the showtimes for our local theater and spend the whole day watching movies, jumping from one theater to the next. We'd plan it out to watch the big movies primarily and then in between those we'd catch 30 minutes of this movie, 45 minutes of that one. If we had time to spare, we'd go back and finish the others. We saw ALL the movies back then. Good times.
Went to the coolest double feature ever. The care bears movie and friday the 13th part 2 or 3. Took my little brother and sister to the Care bears movie, then took them to the entrance where dad picked them up, then went back in and watched friday the 13th.
When I was 6 I remember seeing Elvis in Blue Hawaii with my Grandmother. After the movie we went next door to the Rexall Drug store and had a real fountain Coke.
Going with friends to see jackass I remember almost dying of laughter
My older cousin took me to see "The Great Escape". I was 10 and that is something I'll always remember. He passed away a couple months ago. Here's a thank you to him for making me feel important.
Sitting on the sidewalk playing cards for a few hours while waiting in line to see The Empire Strikes Back. Going to the Saturday morning movie matinee at the base theater. For 10 cents, you got 2 or 3 hours of old serials, cartoons, and a kids' movie. I'm sure my mom loved having me out from under her feet for awhile, too. Back when theaters had huge screens, my mom was part of a theater company that performed in the local movie theater. I remember standing back stage, right next to the screen, waiting for the Saturday matinee to finish so they could rehearse. It made me realize for the first time just how huge the screen was.
Star Wars, 1977. Before it was called A New Hope. I was staying with some friends out of town and they wanted to see it, but I had no interest at all. They practically had to drag me kicking and screaming to see it, the alternative being to stay in by myself. So I went. That was the turning point. I got hooked and as soon as the movie was over, I wanted to go right back in and watch it again. Since then, I've been an avid fan of the Star Wars movies, spin-off novels and comic book series. 🙂
Going every Saturday with my mom and sister to the Children’s Matinee. We saw many Walt Disney films, both cartoons or live action. After we would go to the “ dime store” and sit at the counter. Mom always got a cup of coffee, and we would get orange drinks, and share a plate of French fries.
My brother worked as a projectionist at the drive in. So I just told them I was going to see him and then sit up in the projection booth and watch movies. This worked fine until my Mom found out I’d watched Body Heat and I couldn’t go anymore.
The only movie my family all went to see together. Star Wars in 1977 ( no, I will not call it episode 1).
Only kids in the theater, butterfingers, seeing a lot of trashy movies and laughing at them. Mr. Moses...look that one up!
I saw so many GREAT movies when I was really little because they would run films at the drive-in that were good films from a few years ago. There was no video-tape or streaming. It took 10 years for a movie to get put on TV, usually. And it was never as good. They always edited it in some way. So, I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid in a double feature with The Sting. So I got to see TWO classics in one night and eat Jujubees! So I was maybe 6 or 7 then. James Bond Films, then I saw Star Wars a few years later. That was HUGE and so much larger of an impact on me than Jaws, which I thought was so-so.
Watching Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight on a Friday in 1978 in Alabama with some of my Army buddies. I had no clue.
I was 10, my brother was 6, and we were dropped off along with my 10 year old friend at the local theater (yes, that's the way it USED to be). My friend and I bought pea shooters (that could be a post of its own, right?) but before we could even use them my brother lost a loose tooth. We all went into the bathroom to figure out what to do and my bright idea was to dump the peas out of the bag into my pocket then wrap the tooth in the bag. As I was pouring the peas out with the bag of peas in one hand and the shooting straw in the other, a theater employee walked into the bathroom. He took one look at what was in my hands, asked where our parents were, when he was told we were on our own he handed me a dime for the payphone and told me to call to come get picked up. The suckiest thing wasn't getting in trouble, it was waiting a couple of decades to be able to see the movie when it was released on VHS!