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Showing posts with label "My First Visit to the Movies". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "My First Visit to the Movies". Show all posts

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

"My First Visit to the Movies"

Like many people of a certain age, my first trip to the movies was to see Star Wars. My father took me to the theatre,which only had one screen, the next town over. It was the Summer of 1977.

Growing up, when my brother and cousins would be playing "Star Wars", I was Princess Leia. I even went as her for Halloween one year, complete with the "doughtnut" hairdo.




Star Wars has been a cultural influence and dissected to death.


That first trip to the movies helped to foster a love of cinema, both independent and mainstream. When the new set came out, I took my dad. I didn't want to see it with anyone else.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Splogman

Splogman aka Jan T., Splogman's World and several other projects and blogs (and PCL contributor!):

"Writing about my first visit to the movies is difficult, because I'm not certain anymore when (somewhere round 1970), where (Amsterdam or Utrecht?) and which movie that might have been. I do remember that those visits were very exciting indeed and that there was a lot of anticipation involved.
I do remember that the first time it took me a while to understand that the introductional cartoon that we saw wasn't the main movie.
I do remember the strange shocking sensation when the movie was over: suddenly the lights went on and a door down in the left corner next to the big screen was opened to let us out into a world that now had become alien to me, a world that had no awareness of what had happened inside the theatre.
I do remember that the all the movies I saw in a movie-theatre as a kid were Disney classics: Peter Pan (which is most likely to have been the very first), Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and most of all: Jungle Book!
The idea of living in the jungle, free from school, church and other obligations and having animals as friends with whom you could actually talk appealed to me very much. That's why I also liked Tarzan. I didn't see Tarzan in one of the cinemas in the big city, but in the village hall where the Roman Catholic Workers Union organized cinema afternoons for the children of it's members, with old black and white movies that weren't necessarily fun to watch, at least not in my opinion. I remember being heavily disappointed and bored to death when they showed yet another western and not an adventure of my hero Johnny Weismuller. Judging from the trailers on youtube I must at least have seen: Tarzan's Secret Treasure and Tarzan Triumphs.

Trailer - Tarzan Triumphs (1943):

Clip added by pwgr2000

It's only now that I realize that they really showed us really old movies. Naturally we weren't aware of that as 10 year olds back in 1974.

Back to Disneyland: my parents bought these 33,3 rpm singles with a picture book for us of every movie we saw. On side A you could hear the story, interrupted by the sound of windchimes as a sign to turn the page of the book. On side B there were two songs from the movie, sung in Dutch accompanied by the original orchestra soundtrack. My little brother and I played those over and over and over ... I guess there most have been lots of other language versions. I'm trying hard to retrieve those little books, for my own fell apart completely and were thrown away over years.




I still know these translated songs by heart and it was a shock to me when I found out that at some point the Dutch version of my alltime favourites "The Bare Necessities" and "I wanna be like you" had been replaced by completely different renditions, so children of today don't know "my" versions anymore. I can see why they made new recordings, but I still don't understand why they had to replace the lyrics. "I am Balu, the brown bear, a very thick and lazy bear" became "What you can learn from bears, can learn from real bears". I mean, one can overdo education...

So here are the Dutch versions as they should be: "
boomp3.com
boomp3.com
Or downlod these 2 songs here: 1, 2.

--Jan Turkenburg aka Splogman--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Sebastian

Sebastian aka Mr. Dante Fontana, PCL Contributor:

"As for us kids brought up on the countryside - (in my case: on an old farm my parents took over in 1970 to live the green and back-to-nature life many were aspiring for those days) far from cities, super markets and the fruits of the commercial society – going to see a movie at the cinemas were so much more than just that. It was an adventure out of proportions. It meant going to the big city, Lund.
My grand-mom and other relatives from my dads family resided in Lund, so going to Lund almost always meant sleeping over.
Now I know Lund is not a very big city. Not even by swedish standards. But it is a city. With an impressive cathedral and a pompous and pulsating university its centre definitely has an air of big cityness. And for us country kids it was probably even more so.
”McDonalds!”, I could hear myself saying as we we’re driving into the city. But not loud. I wouldn’t want my parents to hear me take such a foul word into my mouth, which of course now was already watering.

So my memories of my first visits to the movies are entwined with alot of other feelings and many other ”my first” experiences.
Somewhere between 1974-1976 I was taken to the cinemas for the first time.
I know I went with my dad to see a Tarzan matinee - I also know I saw Flåklypa Grand Prix and a Lucky Luke matinee around that same period of time.
But these are all experiences I can’t remember much of.

So my first vivid cine-memories are the Olle Hellbom adaption of Astrid Lindgren’s ”Bröderna Lejonhjärta” (aka ” The Brothers Lionheart”) and Martin Rosen’s animated ”Watership Down”.
Both these movies touched my nine year old soul. Both movies scared the shit out of me. I guess that these movies were the first two to confront me with the concept of true evil in life – despite (or thanks to) the fact that both of the stories are fantasy tales in made-up worlds.
At the age of nine I was very aware of death. I knew people could die. But what I think these two movies made me realize was that there are forces and instincts somewhere in the human body which moderated the wrong way actually can make you want to hurt or take the power of someone else.
These experiences and feelings were of course not all good. But they made me open my eyes.

The scene in ”Bröderna Lejonhjärta” where Katla, the dragon, comes crawling up over the hill still makes my blood cold (actually I never saw the full scene the first time. I remember telling my mom I needed to go pee when the first sound of Katla reached my ears. And I made sure to stay in the restrooms long enough …).

Clip uploaded by mongosen

I don’t know if we went to McDonald’s after ”Bröderna Lejonhjärta”. But I was quite sure my parents were right. They serve death."

--Sebastian aka mrdantefontana--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Dr Manta

Dr Manta, Mantagraphics:

"My first movie theatre-experience was the great norweigan animated extravaganza "Flåklypa Grand Prix" (a.k.a. Pinchcliffe Grand Prix).


Uploaded by mariocaprino

"Flåklypa Grand Prix" had its premiere in Sweden 1975 when I was three years old, so I must have seen it some years later on a rerun.
I was totally awestruck by the film. I remember going there with my father and we both talked enthusiastically about the movie afterwards. The most memorable scene was the climax of the car race near the end of the diesel-fueled story. At one point the magnificent car "Il Tempo Gigante" stalls and the cute puppet heroes gets hopelessly left behind in the race. As tension mounts they manage to repair the vehicle and the metal beast once again takes of with a thundering roar. In doing so the wheels of fire rip the asfalt right out of the road. The strings of asphalt are left curled up like orange peals. I totally loved that moment. It was as if I could smell the burnt asphalt oozing out off the silver screen and right into the theater, to further travel into my innocent little nostrils. I remember seriously asking my dad if it was really possible to leave that kind of a mark on the ground when one fly starts a racecar...

Drawing by Dr Manta. Click it for much bigger Vroom!

It took some twenty odd years before I saw that movie again which has baffled me somewhat. Especially since I have quite a good recollection of the storyline, the atmosphere and the characters. A couple of years ago I realised why the movie had managed to stay with me that vividly throughout the years. On a raid motivated by nostalgic cravings I went through my parents basement in search of stored youth. And lo and behold, there in the midst of stacks of board games and comic magazines I found a book version of the film "Flåklypa Grand Prix", complete with lots of stills from the movie. And next to it lay a jigsaw puzzle based on the photo of the winners in the race. Clearly I must have read the book and solved the puzzle numerous times as a kid. And clearly the film must have made quite an impression on me since my parents bought me some movie paraphernalia afterwards...

Link: Ivo Caprino, the father of “Flåklypa Grand Prix”

--Dr Manta--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Johnnyuma

Johnnyuma, Johnnyuma's StumbleUpon Blog (and PCL contributor!)

"1966 – “Dracula – Prince of Darkness” – Colony Theatre – White Plains, New York

Talk about traumatic? God damn you Sebastian for resurrecting the demons that surround this experience! You will rot in hell and I’ll send you a bill for the therapy that is bound to ensue after recounting the tale of my first cinema experience.

Must have been the spring or summer of 1966. As I remember it, my father was taking a breather from his regular Saturday routine of slamming Ballantyne Ales, watching the Wide World of Sports and devouring jars of pickled hot peppers. Probably was weary of the demolition derby repeats. It’s my guess that selling life insurance five days a week to a bunch of suburban drones would have that effect on any self-respecting dad.
In any case, he decided that this Saturday afternoon he would break the mold. Branch out and take little Johnny to the movies. I can picture him know perusing the local newspaper and seeing the listings. Born Free, The Singing Nun, A Man for All Seasons or


Dracula: Prince of Darkness!!!

“This is a no-brainer”, I would imagine him thinking to himself. Leave the puff flicks to Mom and my little sister.
Shit, I’m game! Just turned 9 and dad is gonna take his only son to the movies. Quality time with the old man! I’m in all my glory. I’d been bugging his ass to take me to the movies for over a year to no avail.


We jump into the 1961 Chevy Impala and head off to the Colony Theatre in downtown White Plains. I’m jacked up. Dad and a “mongster” flick (always had a problem with the monster pronunciation). Dracula at that! Visions of Bela Lugosi dancing in my head messing with some unsuspecting twerp in a castle in Transylvania and coming back from the grave.

We enter the Colony. Jaysus! This place is huge. The velvet red curtains. The ornate ceiling design. The ushers in frickin tuxes. The smell of fresh popcorn and real butter.

I distinctly remember the feeling of sitting my skinny ass into that plush velvet seat and watching the curtains unfold as the movie was about to start. Better than any subsequent chemically induced rush. Magic.

Music rolls, lights dim and credits roll. “Christopher Lee as Dracula”. Wait a second. Where the fuck is Bela Lugosi? What is this shit?

Right out of the gate I know I’m in a deep night terror shitbox.

Ninety minutes later I’m a fucking mess. Spikes driven into the hearts of Dracula’s ever-increasing harem. Technicolor blood spurting from gaping wounds to the heart! Live burials. Limbs severed. No Bela!

The fight that ensued upon arriving home was epic. Mom was hysterical and supremely pissed off. Her only son was refusing to go to the bathroom without a string of garlic around his neck and insisting that every door in the home be opened in five-minute intervals to check for Chris Lee’s presence. I don’t believe I slept for a week.

It was only a matter of time before Dad flew the coop. Gone. In my naïve mind it was the Hammer Films blood fest that was the root cause. In reality it was most likely the blond at the local pharmacy but I didn’t figure that shit out until much later in life.

In any event, I will now commence to digest massive quantities of alcohol and drugs to forget this shit. The therapy bill is forthcoming, Sebastian. Thanks for the memories"

--Johnnyuma--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

"My First Visit to the Movies", by jayKayEss

jayKayEss, Unpleasant (and PCL contributor!):
"My first movie was Raiders Of The Lost Ark, which must have been a strange movie to take a six-year-old to. My mother and aunt said years later that they weren't sure whether I'd be able to sit still through the whole thing, and I think at the time I could tell they were a little bit nervous. Being a pragmatic and sensible child I was only really scared at the very end when the bad guys' faces melt off. I remember being excited entering the theater because I didn't really have a clear idea of what a "movie" was."
--jayKayEss--
Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Donna Lethal

Donna Lethal, Lethal Dose (and PCL contributor!):

"I have so many movie memories - movies that have shaped my life,
movies seen at incredible theaters like the Ziegfeld and the Coolidge
Corner and the Brattle ... many Saturday nights in the late 1970s and
early 80s at the drive-in in Massachusetts ... but my first movie
memory is one of sheer exhaustion, heat, and disappointment.

I'm not sure what movie it was - a revival showing of "Mary Poppins"
or perhaps "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" but it was the early 1970s and
it was very warm and sunny. One of my teenage aunts volunteered to
take us for the afternoon and my mother dropped my brother and I off
at the local "Route 3 Cinema." What my mother didn't realize was that
on a hot Saturday afternoon, every parent in town was doing the same
thing. We waited in line for tickets only to have the ticket window
close without even getting nearer. What to do?

My aunt decided the best thing, after endless phone-booth calls to my
mother who hadn't returned home (or did, and was enjoying the empty
apartment) was to walk home with us. A mile. With a 5 year old and a
three year old. Not only were we exhausted and thirsty, I knew that on
Monday everyone would be talking about the movie, and redheaded
(step)child that I was, I'd be left out - again.

Maybe that's why movies played and continue to play such an important
part of my life - I think I made a secret vow to never again miss a
movie. I once feigned illness to stay home and watch "The Bad Seed"
on TV and when I lived in Cambridge, MA, went to the Brattle Theater
at least three times a week. Between my Netflix and movies I've
tivo'd, I couldn't watch all of the movies I want unless I was out of
work (which I am, quite a few times a year.)"

--Donna Lethal--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Lee Hartsfeld

Lee Hartsfeld, Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else:

"I have a false memory of seeing the first run of Mary Poppins at the age of five. Which is impossible, because I was seven when the movie was released in August, 1964. Yet, my memory is sure that I was five. So much for my memory.
I remember a huge, crowded theater, and an especially huge screen. How huge is hard to say, given that I was five... er, seven. There was a huge number of kids in the audience (go figure), all fairly rowdy, and I remember my parents forbidding us (my brother and I) from joining in the rowdiness. I didn't see why, being a kid, I shouldn't join in the kid-like behavior, but it was not for me to question. My mom and dad had assured us this would be a magical and memorable time, and such build-up, it turned out, was unnecessary--the movie remains the most incredible, and incredibly engrossing, movie experience of my life, in spite of the fact that the movie ceased to have such an effect starting, oh, thirty years ago.


Poppins practically transported its kiddie audience into the screen with the cast, cartoon characters, stop-motion effects, and the magnificent numbers–it was spooky. I remember banging on the screen, yelling "Let me out! Let me out!" (Another memory burp, I’m guessing.) And I remember post-movie "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" pronouncing contests at school. I had it down to a science. I think I could even say it backwards. I was pretty full of myself.

Theater smells, I don't remember. I don't even remember the food portion of the visit, though we must have had popcorn and pop–we were flag-fearing Americans, after all. Problem is, my food and olfactory memories have always been limited, and I don't know why. But I fondly remember the non-stop, delightful action in the movie, and I remember fighting back tears when Mary Poppins left the family. A number of kids in the audience flat-out lost it, but I worked hard to avoid their example, probably hoping my parents would be impressed by my maturity.

I rewatched the film, shortly after, with my best friend Teddy and his family, who had recently moved to Toledo, Ohio from England. I don't remember if this was still the first run, or if it was a second run the next year. (Thanks, memory.) I do remember feeling pretty damn smart having seen it already--I was a Mary Poppins vet. Teddy’s parents were not impressed by Disney's version of England, even given that it was a kid’s film. Teddy, on the other hand, was as uncritically absorbed in the film's magic as me.

Julie Andrews, of course, seemed like an old woman to my naive eyes. She was a grown-up, after all, and I had no ability, at seven, to judge age outside of a few months of my own. Several years back, I saw Poppins on TV, and elderly nanny Julie struck me as a very attractive young lady. The film’s magic had long since left the building, but such films aren’t made for old folks.

Naturally, I couldn’t help wondering what age my seven-year-old self would have assigned to Old Lee.

Now that I semi-remember it, Pinocchio (a re-release, of course) may have been my first movie experience, but the images are so fuzzy, I can't be sure. No, I take that back--I vividly remember being frightened silly by the thing. And I remember asking my dad to explain the difference between animated movies and real life--as in, what were they. Which was a normal kid-type question, and not cause to take me to a shrink. But they did, anyway.

Just kidding. I think.... "

--Lee Hartsfeld--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Lex10

Lex10, GlyphJockey (and PCL contributor!):

"I don't remember it. I was too little. One might even think why the hell was he even in the movies at that age? Couldn't they get a babysitter? Or were they just well intended, but missing the mark?

Hell, regarding mistakes, I can remember trying to drag my daughter into a haunted house at Hallowe'en one year thinking it would be fun, but I heard about the foyer of the place (as far as we got) for the next four years from her every subsequent Hallowe'en). Eesh.

So Sebastian asks, "We're you scared?" To which all I can say is, "Fuck yeah! Brother, that's all I can remember!" (Well- not quite)

So, uh let's talk about my terror (don't worry, there's a happy ending):

The first film that I want to talk about giving me a, for lack of a better expression, shivering shit fit is Francis of Assisi



directed by the venerable Michael Curtiz, responsible for Mildred Pierce, Casablanca, Captain Blood, and We're No Angels. His mise en scene was the best bar none in the history of cinema, but that didn't reeeally mean anything to the little Lex10.

It was the scene shown below where a soldier shoves a torch into the face of the woman. A torch in the face!!! A t-o-r-c-h, torch! Worse yet, they pull the torch away and show the woman's burned face!!!!Yaaaa!!!!!! I spent the rest of the movie, worrying that they'd torch another woman, except briefly in one part when I got to contemplate how if you're really good, really, really in touch with god, - you'll bleed out your hands and feet! Fuck! I thought, "Ya can't win!" No wonder I lied in my first confession....



Actually, the next SSF*, I think, happened before Francis of Assisi- it was a re-release of Snow White. The imagery in the clip below should help, and the fact that this clip is in Danish doesn't lessen the small-child-fear triggers. This affected me so badly, that I had to be taken out to the lobby, where I failed to be comforted for quite a while.

My mother was so upset by the incident, she wrote a letter to Walt Disney accusing him of getting his jollies this way.......


*Shiverin' Shit Fit

The next flash of movie that I cannot pinpoint as my first, also comes under the "Should they have taken me?" heading, but if you asked me then I would have said "YEAH!"

Gypsy:





Yipe. Yipety yipe yipe. There were more tremors than on just my pallid little brow, I can tell you. Like in my man-basement. I couldn't believe that there were theatres you could go to watch women take off their clothes!! That was like, my favorite thing, unclothed women, as our well thumbed Montgomery Ward catalog would have stood testament to. Plus, kinda the polar opposite of Francis.

"Enough" I can hear Sebastian saying. What, to me emotionally is my first real movie? I went to a matinee at the Menlo Park Mall. I walked in and the walls were bathed in blue light. Not just blue Yves Kline Blue - it fucking radiated anticiaption. The air was cool, and scented with popcorn, and I was a little man on his own at the pictures:

A Hard Day's Night-



I couldn't believe I was seeing this movie, with its black and white, reel upon reel of meaningless running and posing (whatn the fuck was going on?) English slang, itchy wool coats and song after song after song. I still get a weird chill when I see it, and I'm not even a Beatles nerd.

All I knew was, when I walked out of that theatre, I wanted to be one."

--Lex10--


Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

Monday, June 23, 2008

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Michael Leigh

Michael Leigh, Flobberlob (and numerous other blogs ...):







"Attached photos of a small village cinema in Pitsea, Essex. that I used to frequent as a child. They had a wonderful Childrens Matinee Club ( you even got a badge!) back in the 50's and 60's. In the B&W photo you see it in its heyday and today its sad new role as a Bingo Hall - the fate of so many old cinema's in the U.K.. ( The one in Northwich is also a Bingo emporium despite being a beautiful old listed building )."

"The first film I ever saw was probably elsewhere but here was my first real interactive cinema experiance with all those kids screaming and shouting for the heroes and villians and the sound of sweets,bubblegum, sherbet dabs, gob stoppers and fizzy pop being slurped, sucked, gurgled and used as a projectile! The clean up afterwards must have taken an army of usherettes all afternoon to clear the debris of wrappers, boxes and bottles.

The wonderful films included all the old favourites- Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, Wizard of Oz, Roy Rogers, Robin Hood, Pirates, Cowboys and Aliens. Also with a feature film came a weekly serial like Captain Marvel, Batman ( when he was rather chubby and in black and white!) Captain Video and Rocket man. Those Republic serials from the 50's were wonderful and made a big impression at the time as we'd rush home to make our own ray gun from cardboard or a sword from an old bamboo cane etc. a pillow case for a cape and utility belt from Dad's old braces!"

--Michael Leigh--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

"My First Visit to the Movies", by Bill Geerhart

Bill Geerhart, Conelrad:


"Flashing Back on Fantastic Planet

I have many memories of going to the movies as a young child, but none stronger or stranger than sitting in the then modern Cerberus Theater in Washington, D.C. in the winter of 1973. Like many children of the seventies, I was obsessed with UFOs and space aliens. My exposure to the notion of malevolent beings from other worlds came mostly from television (episodic and old movies). Most of the aliens, of course, were ridiculous—the “vegetable people” from one particularly absurd Lost in Space re-run being exhibit ‘A.’ “Oh, the pain,” as Dr. Smith would say. But more intimidating and trippy space monsters were in my future.

One day my mother, who is Ivy League-educated and very highbrow (more highbrow than I could ever hope to be) decided to take me to a movie that was so bizarre it still induces occasional flashbacks in my pop culture cluttered brain. It was French director Rene Laloux’s animated space opera Fantastic Planet (aka La Planete Savage or The Savage Planet) and for a kid used to the terrible animation of Top Cat, Speed Racer and Josie and the Pussycats it was a visual revelation. In my mind, I can still see the giant blue creatures tormenting the subjugated human-like characters (hey, was this some sort of allegory?).
Note: Click image for enlargement.

I recall the film as being especially violent and especially French. Indeed, the language barrier (the subtitles were a definite problem for me) and the lack of an American hero to root for turned the movie into something that had to be endured rather than enjoyed. Although the movie’s running time seemed endless in 1973, I now know it was only 72 minutes long. But I sat there politely and let the unsettling images wash over me. On the ride home to the suburbs in our big clunking Buick, all I could think of were those enormous blue aliens with their bug eyes and their unholy dominion over the little people. It was a comfort to get back to the house and regress back to the simple awfulness of American cartoons.

One of the reasons I think Fantastic Planet had such an impact on me is because it was a unique experience – not unlike a visit from a UFO. No other kid in my acquaintance had a parent who would have thought of exposing their child to such an avant-garde film. And when I attempted to describe it to my classmates, they thought I was making it up. It was as if the whole thing never happened.

A little later in my young childhood, my mother took me to well-reviewed-but-still-R-rated movies like White Dawn, Between the Lines and Alien. Our gossipy, holier-than-thou neighbors were horrified, but if it weren’t for my mother exposing me to these kinds of movies in my youth, I doubt I would have started venturing out on my own to the great D.C. revival theaters like the Circle, the Biograph and the AFI to see classics like The Long Goodbye, Double Indemnity and the earlier, funnier Woody Allen movies. And without all this formative cinematic exposure, I doubt I’d be seeing films like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and The Lives of Others and My Winnipeg today. No telling what the neighbor kids my age are watching now, but odds are they consider Juno pretty edgy. "
--Bill Geerhart--
Note: Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.

"My First Visit to the Movies" by Kurt Benbenek

First off is Kurt Benbenek, Houseplant Picture Studio:

"First movie for me was "Gone with the Wind" at
the long-demolished Arden Theater on Long Beach Blvd
(across the street from the Fotomat) in my home town
of Lynwood, CA - I was about 7 years old.

It was a Saturday matinee and a friend and I
were dropped off at the theater and basically ran
amuck up and down from the balcony and then
straight down the main aisle.

Don't remember anything about the movie
and haven't bothered to watch it to this day.

My friend later became the main popular entertainment
reporter for Channel 7 here in LA, so I guess ya never know...

Shortly thereafter I saw a short string of movies at
the Arden..."The Maltese Bippy" (Rowan and Martin
and Carol Lynley) and "Rascal" starring the great
Billy Mumy which is about the friendship between a boy
and his faithful-yet-unpredictable adorable raccoon.

Oh and can't forget "Caprice" starring the puzzling
Doris Day - nice Technicolor imagery and many stunts!

My sisters probably dragged me to these flicks
and dropped me off and met up with boyfriends outside.
After all, it was the Swingin' (and eventually disastrous) 60s!

More interesting are my drive-in movie experiences
of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Our local venue
was the Rosecrans Drive-In Theater (now an ugly Wal-Mart)
where I was lucky enough to see a double bill of
"War of the Gargantuas" and "Monster Zero" and
later on saw several of the "Planet of the Apes" movies
as well as a few of those killer rat movies ("Willard" etc)

And can't forget "Death Race 2000",
"Rocky" and "Jaws" much, much later on.

The Rosecrans Drive-In also had one of those really big
slides where fun-seekers could whiz gleefully down on
a waxed blanket and then throw up and pass out.

We lost our last Drive-In here in Long Beach 15 years ago
(Los Altos Drive-In) where I saw my last ever drive-in movie.

It was a crummy movie called "Freejack" starring Mick Jagger
and Emilio Estevez. It's only saving grace is that David Johansen
is in it. Like all crummy movies, it was set in the future.

We were never much of a movie-going family,
preferring to simply watch a lot of bad TV. However,
one of my fondest latter day movie experiences
was watching "Food of the Gods" with my dad.

In "Food of the Goods" Ida Lupino and Marjoe Gortner
are hassled by really big rodents and eventually everything
is destroyed in a flood and they all live happily ever after.

Even better is "Food of the Gods 2" (AKA "Gnaw") where
millions of rats attack and hurt and kill a whole college campus
and then everything explodes and catches fire. "

--Kurt Benbenek--

Note: Click label: "My First Visit to the Movies", to read more first-movie-stories.