As they say, ‘back in the day” when I was a kid the movie theaters were my primary babysitters. We had five theaters in my hometown, and all were near where I lived because I mostly lived downtown. It always was a short walk to a “show” as we called them. There was “The Grand”, the “American”, the “Mt. Baker”, the “Avalon”, and the tiny “Peoples” (or the “Peeps” as we called it.) I first started going to the movies by myself when I was about five. They often just let me walk in “Batan” and “The Searchers”. I never remember paying for the afternoon shows. They let me in for free because I was so little. Later on I used to sneak in quite often, but that’s another story.
Mostly I went to see cowboys like Roy Rogers, his wife Dale Evans (and the horse Trigger, of course). There was also Gene Autry, the Cisco Kid, and the Lone Ranger. Sometimes I even sat through the whole show just to see these heroes do their stuff. Later on (during the 1940s) I saw a lot of war movies, like dana Andrews in “Purple Heart”, and “They Were Expendable” about the five Sullivan brothers who all died in one sea battle or another. Of course, there was also John Wayne, who starred in both cowboy and war movies. I especially remember him in “Batan” and “The Searchers”.
There were also shorter adventure series which featured regular characters such “Captain Marvel”, “Superman”, and “Batman”. Of course, every show included a newsreel called “The March of Time”, which I always thought was called “The March of Time”. There were always “Selected Short Subjects” that presented singers or short sports clips. Best of all were the cartoons with “Porky Pig”, “Mickey Mouse”, and “Popeye”. During the war we always stood and sang the “Star Spangled Banner” and even a hate song called “We’re Gonna Have to Slap the Dirty Little Jap and Uncle Sam is the Guy Who Can Do It”, followed by the “Pledge Allegiance to The United States of America”.
I remember seeing “Gone with the Wind” when it first came out. My uncle Dale, who was two years older, and I sat through the first half (without really understanding anything) and were ready to leave when the usher told us that it was only Intermission, so we bought more popcorn and sat down for the second half. I think it was the first movie with an intermission. I vaguely remember Clark Gable saying to the leading lady “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”. It was the very first time an actor ever swore in a movie.
I do in fact clearly remember the very first movie I went to. My stepdad Chuck took me to an afternoon show and while we were waiting for the show to start, I kept on asking him “When’s it going to start?” “In a minute” he kept saying. I had no idea how long a minuet was so I got vey impatient and he became very angry. I also remember when the family we were living with when I was 5 took me to see “The Wizard of Oz” at the local college’s “family night” movies. I think this was my second movie outing and I do not remember much of anything about the movie. I don’t know what my single mom would have done with me without the option of the local movies.
Throughout my youth I kept going to movies and I almost always went alone. In high school I was able to sneak my way into movie theaters, but those tricks will remain my very own secretes. You have to remember that this was all way before television and movies were our chief form of entertainment. Sadly, almost all the movie theaters in my hometown are now gone. In addition to providing inexpensive entertainment, the theaters in our town of Bellingham, Washington provided an excellent baby siter for my mother’s only son.