In celebration of that most magical of places, the film theatre, which brings strangers together in a shared intimacy. In an art gallery, people can come and go as they please, taking steps back from this painting or that painting; in a silent reading class, people read at different speeds; at the theatre, people have different views of the stage, often affecting their appreciation of the play. But in the cinema there is no class divide, no pretences, it's dark and anonymous and you're experiencing the same work of art at the same time - there's no stepping back from it.

Discuss and reminisce over your most memorable visits to the cinema. First dates, hardcore midnight screenings, back-to-back double bills, whatever...

So many memories....

I think the first movie (in a theater) that I remember was a new release of a Martin/Lewis film "Pardners" (1956) that my parents took me to see (to escape a hot apartment with no air conditioning). It was awesome to this five year old to be in a big theater with hundreds of other people hearing them laugh and having a good time. (I saw the movie on tv years later and it instantly brought back memories of sitting in the dark, cavernous and cool balcony with my parents).

Going to a Coney Island theater (with my brother-in-law) to see a personal appearance by the Three Stooges in 1962 (when they were promoting their new movie, "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules"). It was sad for me to see how old they really were then but the idea of being in a large theater with hundreds of other kids my age screaming was totally fun (it drove my brother-in-law nuts).

A 1967 Friday night date with a really hot chick to see "Wait Until Dark"... there was one particularly scary scene which caused her to squeeze my arm so hard it almost bled. I milked it for what it was worth ( ). The audience TOTALLY exploded with screams, after which everyone started gabbing at the same time (to calm down)... (being part of a large audience adds so much more excitement to viewing a movie, IMHO).

Going to see a double feature (God, I miss those) in 1965 with my brother-in-law... "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and "The Bedford Incident". "The Spy..." (starring Richard Burton) was the lead movie but we were both totally bored by it and totally confused by it... "The Bedford Incident" (with Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier) was a totally different story - we loved it!

Well, I got engaged after MOONSTRUCK (1987).

You see, nothing good ever came out of a Cher movie. I should've taken her marriage to Sonny as a hint.

I remember my parents taking me to see Alan Arkin in Popi when I was pretty young. He played a father who was struggling to raise two young boys in a bad neighborhood. He decided that it would be better for them to be washed ashore and taken in as Cuban immigrants than what he could offer them. I remember them screaming, Popi! Popi! as he set them adrift. It scared the crap out of me, and I cried and cried.

Cinemas really are havens for people's memories. I know that a lot of mine belong in their warm darkness. It's a place of safety, of security, of complete self-nakedness.

Loved your Wait Until Dark memory, SC. I'll share mine later, one of which is very similar to that one, and others involving full sell-outs, too.

I do miss double features.

Great story, SC.

For some reason I'm still unclear about, I remember I had a fascination with Jaws when I was a kid. When Jaws II came out, I must have bugged the crap out of my parents to the point that they finally relented and took me to see it. I was probably 7-8 years old at the time.

At the time I didn't know why we were waiting to go into the theater, but it was in between showings. I asked my dad why it was taking so long for them to let us in. Without missing a beat, my dad said "it takes awhile to dry off the seats from the shark!" Of course, this comment did nothing to alleviate my fears about going into the movie or the water.

I saw "Jaws" on its first day of release. There were long lines waiting to get into the theater and my ex and I were getting caught up in the excitement of the moment as everyone was gabbing about the media frenzy and the pre-movie hoopla. We got inside, took our seats and waited for the movie to start. Right in front of us was a mother with three young children.... BIG MISTAKE. All through the first few minutes of the film one of the kids kept asking, "Mommy, mommy, when are we gonna see the whale"?? Well, when the shark is finally shown the kid got scared shitless and started crying REALLY LOUDLY. The audience started yelling for the mother to take the kid outside (hey, it was a Brooklyn audience).

There's only one memorable visit that sticks out in my mind. I can't remember exactly how old I was, maybe younger then 9. My mom and sisters and I were visiting my aunt, and for some reason we all went to see this movie, "She-devils on wheels". I have no idea why I was even in the theatre to see this movie, perhaps no one could find a babysitter. I don't have a clue what this movie was about. I believe there was a time when someone "lost their head" so to speak and it was rolling down a hill or something. I started yelling "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee", as if it were a ball rolling down a hill.

Great topic, Mick!
I think the first movie I ever saw in a theater was the original "King Kong" in one of its Forties re-releases. An uncle took me. A family legend is that I asked him why Kong didn't have a dick. At least that's what they tell me...
Then there was "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950). That was memorable because I kept having to go the bathroom, the other patrons were annoyed, and my folks were embarrassed...
A standard feature of neighborhood movie houses in Brooklyn in the Fifties was that, the door would open on Saturday morning at 9 a.m., and kids would come pouring in to see three feature films, 25 cartoons, serials, Three Stooges shorts, etc. Parents loved it--kids wouldn't come home until five or six p.m. That's where I saw "The Conqueror" for the first time (1956). Unforgettable scene: Susan Hayward, playing outraged royalty just kidnapped by the greasy, yak-fat-dripping Mongols, asks The Duke how he intends to keep her in the style to which she's accustomed. The Duke's wearing an Oriental Bishop's Mitre and has his eyebrows tweezed upward, but he's still The Duke:
"By day, the pelts of my sheep shall keep thee warm. And by night, the heat of my body shall protect thee from the desert winds." I fell off the chair laughing.

Another impressive one: When "The Ten Commandments" finally made it to The Nabes, my local theater actually sold reserved seat tickets. Amazing! Still a great movie.

Oh, TB, I used to LOVE going to the movies on Saturdays with my best friend Kathleen. My dad would walk us to the Wakefield Theater (because we weren't allowed to cross White Plains Road alone) and we would spend almost the entire day there. It was magical. I remember going to see Lassie Come Home, and hiding under my coat because I was so sure that Lassie was NOT going to make it out alive. And that was where I saw The Sound of Music, which I wanted to go to over and over and over, and Gone With the Wind, the first movie I ever saw that had an intermission.

My dad, who worked at the pharmacy a few doors down from the theater, had some sort of arrangement with the owner or the ticket-taker (God only knows) and we had a pass that got us in for free. I remember my brothers fighting over it on date night.

I also remember going to Radio City Music Hall to see movies. There would be a floor show and then the film. I believe I saw My Fair Lady at the Easter Show, and couldn't get over how stunningly beautiful Audrey Hepburn was.

My aunt, who was an executive secretary for the company that owned all the "Art Movie" houses in Manhattan that showed foreign films in the Fifties and Sixties, used to get us passes. No one in my family ever paid for a movie--at least a foreign movie. We saw all the great Cinema Realismo films from Italy, the "New Wave" French movies, the "Angry Young Man" films from the UK, on the cuff. Lotta cheap dates for me.


Going to Radio City was a major, major big event in every New York kid's childhood. Parents would take you to see the Xmas tree in Rockefeller Center, maybe an hour or two around the ice rink--then the movie and Xmas show at Radio City. Rock Center is the pinnacle of New York Art Deco, and the Music Hall is the Taj Mahal. My favorite space in NYC.

Yes indeed. I echo that. It's like that's the hub of everything that attracts everyone to the city. The Christmas tree is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Hopefully I'll get to see a show at Radio city whenever I return.

My mother always tells a great story about taking my brothers to Radio City. They went down to see the show at Radio City, but they couldn't get in. My mother said it absolutely freezing, so to get out of the cold, they went to see Peyton Place at the Roxy. My brothers were pretty young and Peyton Place was quite the scandalous film for its day.

When my brothers went back to school, Sister asked the class to give a report on what they did over their vacation. My brother rushed up to the front of the classroom and told all about seeing Peyton Place over his vacation. My mother said that she avoided the school like the plague for weeks.

We took the kids to see the Christmas show at Radio City last year. It was fantastic, but it must have been less expensive when we were kids. It was a pretty hefty price tag for an annual event.

I recall one time at the theatre I thought I would never make it to my seat as the floors were so sticky. Once I sat down I realized I was sitting in front of Paul Reubens. I don't think I shook his hand but was really ticked off as the roof must have been leaking or someone in the balcony was squirting somethng on the back of my head.

This one will always stick in my mind:

It was New Year's Day, 1973. Freezing, bitter cold. I took Sue, my date, to see Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class at the Avenue M movie theatre in Brooklyn.

It was a fairly decent size movie house, with the main level divided into three seating sections - left, center (the largest) and right. There was also a double-door exit along each side wall and no rows of seats near those doors so access would be easy after the movie.

We were sitting in the left hand section, around two or three rows back from the "aisle" leading to the side exit. The staff had been having an ongoing problem with a young (younger than us) group of jerks who were loud, throwing things, etc. Finally, they were evicted from the theatre, and none too quietly.

We settled in to watch the rest of the film in peace, but around ten minutes later we heard a huge boom - we thought it was an explosion, but those kids had kicked open the side doors from outside. Bone-chilling arctic air came rushing in, and right to where we were sitting. Then a huge (around 7 foot) Christmas tree came literally flying into the theatre like a rocket, just narrowly missing some employees who were going over to shut the doors.

I think we stayed to catch the next showing of the film, considering all we had missed due to the unscheduled "floor show".

The Avenue M theatre is long gone, but Sue and I have remained friends.

Truly a day to remember.

Signor V.

I dont remember much, but my first movie was Toy Story. I loved it. I went to see Toy Story 2 with my little brother and I covered his eyes when the scary parts(atleast they were to us) came up, and with his short temper, he ended up screaming at me! I have seen so many bad films at the cinema. I have seen all my favourite movies, like The Godfather, on DVD.

Good topic Capo!

I'm trying to think of the very first movie I saw and really can't remember. I'm thinking it was The Ten Commandments. I have memories of being very young and seeing it at the drive-in with my family. I remember being in awe at the whole epic.

A minor memory that sticks with me for some reason; when I was about 10 or 12 years old, we were visiting an aunt/uncle in Detroit and my older cousin asked my mom if she thought my sister and I were old enough to see "Imitation Of Life." Sounds so tame now. Ha ha But, I wasn't allowed to see it.

I remember Wait Until Dark also and that unexpected scene SC speaks of. Nothing like seeing something like that in the theater.

I also remember standing in line and waiting to see The Exorcist at it's debut. There was so much hype, I had read the book, seen interviews with cast on Merv Griffin/Mike Douglas shows and was so ready to see it. There was an intermission at one point and everyone went to the lobby (you could smoke in the lobby at that time. )You could tell everyone was a little freaked. I remember one guy who was standing by us trying to lighten up the mood and said, "boy I wouldn't call this a good make-out film would you?" Why I remember that little tidbit, I don't know.

I am glad also that I was able to see "West Side Story" at the theater. I'm not real big on musicals (or should I say maybe a little fussy when it comes to musicals), but I really liked that one.


TIS

A vivid early memory for me was me, my mother, and some friends all waiting in line on the friday night when BATMAN RETURNS opened in theaters, back in June 1992.

The line stretched from the front box-office to the back of the mall (put it simply, the length of 2 football fields) and we waited for 2 hours, so we had a little pre-planned picnic.

This was INSIDE the mall, and we had a blanket out and a ball of a time. It helped also that inside the mall at that time was a REVCO Drug Store, where we bought candy and smuggled it under our shirts.

After the movie, a news crew was out there to get instant-reactions of the movie (mind you, RETURNS was seen as "the" movie of that summer) and my mother was apparently upset about the sex/violence in it to the news crew, how it'll give her kid nightmares.

Then I jump in front of the camera and interrupted her, my 8-year old insanity: "IT WAS AWESOME! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE!"*

She never forgave me for that.

*=Then again, we kids seemed to have liked the movie, and that whole sex/violence thing which I didn't notice until I saw it back recently...went over my head. Adults assume way too much. Thats why we're lame.

I'll never forget seeing that movie. I believe I was in the 5th grade. Me and some friends went to the mall to go see it. When that head came out of that boat I screamed so hard. I had nightmares for days after that.

Roxy Rothapfel, the entrepreneur who designed and operated the Roxy, also designed Radio City Music Hall. The Roxy was condemned as a monument to bad taste. The Music Hall is one of the most venerated theaters in the world.

That, and the scene that TIS spoke about in "Wait Until Dark" were the two most scary scenes I've ever seen. The theater in which I saw it went wild right after that scene. My date was holding my arm and had her head resting on my shoulder. She sank her nails into my arm so hard that it actually left marks... and her scream (right next to my ear) deafened me for a few minutes.

Geez ... even at that age you had a twisted sense of humor.




I had first seen "The Exorcist" after it had been out for about a month... it was at this point that the hype about the movie was its highest. It was a Saturday night as my ex and I joined a mob in the theater's lobby (the theater management allowed the ticket holders to wait inside because it was raining out) to wait for the next show. The crowd that was inside watching the curent showing let out a LOUD collective scream and everyone in the lobby nearly shit their pants. Everyone looked at everyone else for some sort of comfort and then the lobby broke out into a Tower of Babble as we were tried to make sense out of what we just heard. My wife and I quickly befriended two other couples (who were just as nervous as my wife and myself). When it came time for us to enter the theater we all vowed to sit together for protection. (This was in a City theater.. when a movie theater was a REAL theater... 12, 1300 seats... not like the mini multiplexes today ... those old large houses added SO MUCH enjoyment to a movie; hearing other people scream or laugh or applaud made it more of "an experience").

Another memorable theater experience:

It was 1973 and my ex (we were dating at the time) and I went to see "Deep Throat" (in its original release). We were celebrating her 21st birthday (and thus she became "legal" to see the movie). The hype and media attention made it a particularly popular movie (and this was the first porn flick to gather that "acceptance") so the theater was packed. We were among the last ones to get into the particular showing (it was after work and we didn't want to wait around for the next showing) so we ended up sitting in the front row.... not a particularly good idea for a porn flick. Every pubic hair looked like a tree from where we were sitting.

Hey Ronnie, in June of '92, I took one of my Godsons to see BATMAN RETURNS and I remember it vividly. He was about 7 at the time. It didn't mean all that much to me because I was 33.

Small world.

I remembered a couple more tidbits.

When I was much younger, I learned through trial and error that certain movies were not what you would call "date flicks".

In the Spring of 1973 I took my date to a film I thought would be a little different than the usual run-of-the-mill Friday night crapola. I wanted to show her I had intelligence, class, all that crap. So, what film did we see? Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers. Big mistake. Zila (my date) spent nearly the entire film with her head buried in my shoulder, shuddering. Revolting film, IMHO. If you've ever had the misfortune to see it, then you know what the words "broken glass" refer to. Yeegh.

In mid-1976 I made another incredible error in judgement. I took Barbara, my girlfriend at the time, to the Oceana theatre in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn to see The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea because she liked Kris Kristofferson. Really big mistake. She also loved animals, particularly cats. Well, during a certain part of that film (I won't go into details) she bolted from her seat and ran hysterically crying into the lobby. Took me around fifteen minutes to calm her down.

I learned (the hard way) that Barbara was not someone you could take to just any movie - you had to be really careful. So a week or two later we went back to the Oceana to see The Groove Tube. A much safer film - or so I thought. When the huge close-up of the talking penis (real) appeared onscreen, Barbara shrieked and laughed and yelled out "I want to lick it!" in the crowded theatre. Mortified, I bolted from my seat and ran into the lobby. Sometimes, as the saying goes, you can dress 'em up but ya just can't take 'em out.

Live and learn.

Signor V.

Details needed. What happened??

Well, early on in the film there was a scene where a sadistic kid throws a firecracker (or something similar) into the air and it is caught by a seagull. Firecracker explodes, seagull buys the farm. But, the scene I was referring to was a protracted sequence where the youngsters drug, then dissect a cat in extreme close-up. It was not photographed at all like a splatter film or anything like that; it was all done "artistically" with almost microscopic close-ups, lots of slow dissolves and the like.

Of course, in the credits it was made clear that no critters were harmed during filming - but credits always come after the movie is over and the damage has been done.

It's been over thirty years since I've seen that film, but I'll never forget that day at the Oceana.

Signor V.

I'm sorry I asked.

I, too, have an "Oceana" memory.

1961... I was ten years old. My parents had a fight and my mom wanted to get out of the house so she took me to see a movie at The Oceana. It was "A Raisin in the Sun" (with Sidney Poitier in an absolutely awesome role). I may have been too young to fully grasp the story then but I remember being blown away by Poitier's acting. It was the first true dramatic movie that I sat through and the memory of seeing truly wonderful acting for the first time still stands fresh in my mind.

Getting some Mrs. Stahl's knishes on the way home was icing on the cake for me.

Haha, great story; it's an absolutely, spellbindingly good film, though. I'd love to see it on the big screen, with all those blacks, whites and stark red backgrounds. Astonishing... though not a "date" film.