8mm Forum: Where, when and what was playing at your very first Cinema experience?

This is topic Where, when and what was playing at your very first Cinema experience? in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 18, 2013, 12:35 PM:

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.

Posted by Vidar Olavesen (Member # 3354) on September 18, 2013, 12:54 PM:

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)

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on September 18, 2013, 01:24 PM:

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.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on September 18, 2013, 01:51 PM:

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.

Posted by Martin Jones (Member # 1163) on September 18, 2013, 02:04 PM:

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!

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on September 18, 2013, 09:39 PM:

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.

Posted by Patrick Walsh (Member # 637) on September 18, 2013, 10:29 PM:

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]

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on September 19, 2013, 05:08 AM:

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)

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on September 19, 2013, 07:18 AM:

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.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 19, 2013, 12:33 PM:

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!

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on September 19, 2013, 03:08 PM:

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.

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on September 19, 2013, 03:55 PM:

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.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on September 19, 2013, 04:05 PM:

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.

Posted by Trevor Adams (Member # 42) on September 19, 2013, 04:06 PM:

Al Jolson,The Jazz Singer.Dad was obsessed with him!

Posted by Bruce Wright (Member # 2793) on September 19, 2013, 05:37 PM:

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]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on September 20, 2013, 12:28 AM:

Jeepers... I cant remember that far back [Roll Eyes]

"The Alamo 1960 Glasgow"

Posted by Guy Taylor, Jr. (Member # 786) on September 20, 2013, 05:50 AM:

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.

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on September 20, 2013, 07:38 PM:

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.

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on September 21, 2013, 03:25 PM:

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.

Posted by David Guest (Member # 2791) on September 21, 2013, 03:49 PM:

sound of music odeon cinema leigh Lancashire

Posted by Ken Finch (Member # 2768) on September 22, 2013, 12:59 PM:

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.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on September 23, 2013, 06:29 AM:

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 !

Posted by Ken Finch (Member # 2768) on September 23, 2013, 12:01 PM:

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.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on September 23, 2013, 01:21 PM:

Hmmm, it appears that the average age of the forum members is between 40 and 70!

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

Posted by Laksmi Breathwaite (Member # 2320) on September 23, 2013, 01:51 PM:

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.

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on January 16, 2014, 04:49 PM:

My earliest memory at the movies was in 1974, I was 6 years old, HERBIE RIDES AGAIN at the local mall cinema (4 screens) that is no longer there.

And in the mall outside the theatre surrounded by red velvet rope was...HERBIE The real thing! I can still remember walking around that car and talking to him!

It really made an impression on me. Great movie too!

Bill [Smile]

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on January 17, 2014, 04:39 AM:

My earliest memory is from the mid fifties,being five or six years old,of Gene Kelly fencing Saul Gorss' pants down,in THE THREE MUSKETEERS.Only fifty years later I would become the proud owner of a gorgeous 8mm print!

Posted by Maurizio Di Cintio (Member # 144) on January 17, 2014, 04:53 AM:

My oldest movie going-related memory dates back to 1975: I was 5 and I had already been taken to circus shows a few times, although, for some reason, I knew there was something called "cinema" I hadn't experienced yet; in fact I kept asking what it was and the only answer I used to get was that is consisted in a darkened place where I might be scared. At some point that year my parents resolved to let me try the "thril of a cinema going experience; the film was a live-action free adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood which I really recall next to nothing about. But at the end of the show, my father, who had worked as an assistant projectionist when he was very young, asked the staff of that cinema to be allowed to visit the boot and of course he took me with him. That was my first "close encounter" with a 35 mm projector, and truly amazed me. A year later, when at school, we had regular monthly screenings of cartoons on 16 mm: needless to say I used to sit very close to the "beast" and challenge the operator with never ending questions but he never got upset for this. Also my first school year coincided with my first out-of-family birthday party; a class mate of mine, named Filippo who lived just a few hundreds meters away from my home, had this party and... he had a toy projector "Cinemax K 6" (the same as mine) with plenty of 60 m digests and he screened several Tarzans, Zorro's and Westerns during that party. And perhaps this memory is even more important as regards our hobby, than the other ones.

From those moments onward I have never stopped buying new films, projectors and cameras, shooting film (which is my primary interest), editing etc. It's probably one of the very few consistent interests throughout my life. And something I could hardly do without.

Posted by William Fleming (Member # 2632) on January 17, 2014, 05:03 AM:

1978 Jaws playing in our living room back in Northern Ireland with all local kids round to watch it. A movie that i love to this day because of the memories of a great night we had there was a bunch of freaked out kids never to put foot in the sea again [Smile]

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