When we made the three day train trip from New York to L.A. in 1935, I’m sure my parents were worried about making a living. What worried me was the movies. Could I get into the movies. In New York, there had been a movie fire, people were killed, and now kids were no longer admitted without an adult. I remember that we used to hang around outside the theater for adults to arrive and then beg, Please take me in?
I was in luck! My folks settled in to hard times in a new city. I had the Saturday matinee. Every Saturday, dragging my kid brother and lunch sack in hand for the long wonderful afternoon, I arrived at Bards Theater, Adams and La Brea. The price was ten cents. I had my two dimes and I waited in line with my other neighborhood friends for the box office to open.
The matinee started with the excitement as we entered the lobby.
There was the table laden with glittering prizes which your ticket might win: toys, games and even, as I remember because I wanted it, a real camera!
In 1935, you were in not just for a movie but for a double feature which meant two full films, a cliff-hanger, I think they called it the serial. An action adventure where the hero plunged to his death at the end of one week, and the next was miraculously resurrected to fight on again. I can’t recall whether they showed the Movietone News to the kids on Saturday. Any old guys out there who remember?
So we settled in for an afternoon of heaven, eating egg sandwiches and beginning with Mutiny on the Bounty where we watched Clark Gable suffering at the hands of a cruel captain (Charles Laughton) and at the end of his rope Mr. Christian finally had the courage to mutiny, set the captain adrift and make for the islands and freedom. But it had a sad ending.
And then a run to the bathroom and we settled in for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat, a wonderful world where women wore long chiffon gowns and danced happily through life and men wore tuxedos and top hats. We shopped for clothes in bargain basements, sifting through unsorted stuff but we knew that once we grew up, we might have butlers to serve us while we danced through a beautiful life.
And then the movies were finished, our sandwiches were finished, our cookies were munched and we were all crumbs, the lights when up and a number was picked from the box and a lucky one of us got a prize!
No stadium seating with convenience of a cup holder and the big big screen with color and incredibly loud sound can compare with a two-feature in black and white, that egg sandwich, the exciting serial which brought hope out of despair, and a ticket in hand for a wonderful prize.
I’ve been watching movies in L.A. for seventy years. I’ve seen great films, I’ve seen prices go ballistic, now I climb stadium seating where if you need to run to the bathroom and pray you don’t miss the critical scene you drag your old bones down dangerous steps, run half a mile down the carpeted corridors.
By Guest Writer Clarie Elfman
Subscribe to our RSS Feed And checkout our coffee competition to win a $30 gift voucher to your favourite coffee shop : click here
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
0 responses so far ↓
Subscribe to our RSS Feed and leave a comment to enter the commentator of the week competition and win a $20 Amazon.com gift voucher.
Leave a Comment