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Let's make this into categories ... 1. You're first movie theater experience? 2. You're first ever home movie experience? OK, 1. A double feature of Robin Hood, Disney, and Silent Running. This was 1971. 2. I bought a 200ft reel with two black and white Mickey Mouse standard 8mm silent films, Touchdown Mickey, and one with Mickey in a nightshirt. It was only at that time that dad revealed that he had a Eumig P8, and so, while I enjoyed looking at all the individual frames, dad projected it for me! This was 1976!
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1. Don't know but the first I remember as an experience was Bugsy Malone. Stafford (UK) as apposed to Hanley or Stone. Two picture houses in Stafford. One in Stone and two in Hanley. Went on my tod in the 70's. Don't really remember the year but when I got home I did try to get my folks to go. It was that good.
2. The family, well Dad, had some silent movies, Laurel and Hardy as well as the families regular 8 and super 8 films of our childhood. Shot with a Bell & Howell and all shown on a Ricoh. -
First Movie Theater experience was a Connery Bond film as a 5 year old (I was in the advanced class!), which I've already covered.
Home movies were probably about the same time. The Davidsons, the family across the street, were their own media empire! Mrs. Davidson basically filmed everything on 8mm and that newfangled Super-8 when it came out. The two Moms were close friends, so when Mrs. D. got footage back from the lab we were always invited to the premier.
I loved it! I saw those awful home movies on that tripod screen (Mrs. Davidson was neither Alfred Hitchcock nor John Ford!) and I decided I wanted to make movies too!
I sat down with her at a party when she was in her 80s and I was in my 40s, and I told her I was still at it and I thanked her for her inspiration!
Somewhere on this planet there is a box maybe two feet by two feet by one foot full of Mrs. Davidson's films. Being that my First Day of School for about 4 grades is almost certainly in there I really wish I could get at it!Comment
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Boy that's stretching my memory, but the first Cinema experience or what called the "picture house", was called the "Rosevale" on Dumbarton Road, Glasgow. The film was "The Wreck Of The Mary Deare" 1959. Now the reason I remember this, was the fact that "everyone" back then smoked, what fascinated me was watching the beam of light struggle through the smoke haze to the screen, how it made it was really something. That would be my first long ago memory, my age would have been 7 or 8 years old. Funny enough I found a couple of photos a while back, in saying that my regular was not the Rosevale but the Odeon.
The first time watching a home movie ie someone with a projector, was being invited into a large "childrens home" near where we lived by some of the kids living there around the 1960 mark. I cant remember the date exactly, but we all sat on the floor watching some Disney wildlife film which to be honest did not do much for me, in saying that, watching the projector running was what I remember was more interesting.
As far as anything else regarding home movies it was not until the mid 1970s that I got interested in something, that up to that point I new nothing about.
The "Rosevale" was to the far right just where this photo was taken, it seems strange these days remembering all this stuff
It later became a Bingo Hall...
But the Odeon is the one I remember the most, spent many a Saturday morning going there with friends up to 1964.
The cinema is long gone...
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There was a small cinema less than 10 minutes walk up the road from me when I was born. I don't know when my mother took me for a matinee there. It may have been for Disney's The Parent trap with Hayley Mills or 20,000, Leagues Under the Sea I remember them. As it was what we called a "fleapit" they would not have been first run it later became a bingo hall and recently has been demolished and flats built on the site.
Home movies would have been when we visited my dad's boss and he showed us some standard 8 films he had made of his bungalow in a seaside town.Last edited by Brian Fretwell; December 29, 2021, 06:43 AM.Comment
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The Rex Bedminster Bristol, Saturday mornings ABC minors, Saturday matinees and midweek pictures, happy days and nights.
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I'm pretty sure it was a re-run of either The Love Bug or Dr Who & The Daleks in the 70's. I remember both from being about 5 or so but can't recall which one was first. My parents would take my sister and me to the cinema on Saturday afternoons in the nearby town of Sunderland. In those days there were about 3 or so cinemas to choose from.
After seeing Star Wars in 1977 age 6, I was amazed to discover that my Uncle actually had a real film camera and projector. First film was a 200ft B&W silent of Goofy's Glider, followed that same Christmas by a 200ft B&W silent of Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. My parents had tried to order the 200ft B&W silent of Star Wars but it was always sold out. I discovered Ray Harryhausen by being sent replacements for Star Wars which were invariably Harryhausen films.
A little of topic, but we visited the Odeon that Graham has pictured in Glasgow in 1982when I was 11. Saw Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan in 70mm Dolby 6 track. Hadn't even heard Dolby surround before that and it was a revelation.
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My first cinema experience? I was an awful child running around the auditorium with no idea what was on! The first film that had an effect on me was 'Beyond the blue horizon' (1942) which made two years before I was born, so must have been 're released'. (I was terrified of the elephant stampede.)
The first home movie was a present from uncle John, a 'toy' 35mm projector with several small rolls of what I didn't know was nitrate. Next a 9.5mm Pathe Ace and 'Trigger Law', which I believe almost came as standard with that projector.
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It's fascinating that most of us, thus far, had a cine-nut father (it was usually a "male" thing), so it seems that many of us were to be happily doomed to some kind of involvement in super, standard 8 or other film guages, or even being involved in the very industry.Comment
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Yes Osi, when I came of age, mum (noting my mania) marched me to the local cinema and I was promptly taken on as a tranee projectionist!
That sort of thing that could happen in 1959!
All uncle John's fault.Comment
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I have an early memory of being in the balcony for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the palatial Loews 175th St. in New York City. Built in 1930, the Loews was the third largest movie theater (3,600 seats) in the U.S..
The one I remember more clearly is watching Ghidrah, The Three Headed Monster!
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In my push chair on the banks of the Thames UK. Adam West filming a Batman Road safety film. 20ft of cine magic at least for little me.
Home MovieComment
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Why Doug! You have aged so we'll! (Snickers), Snow White, 1937.... Doug, no wonder you have so much film knowledge!Comment
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First cinema experience. Opening week of Woolwich Granada all I can remember was the chorus girls dresssed up as Granadiers! First film, "Snow White and the 7 dwarfs at age of 4 at Woolwich Odeon with my Dad. Had a seat in the front row of the circle and I was more frightened of falling over into darkness of the stalls than of the wicked witch!! First home movie experience was running short lengths of 35mm film through a "Bing British" toy projector projector hand turned and powered by a torch bulb. Although my first "projector" was a Reflectorscope made by my Dad for me from instuctions in "Hobbies Annual for 1937" It displayed post cards or drawings. I cut out the cartoon strips from comics, Mickey Mouse Weekly, Dandy and Beano. The screen was a sheet hung on a wall. Ken Finch.
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Oh. At the Kinema.. Oliver 1968 in London memorable.Comment
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