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» 8mm Forum   » General Yak   » Where, when and what was playing at your very first Cinema experience? (Page 1)

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Author Topic: Where, when and what was playing at your very first Cinema experience?
Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

- posted September 18, 2013 12:35 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
OK, I'll start.

I'd have to have been about 5 years old. My dad, while being in the air force, also made a few extra dollars by being the projectionist for the airbase movie theater (at the Klammath Falls airbase, which is in Oregon) ...

and my first experience was actually being up in the projection booth with my dad, looking down as a double feature was being projected ...

Robin Hood (Disney)
Silent Running (sci-fi)

... is it any wonder that my first film loves are animation and science fiction?

I was entranced with this big magnificent projector, with these enormous reels (well, to a five year old, it looked enormous!), the light beaming out of that projector with the smoke from my dads cigarettes playing with the light and me, looking down at the audience, popcorn in hand (and no doubt spilling some of it on the audience down below), watching the film and watching the effect the film had on people.

My dad and I did very few things together, so it is also a fond memory in that regard as well. This tied in with my dad owning a lovely little Eumig P8, but that was just little projections at home ...

This was a gigantic projection on an enormous wall! An utterly magnificent first experience with the cinema.

I really miss my dad.

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Vidar Olavesen
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From: Sarpsborg, Norway
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- posted September 18, 2013 12:54 PM      Profile for Vidar Olavesen   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Oh, that's a tough one. I think it must have been either Lassie or 101 Dalmatians in about 70 I think ... Greåker Kino (now gone for 35+ years I guess)

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

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From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

- posted September 18, 2013 01:24 PM      Profile for Robert Crewdson     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My earliest memory of the cinema is Disney's Davey Crockett in 1955, and the shops selling Davey Crocket Hats. The earliest film I can remember in any detail was De Mille's Ten Commandments.

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David Ollerearnshaw
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From: Penistone Sheffield UK
Registered: Oct 2012

- posted September 18, 2013 01:51 PM      Profile for David Ollerearnshaw   Author's Homepage   Email David Ollerearnshaw   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Two spring to mind here.

"Battle Of The Bulge" at the ABC Sheffield, a really nice cinema with a massive screen. My dad tells me I was getting bored in the first half, and then after the intermission when the battle started I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. I believe that Phil at Classic has a new release soon featuring the opening of this cinema "Don't Bother To Knock" with Richard Todd was the opening film.

The other one was at a cinema in Falmouth Cornwall Odeon and it was Disney's "The Happiest Millionaire" I caused a good laugh when I fell off the seat. I had to sit on it tipped up so I could see. When it decided to go into normal sitting position, I ended up on the floor.

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I love the smell of film in the morning.

http://www.thereelimage.co.uk/

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Martin Jones
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From: Thetford , Norfolk,England
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- posted September 18, 2013 02:04 PM      Profile for Martin Jones     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My first was not "cinema"... it was a mobile 16mm presentation in my Primary school hall. I must have been about 5, and the film was "Sanders of the River" starring Paul Robeson.

My first TRUE Cinema experience (which doesn't include Saturday morning pictures!) was being taken to see "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" ... a REAL FULL LENGTH feature.

I have recently been able to obtain the first on VHS and I'm just about to receive the second on DVD... so it's nostalgia time!

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Retired TV Service Engineer
Ongoing interest in Telecine....

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Bill Brandenstein
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From: California
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- posted September 18, 2013 09:39 PM      Profile for Bill Brandenstein   Email Bill Brandenstein   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
If it had reels that turned containing sounds or pictures, I was fascinated from an early age. We saw 16mm films at school and church, and I remember around age 5 or 6 our local public library having a 16mm film cleaning/repair machine in use once during a visit.

But my first theater visit was to a re-release of Disney's "Snow White," paired with a then-current short about a family skiing and an avalanche adventure.

Nice memories, Osi. Sorry there weren't a ton more of them.

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Patrick Walsh
Jedi Master Film Handler

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From: Christchurch, New Zealand
Registered: Jul 2006

- posted September 18, 2013 10:29 PM      Profile for Patrick Walsh   Email Patrick Walsh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
mine was a friend of mine's 5th birthday party and we all went down to the local cinema, all I remember was it was Yogi Bear and it was so boring, I also remember eating lifesavers!
[Big Grin]

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"Raise The Titanic!", It would of been cheaper to lower the Atlantic!

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Oemer Yalinkilic
Jedi Master Film Handler

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From: Berlin, Germany
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- posted September 19, 2013 05:08 AM      Profile for Oemer Yalinkilic   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I can´t remember which movie was my first one, but it must be something in 1969/1970 as I was 4 or 5 years old. There was lot of open air cinemas in Izmir/Turkey and I remember that I watched Son of Godzilla and I remember also Its a mad mad mad mad world. At this time they run also lot of Shaw Brothers martial arts movies.
50% was turkish or Bollywood movies, 30% martial arts and 20% US movies (and few from GB/FR/IT or D)

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Gary Crawford
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From: Manassas, VA. USA
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- posted September 19, 2013 07:18 AM      Profile for Gary Crawford     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
1954...tiny town then of Collierville , Tenn. I'm five...it's someone's birthday party. We go to the town theater .. I remember one of the two features was a Bowery Boys movie. the other was some Randoph Scott color western. A few months later a tornado destroyed the theater and it was never opened back up. It became a grocery store..and the town didn't have a theater until after i had moved away in 1971.

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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From: Mountian Home, ID.
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- posted September 19, 2013 12:33 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
You had me confused there for a moment Oemer, until I remembered that "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" was re-released in the early 70's.

(boy, I'd love to hear someone say something like "Phantom of the Opera" or some other silent picture ... ya know, some of our "mature members" who go waaaaaaaay back!

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Oemer Yalinkilic
Jedi Master Film Handler

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From: Berlin, Germany
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- posted September 19, 2013 03:08 PM      Profile for Oemer Yalinkilic   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Osi, at this time, maybe 1971 or 1972 (I was 6 or 7 years old) I watched "The Oblong Box" and "Tombs of the Blind Death".
Belive me, I love it, but I will never allow my children to watch a Horror movie untill they are minimum 12 or 14 years old.

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Robert Crewdson
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From: UK
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- posted September 19, 2013 03:55 PM      Profile for Robert Crewdson     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Osi, I don't think there are any members old enough to remember silent movies. My father died 7 years ago, his earliest memory was watching The Covered Wagon in 1925.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
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- posted September 19, 2013 04:05 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
True: my Dad would be 84 now and he was born just around the time talkies came out in force (1929). Especially since he didn't speak English until 1935 there is no way he'd remember a silent film!

Osi, I remember when It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World was re-released in the 70s. There were a couple of films that Dad made a point of bringing us to see upon re-release. This was one, Fantasia was another.

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Trevor Adams
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- posted September 19, 2013 04:06 PM      Profile for Trevor Adams   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Al Jolson,The Jazz Singer.Dad was obsessed with him!

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Trevor

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Bruce Wright
Expert Film Handler

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From: Denham Springs, La.
Registered: Oct 2011

- posted September 19, 2013 05:37 PM      Profile for Bruce Wright   Author's Homepage   Email Bruce Wright   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It's 1942 at a AAFB in Madison Miss. the movie was shown on the side of a barrack. Seem to remember a news reel, but when the
movie started there was lots of whistles and cheers. Mom took me home. [Roll Eyes]

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Bruce Wright

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Graham Ritchie
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From: New Zealand
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- posted September 20, 2013 12:28 AM      Profile for Graham Ritchie   Email Graham Ritchie   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Jeepers... I cant remember that far back [Roll Eyes] "The Alamo 1960 Glasgow"

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Guy Taylor, Jr.
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From: Galveston, Texas, U.S.A.
Registered: Mar 2007

- posted September 20, 2013 05:50 AM      Profile for Guy Taylor, Jr.     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My mom would take me to the re-releases of the Disney animated features. Snow White, Cinderella, Bambi, and Dumbo. I think she enjoyed them as much as me. I guess I was about 10 when the Disney animated version of Robin Hood came out. It was the last one I saw for many years because I reached that age where I felt I was too old. Got excited about Disney animated films again when The Little Mermaid came out and proved they could still make masterpieces.

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Guy Taylor

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Christian Bjorgen
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From: Kvinnherad, Norway
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- posted September 20, 2013 07:38 PM      Profile for Christian Bjorgen   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I must admit that I am not sure, but the earliest that I can remember is "Pocahontahs" in 1995/96 at the local movie theater, King Oscar Kino, about 10 mins from the house I grew up in.

It was around Christmas I think, because I remember that the movie got delayed by 20 minutes as the projectionist struggled with the icy roads.

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Well who’s on first? Yeah. Go ahead and tell me. Who. The guy on first. Who. The guy playin’ first base. Who. The guy on first. Who is on first! What are you askin’ me for? I’m askin’ you!

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Oemer Yalinkilic
Jedi Master Film Handler

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From: Berlin, Germany
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- posted September 21, 2013 03:25 PM      Profile for Oemer Yalinkilic   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Oh, as I read "Pochachonatas" I thought it is a joke. But I see Christian, you are realy young for a Super 8 collector.
1995 was like yesterday for me.
I remember a day in 1984, I entered in the company where I am working since this time, there was an employee he talked to me, because I was dressed and styled like Elvis Presley (I was a Teddy Boy at this time) and he showed me old photos from the 50´s as he was a young man with his motorcycle and his gang like Marlon Brando in The Wilde One.
At this time was the same time back to the 50´s, like today to the time I was a young man.
Yes, there is a new generation and I am now one of the old people.

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David Guest
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From: Lancashire, UK
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- posted September 21, 2013 03:49 PM      Profile for David Guest     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
sound of music odeon cinema leigh Lancashire

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Ken Finch
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From: Herne Bay, Kent. U.K.
Registered: Oct 2011

- posted September 22, 2013 12:59 PM      Profile for Ken Finch   Email Ken Finch   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have vague memories of the opening week of the Granada Woolwich, London, and the stage show but not the film. First real memory was at the age of 4 being taken to see "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs" at the Odeon Woolwich in 1938, by my Dad. Mum was about to have my brother and was in the Hospital for mothers and babies. It was a fron circle seat, quite a steep rakeed auditorium and I was more afraid of falling into the dark stalls are below than of the wicked witch. !!! Being small I was perched on the edge of the tip up seat, i.e. in the tipped up position, so that I could see the screen over the balcony balustrade. Ken Finch.

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Lee Mannering
Film God

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From: The Projection Box
Registered: Nov 2006

- posted September 23, 2013 06:29 AM      Profile for Lee Mannering     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
At the Odeon I first went to as a paying customer it was about £2.20 and beacuse I went so often they gave me a free hot dog each visit. These days you need a second mortgage for cinema accessories !

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Ken Finch
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From: Herne Bay, Kent. U.K.
Registered: Oct 2011

- posted September 23, 2013 12:01 PM      Profile for Ken Finch   Email Ken Finch   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
At the time I mentioned in my previous post on this topic, cinema ticket prices were 1shilling,front stalls,1s9d rear stalls, 2s3d and 3s6d in the circle. That was in "old money" as we call it. i.e. Pounds , shillings and pence. These prices lasted until some time in the 1950s if my memory serves me right. How much easier it is for children to learn their money, lenght, weight and measure tables it is these days where all units are in tens. Ken Finch.

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

- posted September 23, 2013 01:21 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hmmm, it appears that the average age of the forum members is between 40 and 70!

Christian, my, you are a "young-un" [Smile]

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Laksmi Breathwaite
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From: Las Vegas
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- posted September 23, 2013 01:51 PM      Profile for Laksmi Breathwaite     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I remember 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH in a navy base theatre when it first came out. I thought it was real and had got a real monster from outer space.

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" Faster then a speeding bullet, more powerful then a Locomotive "."Look up in the sky it's a bird it's a plane it's SUPERMAN"

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