Some Like It Hot
We went to see The Lion King in 3D on Sunday afternoon. We’d seen it awhile back when it first came out. It’s really a good animated movie. One of Disney’s best I think. I can't get through it without crying though.The theatre wasn’t really full. There were some kids of course, but not enough to be noisy like some theatres can be.
They gave us 3D glasses when we bought the tickets. They look like Clark Kent glasses, but they are much better than the cheap ones they used to hand out. These were in plastic bags and we were allowed to keep them. Of course, The Lion King 3D comes out on DVD on the 4th of this month, so I'm sure that is why we were allowed to keep the glasses.
I was looking around and started remembering when my dad used to take us to the movies when we were little. I'm sure he really wanted to go and enjoy the movie alone and not have to take little kids with him. He would get ready to leave and we started begging to go with him. We had no idea what movie he was going to, definitely it wasn't a kid movie, but we still just wanted to go.
He'd say one of us could go and then since we'd all be standing around hoping to be picked to to, he'd say, "Well, get him/her ready and he/she can go too." He'd wind up taking two or three of us with him.
I don’t remember going to any cartoon movies. If Pop was going to the movies, he was going to see something he’d been wanting to see. He wasn’t taking us to see some cartoon for kids and he, for sure, wasn't about to sit in a theatre full of screaming kids. He could hardly stand his own screaming kids at home!
One time I was along when we went to see a western movie. I only remember bits and pieces of it. I still don’t know what the name of it was or who starred in it. I just remember a cowboy was trying to put out a fire on a ranch or something.
Then there was a movie where a guy was trapped in the cargo hold of a boat and it was sinking. I think the guy who was trapped was played by Jack Lemon. Anyway, the boat was being abandoned. People would come down and talk to the guy and say their goodbyes. They gave him some whiskey and he said he might as well drink it, he couldn’t go anywhere. I think I finally found out years later that the name of that movie was “Fire Down Below”. And by the way, not to spoil the ending for anyone, but the cargo shifted and Jack Lemon’s legs came loose and he escaped.
The final scene was of him limping into a bar where his girlfriend interest (Rita Hayworth) and partner/friend (Robert Mitchum) were and then the looks on their faces when they saw him. I guess more was going on, but it was way over my head at the time and probably still is. I've looked the movie up on the internet and could probably watch it now and understand it.
Those are the only two movies I even remember seeing. They were not for kids and I used to fall asleep. It was pretty boring. But, every time Pop was going to the movies, I always stood in line to see if I got picked to go. I’m not sure why I wanted to put myself through that every time. I don't even remember if we got a soda or candy or popcorn!
Later on, he didn’t go to movies much and I can’t remember my parents going to a movie together. I know when we were younger, Mom stayed home with my two younger brothers. When Pop took two or three of us with him, it probably gave her some time without a houseful of kids.
When we got older, my mother would take us to the local drive-in theatre every Saturday night. Pop never came along. He definitely would not have been trapped in a car full of kids at a drive-in.
The drive-in was called the Midway Drive-in. On Saturday nights a car full of people could get in for $1. And everyone got a Lucky ticket.
Lucky was a game which was like bingo. At intermission they would call the lucky numbers and you punched out the ones you had. If you had 5 numbers in a row, across, up and down, or diagonally, you won. You’d go up to the concession stand for your prize. Someone in our car won $25 one night. There were other prizes too. I can’t remember how many games were played.
One thing I always hated about theatres then was that someone taller would always sit in front of me and I’d be moving from side to side trying to see the movie. How nice it would have been to have had the stadium seating that theatres have now! I might not have slept through those movies that Pop took us to and I might have known just how Jack Lemon got trapped in a cargo hold with a bunch of bottles of booze in the first place.
More later........
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