Saturday movies in ENY

My first recollection of seeing a 3-D movie was Charge At Feather River, it was a western, cowboys fighting indians. I always was a big fan of the Indians. The spears and arrows were coming  right at us, I remember ducking about   100 times.We had these cool cardboard glasses with a red lens and a green lens. I think I was 5 years old or maybe 6. I loved the smell of the theatre, and it was  so dark, except for those dim lights along the aisle. The 10 Commandments was  a favorite at the time(1956). Finally me and my best friend Sandy got permission to go to the movies by ourselves.

I am amazed at what age I was allowed to go to the movies without an adult. I think it was  9 years old.  What were my parents thinking?  The theatre of choice  was the Biltmore on New Lots Ave. It was the closest theatre to where we lived. We would usually walk up Van Siclen to New Lots Ave. make a left and the Biltmore was  a few blocks up. We made sure we stopped in Judy's Sweet Shop first, i'd get Chocolate Babies, and Sandy would  usually get Chicken Corn. Thinking back it's so bizarre to be eating the  heads and  legs off of Chocolate Babies.  And Chicken Corn , wtf is that.  It was  triangles of orange , yellow and  a white tip of this sugar corn starch thing,,i think they still sell these things. Well maybe not the Chocolate Babies.  Ok now we pay, I think it was  25cents to get in. 2 movies, 25 cartoons, and a news reel. Of course there were coming attractions.  No advertisements like today. The theatres were big, there was a  big aisle in the middle splitting the theatre in half. That was called "the break". That was the best place to run fast through screaming and yelling when we got bored with the movie.  So we walk in, and the movie theatre is so dark. They had mean old ladies, called matrons, and the meanest guy ever, maybe he was called an usher.  They were armed with flashlights and meanness. We find seats right behind the break, It was real exciting to  be in the theatre watching great movies like The Crawling Eye, The Attack of the Mole People, The Blob, X the Unknown where the main character wore wrap around shades  and when he took them off rays shot out of his eyes. totally awesome. There was a movie I liked with Sal Mineo called Dino, about a juvenile delinquent kid,  oh yeah and  Gunfight at the OK Corral that was a great film. I think at 11 there was  Tom Dooley and another movie with Marilyn Monroe called Some like it Hot. The list goes on and on,but the  Chilly Willy and Woody Woodpecker cartoons were my favorites. Hmmm Tarzan and Abbott and Costello, were good too.

We would walk in while a movie was playing. I dont think there was a such thing as movie times. We would leave when the film reached the part where we came in or we would sit through all the movies again.  We would buy popcorn in the popcorn containers that would  fold flat. We would throw these up into the beam from the projector to the screen. We called them flying saucers. After we threw ours, we would go on a mission and gather  a bunch of already thrown ones. It was a  flying saucer fest. Of course we had our candy to throw also. I think between ages 9 and 13 there was alot of throwing things in movie theatres going on. Some of the older kids would be smoking cigarettes in the theatre,  the matrons were always walking around  shining the flashlights in  their faces or in our faces for throwing things. We were truly fightened of these mean people.  The  mean usher guy got really scary, after a car accident he was in. He  was then  in a wheelchair and semi paralyzed , very scary dude.  Noone was quiet during the movie. We would always be yelling at the screen. Telling the actors what to do.  Or just yelling out  wise-cracks. The movies were a fun place, and  the film itself was the least important part about it. It was so dark that when people left through emergency exits the light from outside was bright. After watching a movie and sometimes  a double feature plus cartoons, your eyes got used to the dark. But when we left through the emergency doors the daylight blinded us. A very memorable feeling of blindness and  just getting over the fear of the  Vampire in the movie we just saw.  Yes there were times when we were  12 or 13 when we would create such a ruckus during the movie that we would get  thrown out. That was always fun. Anyway , our first  meal out by ourselves without our parents was after the movie. We went across the street to Nino's. We had the best veal cutlet sandwich ever. No cheese on it. If i remember, they didnt even have it available with  mozzarella. We would  split the sandwich and get a soda. The waiter was a singing,tipsy old guy.But a very good waiter. Miller High-Life was what most of the adults seemed to be drinking. The bill came and it was  70 cents for the sandwich , with the tip and all it was about $1.50.

We felt  pretty grown up, going to the movies by ourselves and  going to a restaurant without parents. Meanwhile we were 9 yrs old.  That is  crazy.