your first movie

[davemerrill]

For no particular reason whatsoever, I've been trying to remember the first film I ever saw in a theater. Obviously as I am a white North American male aged 41, the big cinema event in my early life was STAR WARS (1977). I believe we saw it the summer it came out. I was iffy on it; the ads seemed to involve a lot of people in robes standing around in the desert, and I believe there was some line-standing involved which I probably complained about a lot. Of course after seeing the movie me and my brother were all THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE EVER!!! and spent the next couple of years contriving to see the thing as often as possible. But what are some of the other movies we saw at the Miracle Theater, at the Belmont Hills, at the Akers Mill General Cinema where I'd wind up with a part time job?

I know we saw OH GOD, that one came out fall of '77, so it's post SW. I didn't get to see CLOSE ENCOUNTERS on its first release, we tried three times and it was sold out each time. There's a bunch of films from '77 that I've subsequently seen, but lord knows you wouldn't want a seven year old to see, say, SLAP SHOT.

I know we saw SNOW WHITE ('75 re-release) and PINOCCHIO ('78 re-release). We saw MESSAGE FROM SPACE ('78) at the Cobb Center theater with a gang of friends and we all thought it was just as good as STAR WARS, an opinion I still hold. I saw ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD (1974) starring future Good Morning America host David Hartman, and that's a good three years before Star Wars. A similar picture, WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978) starring Doug McClure was screened with friends at the theater that was in the shopping center behind the Miracle on South Cobb. Actually it was more directly behind the old Dairy Queen. That's also where we saw the quasi-documentary THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH (1979), planting within me both an apocalyptic no-future worldview AND a healthy regard for the work of Hal Lindsey. The Miracle, on the other hand, is the theater where we saw MOONRAKER (1979), the first James Bond film I ever saw. Strangely enough, the film's amazing badness didn't prevent me from seeing other Bond movies.

FLASH GORDON (1980), on the other hand, was seen in the Belmont Hills theater, a crumbling edifice that dated from the shopping center's construction in 1954. I loved that movie in 1980, felt it was rubbish in 1990, and came to realize its campy glory again later in life.

I never saw FREAKY FRIDAY (1976) or THE BAD NEWS BEARS (1976) but I did see GUS (also '76), the Disney film about the mule that kicked field goals. GUS was screened in Cobb Center Mall - not in the theaters outside the mall, but in a small auditorium INSIDE the mall that appeared to be a community room that showed kids' movies during the summer. I have distinct memories of seeing THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1975) starring Kurt 'Snake Plissken' Russell, but where or when I cannot say.

I am pretty sure I saw Disney's ROBIN HOOD (1973) in a theater. It may have been in a drive in that was showing a Planet Of The Apes picture on another screen - I never saw any of the Apes movies in the theaters, but the TV show scared the bejeezus and fascinated me at the same time, and I can remember turning my head to watch the apes go about their apey business. I did not see the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) theatrical compliation film - though I watched a lot of the TV show - but I did see the BUCK ROGERS (1979) pilot film in a theater and liked it fine. Hey, I was 9. I did not see JAWS (1975) - would you take a 5 year old to see that? - but I did see JAWS 2 (1978) and was appropriately scared to go in the water even though I had not previously been under the assumption that the water had been in fact safe.

The whole family went to see STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) at Akers Mill and I fell asleep at some point when Spock was mind-melding with V'Ger. That summer me and every kid I knew saw THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979) over and over again - it was the default babysitter that year. I saw THE BLACK HOLE (1979) and enjoyed the great visual design and the ending where the bad guy is shown suffering in Hell. More movies should end that way. We actually got out of school the day THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) premiered, because our parents loved us deeply. I think we saw it at Phipps Plaza. SUPERMAN II came out in 1980 as well and I enjoyed it more than the first SUPERMAN (1978).

I never did get to see INFRAMAN (1975) or GODZILLA VERSUS MEGALON (1973) in theaters, though I desperately wanted to and probably made a pest out of myself about it. I also wanted to see LASERBLAST (1978) but thankfully did not. Sheesh. I know I have seen BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (1971) but in a theater? I hope not. Don't take your 2-year old to movies.

Comments

MY GOLDEN CINEMATIC MEMORIES

[spook-town.livejournal.com]

I know that I went to PUFNSTUF when I was 2 and 1/3, but I have no memory of it. I do distinctly remember going with my grandparents to the Osteen Theater (since demolished) in Anderson to see the 1971 reissue of PINOCCHIO. I would later see the 1976 KONG there, which INFURIATED me with its irredeemable crappiness, and GODZILLA VS. THE BIONIC MONSTER (under that title), which DELIGHTED me with its irredeemable crappiness. I did in fact see INFRAMAN at the Market Place Cinema (now a senior citizens' activity center), and I would later be cropped off there to see my only theatrical release of a POTA movie, abbreviated on the marquee as "REVENGE PLANET APE". When the film started, it turned out that I was about to see the deceptively-titled REVENGE OF PLANET APE... actually TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD with a voiceover at the beginning asserting that the zombies were the reanimated corpses of ancient hominids or something. I did in fact see LASERBLAST at the Watson Village Cinema II (now an indoor storage facility), while my parents watched PRETTY BABY on the other screen. Don't think I saw LATE GREAT ETC., but I saw nearly all the other Schick Sunn Classic productions, most at the Belvedere Cinema (demolished, replaced by a Moe's), where I would later be massively let down by SWAMP THING.Oh, and when we went to see STAR WARS in Greenville a couple of days after its premiere, the line wrapped around the building, under threatening skies. Right after we got inside a half-hour or so later, the heavens opened, with thunder booming through the theater as if it were striking in the parking lot. Right as the droids' escape pod launched, the power went out for another half-hour. Fortunately, it didn't degenerate into a riot, and I got a red tank-top with an iron-on of the droids on it at the concessions stand on the way out. THE END.

Re: MY GOLDEN CINEMATIC MEMORIES

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Wow, if I ever passed a movie marquee that said "REVENGE PLANET APE", I don't know if I'd be able to stop myself from going in.

I never did see that 1976 KING KONG. Well, I saw the part where Kong shakes the log and the people fall off into the abyss, on TV.

Schick Sunn Classics... a cinematic name that conjures up glory. GLORY!! I bet that Noah's Ark movie is a real tough watch.

[hipsterdad.livejournal.com]

My first was Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, at the Miracle.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there's a HERBIE film in my past somewhere, but darned if I can recall if it was in a theater or on "Wide World Of Disney" on TV.

[frustratedpilot]

Disney's THE WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE at a Drive-In in the vicinity of Chilicothe Ohio. The first show at an indoor theater had to wait four or five years; it was RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER at the one in Allison Park, PA.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

My very first movie memory is waking up from a nap to see the Death Star fighter battle of Star Wars. I was in the back seat of a car at a drive-in; I was three.

Movies were such a very rare treat for me (and theaters remain so) that, if I pushed myself, I could probably remember every single movie I watched in a theater from the age of about six on up. There were never more than two a year, and some years without a theater trip at all.

But I won't.

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

i definitely remember ROTJ first, and i don't say that for cred, since i actually don't really like star wars that much. i would have been 5 when that came out.

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

no wait, that can't be right, because i saw ET in the theater. when that came out i was 4 but i turned 5 less than 2 weeks after the release.

hmmm. i wonder why i considered that the case. i guess i thought that ROTJ came out when ESB did, around when i was 3. *shrugs*

[spacemantis.livejournal.com]

E.T. Mom took me when I was 5; I spent the entire time screaming into my seat because I was TERRIFIED of aliens.

What a difference a year makes; in '83, I could not WAIT to see some Jedi.

[animejump.livejournal.com]

My first was Robert Altman's weird POPEYE movie, 1980, General Cinemas Braintree. Not long after, I would see EMPIRE STRIKES BACK at the GC Hanover Mall. Neither of these theatres really exist anymore. Interesting.

Also, at the tender age of four, I fell asleep shortly after Luke confronted the fake illusory Darth Vader on Dagobah and was convinced, for the next two years, that this was the movie's ending. Only seeing it on a return showing in 1982 (remember when they used to do this for popular films?) convinced me otherwise.

I saw Superman II at the end of the summer, at the drive-in, in a double-feature with Burt Reynolds' HOOPER. My parents didn't want me to stay up and watch that one (I think there was some sexy content, but they were mainly concerned that a 4-year-old should be sleeping after 10). I don't remember the film, but I remember the cool motorcycle-under-the-truck stunt that opened it.

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

god that popeye movie was unwatchable as a kid. my dad made me watch it on television and i thought it was about 19 hours long.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, we saw POPEYE too. I understand what Altman was trying to do, but it was not what America wanted to see. (also: Martin's PENNIES FROM HEAVEN)

[hipsterdad.livejournal.com]

That sentence says more about the truth of Popeye than dozens of much, much longer articles on the subject.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, thanks for making me feel REALLY REALLY OLD Dave. :)

I really can't place my first movie. I'm sure it was a Disney film, and it would have been around 1964, when I was old enough to have manners and all that. Might have been Mary Poppins, might have been The Happiest Millionaire, might have been the Disney Robin Hood.

I know there was a whirlwind of films during those years. I saw quite an eclectic mix, from True Grit to 2001, but I wasn't allowed to see the James Bond films. (note, this was always with my mom, clearly you don't let little kids go to movies alone).

I recall seeing Beneath the Planet of the Apes and being scared S**TLESS by the mutants. I still have a hard time looking at a picture of that makeup. I recall waiting in the lobby of the theater for Thunderball to get out because mom went to see it and my grandma and I were meeting her. I peeked inside during the big final act underwater battle and it looked like the most awesome movie EVER. Also that theater had an ice cream vending machine near the bathrooms (across from the cigarette vending machine) and nothing tasted better than an ice cream sandwich from that thing.

Saw most of the 'big' films thru High School, wrote a review of the '76 King Kong for the school newspaper (verdict, pretty sucky overall but the monkey suit was boss and Jessica Lang was pretty),saw Godzilla Vs. the Smog Monster, then Godzilla Vs. Megalon, saw Logan's Run, saw Damnation Alley, didn't see Zardoz (but saw the photospread in Playboy, hubba hubba!) and then Star Wars. yeah, I watched me some Star Wars. I think it was about 125 times during that year-long first release. My first actual, honest-to-god date was taking a girl to Star Wars. No my name isn't really Eric Foreman.

Star Trek the Motion Picture was a BIG DEAL for me, and I have a deep and abiding love for it, no matter what some think are the flaws of it. I saw Message from Space and was enthralled while the friend who was with me utterly failed to see the glory and for years told me how much he hated that film and he'd never get those two hours back. It's OK, dude hated anime too.

let's see, I didn't see Alien until the very last day it was showing, because I had bought every single book that came out about it (and there were a LOT of books, almost Yamato-like in volume!) and it looked like the most scary s**t in the entire universe. And it was. And then there was Outland. Thank God Sean Connery can sleepwalk and still make a movie watchable. Oh, what else, Heavy Metal was in there somewhere, oh and the trip to NYC for a con (Mos' Eastly con in Queens, May 1980) and seeing The Empire Strikes back in 70mm and getting an HUGE crush on a gal and totally failing to really do anything about it. dammit. I mean cute as can be, wearing a Princess Leia ambassador outfit with cowboy boots and hat. Just...yeah, OK, sorry.

And while not in an actual theater, seeing the international dub of Lupin III at Capricon (Chicago, Feb. '82) was pretty big to me. :)

[footyfoot.livejournal.com]

Just at least one other person posting here, I recall seeing very few movies at a theater as a kid. As far as I can tell the first one I ever remember seeing was a double-Disney bill of Escape to Witch Mountain and Peter Pan at a San Diego drive in when I was 5. Peter Pan held my interest, but Witch Mountain had me and my 3-year old brother working the playground (conveniently placed in front of the screen) pretty hard. I also recall seeing Cross Of Iron (I recall it from the intensely thrilling Sam Peckinpah violence, James Coburn blasing away at countless swarms of russians) and then The Graduate. I'm only sure it was that movie because the image of Mrs Robinson's leg sticking out while Dustin Hoffman stared in disbelief at was burned into my memory- shortly afterwards, I found my dad's copy of the soundtrack with the very same scene on the cover, and I put 2 and 2 together...
Dad took me, my mom, and my brother to see Alien back when I was 8... me and the bro had no idea what the hell we were going to see, but it was an actual movie at the theater! I'm sure Mom had no clue, either. Damn, the nightmares that gave me...

[hipsterdad.livejournal.com]

That double-bill you mentioned reminds me that might be how Dave saw Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Disney did a lot of those, matching older films with a somewhat newer one. I know that's how I saw The Aristocats in the mid-seventies, but I can't remember what it was playing with.

Of course, there were also the kiddie films at public libraries in the summers. I know that's where I saw the Disney Robin Hood and at least three of those compilation Pippi Longstocking movies.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

We DL'ed and watched the first PIPPI LONGSTOCKING movie. It is one strange, bad movie.

[hipsterdad.livejournal.com]

It was a TV series first, and there's a DVD set of the whole run - 13 episodes. I'm curious, but not that curious.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

That bizarre Swedish PIPPI LONGSTOCKING movie is a compilation film? Suddenly it makes a lot more sense. Not that the MOVIE makes more sense, but its lack of sense has become clear to me. If that makes sense.

[hipsterdad.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia suggests that they used chunks of the 13 episodes to make two movies, and then there were two subsequent feature films as well.

They're pretty bizarre and goofy and not very good, but they're better than the Pippi Longstocking movie from the late '80s that was made in Florida.

[efathefinger.livejournal.com]

My earliest movie memory was, hah, Used Cars (1980), at a drive in double feature the first of which was something I've completely forgotten but probably kid friendly because Used Cars totally was not, which my mother learned to her great dismay taken with a good amount of poise.

[(Anonymous)]

Jungle Book and Dr. Doolittle were my first theatricals, and 101 Dalmations was in there somewhere. I remember having books, records and games for each one, and I must have raved about Jungle Book when I was 4 or whatever, because mom got me a VHS of it the first time it was released. (Midwest mom voice: "oh, I've GOT to get him a Mowgli tape!")

To her it wasn't "Jungle Book," it was "Mowgli." You know how moms are. It's probably what we called it back when I was 4, and she was incapable of rewiring her synapses for the correct title. I'm sure she still calls it "Mowgli" today.

But like most of y'all, I divide my younger moviegoing experiences into two eras: before Star Wars and after. You know what I'm talkin' about.

-Tim Eldred

[hipsterdad.livejournal.com]

I remember wanting to stand in line for Star Wars, but it took forever to convince my parents to stand in one of those lines. We ended up seeing Close Encounters first, probably under the same skewed "it's all spaceships!" perception that netted me a bunch of "Space Warriors" toys the following Christmas.

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

I want to say we saw Empire and Jedi at the General Cinemas Aker's Mill. Probably Star Wars too, but for some reason I acquaint that with a long car ride (and pretending to be shooting down TIE Fighters out of the back of the company car Ford station wagon Dad drove (aka the ZEP Mobile). I remember seeing Jaws with friends at Belmont Hills. There was a Lefont where the Best Buy is now on 41 (the Promenade?). That was where we saw a lot of 80's stuff: The Indiana Jones movies, Ghostbusters, Star Trek II. Although I won those radio station tickets to see Raiders at Lenox. I think I went with Rod Ramsey to that one. Later big releases were at the Galleria.

And we did see Blazing Saddles at a Drive-In. I think that's the official "What were they thinking?" choice...

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

That was probably the movie where I watched the apes instead, as I was way too young to get most of those jokes.

I know you had a birthday party in Jan. 78 when the party was basically, we all went to see Star Wars. Best party ever.

I went to that Raiders screening with you, which was pretty awesome. I bet you still have that t-shirt.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

I don't remember my first theater, exactly. I know I remember seeing E.T. in my folks' green GMC van at a drive-in in Tacoma by Highway 16 when I was about three years old. Wasn't long before they plowed the place under to build condos.

The part with the dudes in hazmat suits where E.T. nearly croaks scared me shitless, as I recall.

[gyopi.livejournal.com]

Sadly as another 41 year old white male, Star Wars is the second movie I can remember seeing. The first is that terrible 1976 movie Kong. So close to seeing a cool iconic movie first! At least I saw both of them at the local Drive-In.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure I remember seeing any films in a movie theater before "Star Wars." There's a generation gap, of course, between those who were old enough to go see it whenever they wanted, and seven-year-olds like myself ^_^ For the repeat experience, I had to rely more on the giant-size comic adaptation (by Howard Chaykin--the one that had Han actually talking to an anthropoid Jabba; I was like, "Wait, I don't remember that!") and the original soundtrack album, which my dad liked, so it was okay to play it any time. I bought him an Obi-Wan Kenobi stein at Best that year for Christmas.

You knew a movie was cool when you tried to draw what you'd seen in it. In some cases, if a friend had been able to see a movie you hadn't--especially an R-rated film--he'd attempt to express it for his lesser brethren with pencil and paper. I remember a guy who rendered each particular slaying from "Friday the 13th" in cartoon form ("and then the arrow went through the guy like this..."). The movie which probably most motivated us to draw, though, was "The Black Hole"--specifically, motivated us to draw Maximilian, whom, we were all agreed, was badder than anything in Star Wars.

I guess I'm of the very last generation of kids that had to rely on programming (i.e., it had to be in a theater or on TV) to see a movie; while there certainly were VCRs in the 1970s, few families owned one then. To be honest, Mad magazine probably informed my movie consciousness as much as anything else; in a time when I couldn't simply rent Bond movies, but had to wait for ABC to show another, Mort Drucker's renditions were solid gold. Like Dave, "Moonraker" was the first one I got to see in a theater. I think Bananas had done a feature article on it, showing a picture of Bond with a girl they called "The Scientist;" presumably they couldn't admit to young readers that the character was actually named Holly Goodhead.

Now that I think back on it, I don't think I made too much distinction as a kid between movies I saw in an actual theater, or in other venues (such as school) because either way, one was in a dark room with a bunch of other kids. At school in Andy Gibb-era Houston, they'd show "The Cat From Outer Space" or "The Sound of Music" sometimes, when...well, I'm not sure why--perhaps the teachers were going off for a smoke. For educational purposes, they'd show those dope Bell Labs films, such as "Our Mr. Sun" and "Hemo the Magnificent." I remember seeing "The Man Called Flinstone," at Circus Circus in Reno, during an American trip sometime in the early '70s (I spent much of that time abroad). Is "Dan Dunn" directly quoting that when he says "...And you must be the one they call Flintstone?!"

--Carl

P.S. "Sea water."

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

There are many films that I'd be completely unaware of if not for Mad Magazine. Their versions of "Sound Of Music" ("listen bud, I'm not one of those lovable Nazis you see on television") and "Midnight Cowboy" ought to be included as extras on DVD releases. And their "True Grit" is priceless.

I totally agree that the movie experience for kids is the same whether it's in a theater or in a school auditorium or a church hall or on a sheet strung up at some campground somewhere. Kids love movies. If I ever run any kind of "anime club" ever again it's going to be as close to that experience as I can make it: popcorn, a short, a feature film, hard folding chairs.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

This is where I know I'm at a dead end on. This is perhaps due to not having much of a memory before I was 4 or 5, so I really don't know what my first film in the theater was at all. It probably was a Disney film anyway, perhaps a re-release of a classic like Bambi or Snow White. Perhaps shown at the now demolished Showcase Cinemas near Westgate Shopping Center. That place was impressive at a young age with it's mezzanine lobby and one of the rooms having curtains that opened and closed before and after the film. I'll never get that experience AGAIN!