8mm Forum: What was your FIRST cinema experience?

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 25, 2009, 10:23 PM:

What was your first cinema experience?

I'll go first ...

It was either 1970 or 71. We lived on Klammath Falls Air Force Base, and my dad, in between his daytime job, would work the base movie theater to bring in a few "bob". From the very first night, dad brought me up to the projection booth.

I remember being up there, with that enormous 35MM looming over me. The smell of the lubrication ... aahhhh!

I would stand up on an old box and look down out that small projection window at the audience and up at the screen.

My first film? It was double feature ...

Disney's animated "Robin Hood" and the sci-fi film, "Silent Running". Kind of a strange pairing, but Robin Hood came first.

... and I was a wee four years old!

Posted by Patrick Walsh (Member # 637) on July 25, 2009, 11:04 PM:

I remember the 1st movie I saw was at the cinema that I know own!
I was about 5 years old and I came to the cinema for a friend's 5th birthday party, we watched some cartoons.
The cartoons we watched turned out to be on super 8! Yes the former owner of my cinema used to run as well as 35mm and 16mm super 8 movies! using a Yelco projector.
I remember spending more time watching the projector's beam coming from the small "window" in the back that looking at the screen.
[Big Grin]

Pat

Posted by Mark Williams (Member # 794) on July 26, 2009, 06:50 AM:

How's bout this..The Dominion Cinema,Tottenham Court Road,London,W1 showing 2001 in Cinerama in 1970 when I was 7 years old with my mother.

A Cinema experience never to be forgotten and the film had started a few minutes earlier so I was led up the aisle in the dark by the cinema usher with a torch and then confronted with the huge Cinerama screen with those great ape suits!!!

That experience really got me hooked on the big screen for life.

Cheers Mark W

Posted by Mikael Barnard (Member # 1637) on July 26, 2009, 07:22 AM:

Easy! The Point, Milton Keynes, 1992, The Little Mermaid :-)

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 26, 2009, 09:00 AM:

Hey, my wife, Stephanie A Osgood, wants to contribute as well, (her first time, way to go, wifey!).

It was a drive-in, and she saw the animated version of "101 Dalmations", a re-release, as she was six at the time, which would make this 1995. She must have been 11.

" There was an adult film on second, and my mom didn't want me to see it. There was a lot of swearing. This was in Idaho falls, Idaho, and there was a drive-in right across the street where we lived, in the "Shady Rests campground". Mom always thought it sounded like the proper name for a cemetery or rest home. I don't remember the name of the drive in. "

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on July 26, 2009, 10:37 AM:

Hello!

My first cinema experience that I remember was in 1974 when I was 6 years old. It was at a 4 screen theatre at Mellet Mall in Canton Ohio.

HERBIE RIDES AGAIN

Out in the mall right outside the theatre lobby they had a real VW bug painted up like Herbie roped off in red velvet...

I have to say...to this day I still have a real love for that bug Herbie. When I came out of that movie I couldn't believe that Herbie decided to visit my town! That really did make an impression on me. Just writing about this takes me back.

I'm going to watch my Herbie digests today!

Bill

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on July 26, 2009, 01:56 PM:

My first cinema experience is muddled in the ravages of time,(The mid-fifties,I must have been five or six then). A cartoon character (Mickey Mouse?)jumping on a row of barrels. The first film I clearly remember, about that time,is THE THREE MUSKETEERS, most probably in La Gaite cinema near our home in Alexandria,Egypt, where I was born.And the scene that most impressed my mind,was Gene Kelly fencing Saul Gorss' pants down!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 26, 2009, 02:55 PM:

The first one for me was actually a Bond movie at a Drive-In theater.

In the summer of 1967, my family was staying at a vacation camp up in Northern New York state, almost all the way to the Canadian Border.

We went to the local Drive-In in my parents' yellow 1966 Mustang coupe (V8-289CID) to see "You only live twice". This was pre-FM sound at Drive-Ins. so they parked next to a pole and hung a speaker through the window.

Now for me this is the summer between Kindergarten and First Grade: I was five years old. Mom and Dad were a little concerned that I'd be disturbed by Mr. Bond's usual romantic hijinks, but the only thing that bothered me was them dumping that car in the ocean with a helicopter and electromagnet. Little kids don't have all their hormones just yet: they don't notice things the same way the rest of us do!

I've only been to three drive-in movies in my life: this was the first. The third came two weeks ago when we vacationed in Vermont. I'm writing that one up to post this week

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on July 29, 2009, 08:43 AM:

Gosh..this will date me. I would have been in the first grade...which would put it 1955....a tiny town in Tennessee called Collierville....a kids birthday party at the local little theater......showing some color Randolph Scott movie and a Bowery Boys film about diamonds . very vague. That same year a tornado came through the town square and destroyed the theater and there was not another one for the town until the mid 70's. If we wanted to see movies, we had to go 20 miles to Memphis.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on July 29, 2009, 08:50 AM:

Gosh..this will date me. I would have been in the first grade...which would put it 1955....a tiny town in Tennessee called Collierville....a kids birthday party at the local little theater......showing some color Randolph Scott movie and a Bowery Boys film about diamonds . very vague. That same year a tornado came through the town square and destroyed the theater and there was not another one for the town until the mid 70's. If we wanted to see movies, we had to go 20 miles to Memphis.

Posted by Martin Jones (Member # 1163) on July 29, 2009, 09:52 AM:

Let's try WW2, about 1944-45. Not a cinema, but the school hall and a mobile (16mm?) unit showing the great Paul Robeson in "Sanders of the River". That's my first clear memory; very hazy recollections of others before that, but no titles.

Martin

Posted by Bart Smith (Member # 780) on July 29, 2009, 12:05 PM:

"Bambi" in The Odeon, Westbourne Grove, London, maybe 1972??? I definitely cried when his mother was shot. I would have been about 3.

I also remember the first film I walked out of, a few years later: "The Apple Dumpling Gang". It was RUBBISH!!!

I also remember (maybe 1975 or so?) my brothers and I discussing whether we were going to be able to afford the latest price increase, as tickets had rocketed up to 18p each.

Posted by Jeroen van Ooijen (Member # 1104) on July 29, 2009, 12:21 PM:

My first movie was Batman from 1989,my first animated movie in cinema was the lion king,and my first movie that was screening for the audience for work was Flubber from 1998.
The most succesful movie i have worked with was Titanic 1998 and the most succesful animated movie was Tarzan(Disney).
[Big Grin]

Mikael you are like me one of the youngest in what super8 movies are you interrested?

Posted by David Park (Member # 123) on August 01, 2009, 01:54 PM:

Wizard of Oz, during WW2 at the Ritz(ABC) Keithley, West Yorkshire, England. Guess I would be 5 or 6. Absolutely amazed when it went into colour!

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on August 01, 2009, 02:08 PM:

Lady and the Tramp. Late 60's. Ormonde Cinema, Cobh, Co.Cork.

Posted by Gian Luca Mario Loncrini (Member # 1417) on August 01, 2009, 05:27 PM:

'Remì - Senza Famiglia' ('Chibikko Remi to meiken Capi') by Dezaki Osamu (Toei Animation, 1970).
One of the first Anime Feature released.

It was in Riva del Garda. I cannot remember the name of the Cinema. I believe it was simply the only one existing in Riva. All the family was there. I was probably 5 or 6 years old. It was a promotional screening. All pupils at school had a free admittance ticket. And it was possible to invite the whole family (as I did).

As I wrote in another post, I remember that big, huge screen, and all those heads. Children, above all. The cartoon was really sad (so different compared to the TV series by Tokyo Movie Shinsha) and all those dead pets made me cry as... A BABY!

I was really impressed for both 'situations': the movie itself. And the big screening room. I remember that day as it were yesterday.

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on August 01, 2009, 07:24 PM:

In my early years during the 60's, I have vague memories of seeing Dr. Doolittle, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, and some Disney's at the cinema.

But, I mostly remember my first "non-kids" movie at the cinema. The year was 1972. I was 9 years old, and I became obsessed with the promotional ads for the movie "FROGS". The add pictured a giant frog, with a human hand hanging out of it's mouth [Eek!]

. I became so infatuated with this image (yes, I was wierd). I just kept begging and begging my dad to take me to see it (mom wouldn't, of course). He finally took me to see it at the cinema, and what a wonderful experience it was. All of my friends begged me to tell them about it, since I was the only one in my class to have seen it.

James.

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on August 01, 2009, 07:29 PM:

The first film I saw was in 1959. It was Sleeping Beauty at a cinema at Grays in Essex UK. I was 5 yrs old.
BTW I still have this on Super8 and its one title which will not be leaving me.
One thing which I really found strange is that I had this on Laserdisc and my son thrashed it to death. He would watch it whenever he could as a youngster. Hes now coming up to 21 [Smile]

So is this really a thread aimed at finding out how old we are [Big Grin]

Kev.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on August 01, 2009, 09:24 PM:

James ...

Did you ever track down the trailer on 35MM for your own collection? I know that most of the trailers that I liked as a kid I've found.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 01, 2009, 11:41 PM:

Jeepers...you guys are mostly younger than me [Frown]

note, I did say mostly [Wink]

the place Scotland, city Glasgow the area Partick the street Dumbarton Road the film "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" around 1959. I was 7 years old the cinema [Roll Eyes]

cant remember the exact name, it was dark and pretty grubby, no picture palace this one. The thing that fascinated me was how the light from the projector ever managed to reach the screen through the thick haze of smoke as everyone "adults that is" smoked like chimneys in those days, funny when you think of it there were no fancy seats no digital sound but people were just happy "like me" to get a chance to go and see a film at the pictures.

I asked my young sidekick projectionist at work last week what film he can remember [Roll Eyes]

it was "Spongebob" well that should make you lot feel old [Big Grin]

Graham.

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on August 02, 2009, 03:27 AM:

Disney's The Jungle Book when it was first released (1967). I was three. Cinema was "Gaumont Convention" in Paris's 15th district.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on August 02, 2009, 07:53 AM:

Paramount Theatre, 1961 on Broadway in Long Branch NJ 'Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs' - Vaguely, but I do remember little moments - My first 'understood' generally cinema-experience was seeing the complete MAD WORLD (50' Cinerama screen) in '63 at the Mayfair Theatre in Asbury Park NJ, then How The West Was Won at the St. James in Asbury - Shorty

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on August 02, 2009, 10:21 PM:

I remember sitting in the balcony of the Loew's 175th Street Theater (a real palace at the time) watching "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". This was a re-release in the early 60's. I also have vivid memories of going to the RKO Coliseum to see "Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster" (1965). Thanks, Mom!

Doug

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