THE OTHER NIGHT my lady said, “Let’s go to see a movie tonight.” We looked in the newspaper and all we could see were titles, times, the theater the feature was playing at and an overbearing ad. This gave me thought as to when I first started going to the “Picture Show.”

I started venturing to the movies in 1938 as a seven-year-old in second grade. I was living in the East New York section of Brooklyn, home of the infamous Murder, Inc. and the infamous street kid gang, The Amboy Dukes from Amboy Street. Stories of both these groups were later made into movies. The first starring Peter Falk and the other being Tony Curtis in his first role. Most of the Dukes were my classmates at PS174 and even then at seven years of age they were terrors. Personal stories of Murder, Inc. for another time.

     
I lived diagonally across the street from the movie house on Livonia Ave. and every Saturday was the big day for all of us neighborhood kids. Our mothers would brown bag us with sandwiches for lunch. By 10:30 a.m. we started forming a line for the noon opening of the movie that started at 12:30 p.m. So, with all the time we had for horsing around and the mishandling of our brown bags, we usually ate our lunch before the movie opened.

By noon we had our nickel in hand ready to rush into the movie to get our favorite seat. Here we sat mesmerized for a good four hours. We would see an “A” picture with top stars, followed by about 20 minutes of a Movietone Newsreel of world news. Then 2–5 cartoons, a serial with 15 weekly chapters (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, The Lone Ranger, Dick Tracy, Hopalong Cassidy and others) and coming attractions. A weekly comic race was also shown and whomever had the winning ticket number won a prize. Occasionally contests comprised of kids from the audience doing tricks with yo-yo’s for a prize of a bicycle. After all this the “B” movie, and then sometimes another “A” feature.

Back then, the top-rated movie house were located in Midtown Manhattan (The Times Square-Broadway area and in downtown Brooklyn). After that, the film went to the top neighborhood movie house, usually an RKO or a Loews Theater. Then in a couple of weeks, it filtered down to lower houses that would change its show maybe three times a week. That was our theater. There were still movie houses lower than that.

Wednesday night at the local Loews Theater was a big night. By this time we were living in Bensonhurst (Mafia country), Brooklyn. Another story, another time. On these Wednesday nights my aunt would take me by trolley to the Loews Theater as it was free dish night. Besides the two features, news, coming attractions and a few other things, we watched 3 acts of live Vaudeville, all for 25 cents. When you looked in the newspaper to see what was playing, the movie stars were listed and most times a small review of the film.

What I would give to see a new action film with Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, or Cary Grant instead of Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger or some other no-talented actor. Let’s not forget the talented, sexy actresses the likes of Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable and Lana Turner.









In Bensonhurst my favorite theater was the Stillwell (Stinkwell) with three picture changes weekly. From eight years old till I graduated high school, I went to the movies at least three times a week. In high school most of my classes ended by noon so I went directly to the movie and then back to school by 3:30 p.m. for basketball practice. It was a dime to get in. In the off season I would go directly to the community center by 4:00 p.m. to play ball there. Naturally when I started dating we would go to downtown Brooklyn on our Friday and Saturday night dates.

Now let’s travel back to today. You can either go to a theater usually in a complex shopping area or a multi-theater complex in a hotel casino. In these places 40% of their income comes from overpriced refreshments (I owned two mini theaters back east, so I know the facts) or wait until you can rent or buy the tape or DVD or watch it on pay-for-view cable or wait till it comes on free TV. No more lower status theaters to go to. What I really can’t understand is what the big deal is to rush to see a new flick on opening day and pay $7.50 to $10.00. Seniors usually get a discount to around $6.00. We here in Las Vegas used to have $1.00 and $2.00 theaters, but I think only one exists now. Maybe other towns or cities still do this.

Another thing is that when I watch the Academy Awards, they give awards to documentaries, short subjects, some foreign films, etc. I haven’t seen any of them in these complexes. The only showing is coming attractions of films that many are still not completed and advertisements for TV shows. I predict that if the product continues to decline, movie houses will close at a fast rate, as some have already done. I know for a fact that many low-budget movies are being made for DVD and video tape for world-wide distribution with lesser headaches for the producers. Also pirating of films will grow. Good night, Humphrey B. and Edward G.

So my readers, do you have a favorite old movie story from your past? Let’s hear about it, and we’ll pass it along to our readers.