JimWagner
Practically Family
- Messages
- 946
- Location
- Durham, NC
skyvue said:My father also told me that in his day (the Forties), they used to give very little thought to the start time of movies. The programs ran without stopping, including a second feature (often), a cartoon, a newsreel, and coming attractions. So they didn't worry about getting there at a particular time -- they just arrived whenever they arrived, and if they walked in on the middle of something, they stuck around until that movie or short played again and watched the part they'd missed.
When I was a kid in the 50's I had a 50 cent a week allowance. For 50 cents I could go to the local movie theater in South Norfolk, VA Saturday afternoons and pay 35 cents admission, get a box of popcorn for 10 cents and a coke in a cup for 5 cents. For that I'd see a double feature, previews, a couple of cartoons, a newsreel and a serial chapter. About 4 hours of entertainment. More if you sat through some of it a second time.
When we moved to a small NC town (Wake Forest) in 1960 my Dad and I used to walk to the movies a couple of times a week. Pretty much every time the movie changed. During the week there weren't too many people who went to the movies and sometimes we were the only customers. If we were late they'd hold off starting the movie until we got there.
We'd always ask if they'd rather close for the evening instead of showing the movie for just 2 customers, but they always ran the movie for us.