Life as it was lived then

[JimWagner]

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.

 

[Atomic Age]

Not long ago at flea market, I was reminded, upon viewing some movie theatre flyers, of something that's changed a great deal in just three or four decades.

These were flyers that listed two weeks worth of films showing at a particular theatre. The one I liked best (but resisted purchasing) included an Elvis movie (LOVE ME TENDER, I think it was), TEENAGE REBEL and THE BEAST FROM HOLLOW MOUNTAIN. Each movie was playing only a couple of days. Such was the practice of neighborhood theatres back in the day, with only bigger, fancier downtown theatres running movies for a longer period of time.

Can you imagine non-blockbuster movies today opening in a town and playing a single theatre at a time, going from neighborhood to neighborhood, staying at each theatre only a few days at a time?

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.

From the early 1930's, through the mid 1960's each major studio produced 52 "A" feature films a year. One for each week.

In most of the big cities, the first run theaters were owned by the studios. Many of the second run theaters were as well. When a new film finished its 1 week run in the premiere theater in town, they would simply move it to a lessor theater and it would run for another week or so. If a film was a particularly big hit, it would stay in the premiere theater for a few weeks, and the new films coming out would go into the next theater down on the chain. Remember these were the days when 90% of Americans went to the movies at least once a week. Most everyone who was going to see the movie had seen it in the first week or so.

The idea of not letting anyone in after a movie started, didn't really start with Psycho, it really began with This Is Cinerama in 1952. For that film not only did you have to be there on time, but you had an assigned seat. You were also expected to "dress" for the film. Many people came dressed in tuxes and fancy dresses. After that the of the Road Show film continued that idea with films like Ben-Hur, Oklahoma! and Lawrence of Arabia. Psycho was however the first wide release film to have the no entry after the movie starts policy.

Another thing that you don't see today, smoking in the movie theater. Up to the 1960's, movie theaters were a cloud of smoke by the end of the feature! Can you imagine being trapped in that room with all these people smoking? Thats one thing I don't miss about the golden age! lol The other thing you don't see anymore is the re-release. With home video you just don't see films getting a re-release anymore.

Doug

 

[Mario]

Trine?

It's probably a bit late to chime in on this one, but my ex was called Trine, short for Katrin (German form of Catherine). It's commonly found in the south of Germany only, almost never in the north. To the ears of people from the coastal regions this name would sound rather outlandish - and it would surely raise a smile (or a grin, to say the least).

 

[skyvue]

It's probably a bit late to chime in on this one

Never too late -- thanks for the info!

 

[Puzzicato]

I'm re-reading Edith Pargester/Ellis Peter's Death and the Joyful Maiden (published 1961 - so more rooted in the 50s than the 60s) at the moment and I've noticed a few things:
* The wealthy Kitty Norris is described as wearing " a cloud of nylon" to a dance. It struck me because I don't think of nylon as a luxury fabric now, but it obviously was then!

* When someone is asked to describe a man that he saw at the crime scene, he specifically says that the man was not wearing a hat. So hat wearing was still very common.

* Kitty's car (a Kharmann Ghia) doesn't have a petrol gauge, it has a reserve tank. I've never heard of that before!