Another Family History Question - What was the first movie I went to, and what was the price of the ticket?

The first movie I remember going to and what was the price of the ticket.

The first movie I remember going to I was three years old.  It was a drive in.  We went as a family in an old white Rambler station wagon.  We children all had our pajamas on.  I don’t remember the price, what 3 year old would?  But the movie was “The Music Man”.   I checked the release date of the movie, just now while typing this and it was 1962, so that coincides with the time of my memory.  My parents purchased the soundtrack of this movie as a record, an LP, which stands for “long playing”.  My siblings and I listened to it often and I soon memorized all songs.   

This is the image that was the cover of the record case.

My Grandad Martini would sometimes take my siblings and me to the newest movie.  Usually he would take us to dinner first.  I remember going to see “The Sound of Music” with him.  It was at a fancy theater with balconies and chandeliers.  Brenda couldn’t go that time because she was sick.  We later got the record for that show too, and while singing to it I was telling Brenda about some of the scenes.  She felt very left out.  In those days, you couldn’t just watch it when it came out on video, there was no video or Netflix or anything like that.   Sometimes a couple of years later a movie would be shown on TV as a special event. 

I remember going to Grauman's Chinese Theater with my granddad to watch “Jungle Book” when it was newly released.  That was a posh theater too, with the hand and footprints of movie stars in the concrete.  As I’m writing this, I realize that the reason we attended these types of theaters with Grandad was because those were the theaters where the openings would occur.  Then later the movie might be shown at theaters out of the main city and such.  Our grandad really liked to be cutting edge.

This is an image of the inside of the Grauman's Chinese Theater.

One of my favorite actors. The outside of the theater.

There was a shopping mall a couple of miles from our home in Woodland Hills.  The Fallbrook Mall.  I could ride a bike there.  It seemed like a long adventure to get there, but I’ll bet it wasn’t more than three miles, probably less.  It was 50¢ for a movie.  I don’t think that was just the matinee price, but it might have been.  Saturday matinees were popular for me and my siblings or friends to attend.  We saw many Disney movies there.  It was usually a double feature.  Generally some type of cartoon with a live action show.  I remember seeing all the Kurt Russell movies, “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and that whole series of movies. 

TV was our frequent entertainment.  Shows were certain days and certain times.  There was no TiVo or even recording of shows.  It was when the station decided and if you missed it, you had to wait until the summer re-runs.  Generally a season of a TV show, like Hogan’s Heroes, for example, would run from September or October to about April or May and then that time slot would be filled with re-runs until the new season.  Hogan’s Heroes was one of our family favorites.  My dad especially enjoyed it.

But as far as movies, I would go to those Saturday matinees more often than I would go to an evening show.  I remember when I was about 15 a group of girls, my sister Brenda included, wanted to go see “Jaws”.  The PG rating was fairly new.  I think it may have even been originally GP.  I remember there being an “M” rating for “Mature”.  Anyway, Jaws was rated PG.  Brenda and I asked our dad for permission to go.  He cautioned us against going due to the violent nature of the film.  But he left the decision up to us.  It was one of the very rare times my father let me choose.  Brenda was going and I didn’t want to be left out either.  It was a terrifying movie for me.  I felt sick to my stomach and sick in my heart for days.  I did try to pay better attention to my dad after that. 

“Jaws” was one of the first “disaster” movies that seemed to be popular in the 70’s.  There was a rash of movies about burning buildings, flooding ships, airplane crashes and such.  Even though there were survivors in those movies, there wasn’t a lot of great moral courage displayed.  Recently as a family we watched, “Dante’s Peak”.  A friend loaned it to me.  It’s filmed in Wallace and scenes at Mirror Lake, which was the appeal of watching it.  But it was the same thing – not much depth, just terror, and at times stupid terror.

I’ve always loved musicals.  I like most of the Roger’s and Hammerstein’s musicals.   For years my favorite Cinderella was the Roger’s and Hammerstein’s version.  But my most favorite Cinderella movie so far is “The Slipper and the Rose”.  The music for that one is the Sherman brothers.  That was supposed to be the movie we watched for our first date, Dad and I.  But then it was sold out at the MC at Ricks College.  So we went downtown Rexburg to see an old one being replayed at the theater, “The Gnomemobile.”  I guess I can share more of that when I answer the question about my first date with Dad.

The blessing of technology to save old movies has brought other favorites to me like “Singing in the Rain”.  My first time seeing that was on video.  Other old movies brought to us on video are the Frank Capra ones.  Probably my most favorite movie of all time is “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  The first time I saw that one was when Dad was a BYU student and they showed it in the MARB.    I like almost all of Capra’s.  I like the “Thin Man” series of movies.  We have some other good family favorites.  I guess I could think of what my top ten are, but I won’t worry about doing that here and now.