Badmovies.org Forum

My friend GumbyDammett (aka Hank) posed this question on the IMDB message boards a while back.

My answer was


To which he replied thus:


Yours?

The now long-gone Saugus Cinema in Saugus, Massachusetts.  It was part of the General Cinemas chain.  My mother used to take me there to see Saturday kiddie matinees (lots of cheesy movies from Childhood Productions).  I'm not 100% sure what the first movie I saw there was, but it might have been this (which I now proudly own on DVD):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RxLBjf0t1k

I also have fond memories of seeing HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and WILLARD at that theater.  Not to mention LOGAN'S RUN, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, BLAZING SADDLES, LIVE AND LET DIE, MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, and many others.  

I forget the name of the theatre now but my first cinema experiences were at a small one-screen place tucked into the corner of a strip mall in Washington Township, NJ. When my brother and I were kids in the mid 70s my grandmother would take us there for afternoon matinees of Disney movies. I can remember seeing one of the "Herbie" films, the animated "Robin Hood," "Bambi," etc. at that theatre. 

I can't even remember.  My folks used to take me to the drive-in a lot, which is now just a crumbling patch of pavement.  The local kids use the road leading out to it as a dragstrip.  I think there were two regular theaters in town, one is now a computer store (they must have LOTS of storage space in the back), and I don't even know where the other one was.  Now we've got a multiplex of course. 

That's a tough one, because I can't remember the first time I went to the movies. If I had to guess, it was probably a family outing to the K-W Drive-In, on the outskirts of the twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario. Maybe 20 minutes from where I grew up. I have vague memories of being there, already in my jammies, with a pillow and blanket along for when I inevitably drifted off during the second feature. Saw a few movies there when I was little. We got out to the movies maybe once or twice a year, because it involved a trip to the city, and the most fun and economical way to do it was to take the whole family to the drive-in. If something good was playing, my older siblings would rally the family to gang up on my dad and persuade him. Such was the case with Star Wars in 1977.

Most of my earliest movie memories, up to 1980 or so, involve either the K-W or The Lyric in downtown Kitchener. The Lyric was one of the last single-screen cinemas in the city, converted from a live theatre at some point in its history. I can still remember my mom taking a few of my friends and me to see The Empire Strikes Back and later Return of the Jedi there in 70mm widescreen. The Lyric closed down in the late 80s or early 90s, with the industry moving toward more screens and out of downtown. It reopened briefly to offer slightly older movies at bargain prices in the early 90s, which I loved. Then The Lyric, with the same familiar name and marquee, was remodeled into a nightclub.

The K-W, as I've mentioned elsewhere, became a housing subdivision around the same time.

I can recall two:
I saw Buggsy Malone in one theatre..an early multiplex (2 screens!) in Bellevue Nebraska. I also saw King Kong (1976) in an older theatre in Downtown Bellevue. 

I can't tell you which was first. Nor can I find the name of the one I saw King Kong in.  I'm disappointed indeed.
-Ed

The first one for me was probably the Family Drive-In in Tigard, OR in the mid-70s.  The folks may have taken me to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (!).  A bit later I remember more clearly seeing STAR WARS, and WIZARDS and DAMNATION ALLEY on a double bill at that same theater.

It would have been the Esquire Theater in my hometown of Cleburne,Texas. It was a single screen back then with comfortable seats and the old neon clock in the upper left-hand by the screen. It was cheap....about 35 cents....and they fried hambergers,french fries and cooked hot dogs. You could have supper while you watched the film.

     For me, that would be the Dreamland....

(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z77/alandhopewell/DREAMLANDTHEATREC1955.jpg)

     It was a block and a half from our house, and my mother and her siblings grew up going there, as well. It closed in 1965, re-opened a year later as a porno house called the VL Cinema, and that closed in the late eighties; it's now a Hispanic Pentacostal church.

When I was older, we lived on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart Germany.  I'd go to the theater (since replaced) there on Saturdays to watch kid friendy films, mostly Disney live action: Herbie,Cat from outer Space, kind of thing.  But once I missed Message From Space.  30+ years later I still regret that.

I dont know-my Aunt Carol took me to see the PLANET OF THE APES somewhere in upstate NY,and I saw BAMBI and 2001 at some drive ins...I saw WILLARD at the Strand in Paw Paw-!

I seen most of my childhood films at the Strand....

(http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1773/154525253ec80306e44z.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/154525253ec80306e44z.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

     You may be able to find information on your theater on this site....

http://cinematreasures.org/

(http://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/20306/1312650583/large.jpg?1312650583)

Mine didn't really have a name, at least that I know of.  It was a theater on a military base, usually referred to as the Base Theater, or the AAFES Theater.  I have a lot of fond memories of that one, especially seeing Disney movies with my dad when I was a youngster.  I remember my dad getting gruff with some lady during The Jungle Book.  I asked him, "Dad, what's a man-cub?"  I was quiet and respectful, as was my dad's response.  The woman behind us started complaining, ironically louder than we were speaking.  My dad's only response was, "Oh shut up!"  She did, for the rest of the movie.

That theater also cemented my love for B-movies with three films that I caught as a wee one: Godzilla 1985, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and House.  I had so much fun watching these silly movies, especially House.  Before that, I had never seen a movie that could draw both laughter and fear out of me.  Seeing the reactions of others around me--our exasperation, laughter, and shock--turned it into the first big b-movie experience that I can remember.  I loved the film because of that.

Ah... memories... :smile:

There was a small mall in the area. It had, if I recall, a small 4-screen United Artists theater. In 1989, at the age of 5 or so, I saw the film All Dogs Go To Heaven.

I don't remember the name of the cinema, but it was a cinema in Oxnard, California, where the entire family saw "Bambi" on its 2nd re-release. (I was not yet born, when the film premiered or on its 1st re-release.) My father was reluctant to go, as the cinema was in a less savory part of town, and he was afraid someone would steal the hubcaps off of the family car. We did finally go and see the film, and no one stole the hubcaps.