On Saturdays, our goal as kids was to get to the movie matinees, Girls helped with housework.
Who knows where the boys went, off to some secret club house. Then every kid in the neighborhood went to morning confession at Church. I can still hear the whispering and kids nudging each other as we all lined up to recite our itty bitty transgressions. Do you think the priests took cat naps as we chanted our soft litanies? A priest I knew said that hearing children's confessions was like being nibbled to death by ducks...
But, back to the subject at hand as there is lots to tell. After the morning's activities the procession of kids would begin at one end of the Village, and like the Pied Piper more and more would join in, the matinee calling to us like a mermaid's siren.
No adults included, thank you very much. Just us kids.
Do these photos jog your memories?
Notice something about these photographs?
My earliest recollection of those theaters was being taken by my grandmother Delphina when I was still very young to see Snow White.I think it was showing at the Strand. It's second release was in 1944. I would have been 4 years old.
I do know that the witch scared me (in Snow White....not my grandmother).
Once inside the theatre, there was a steady hum of chattering as everyone jostled for seats.
Frazzled ushers tried to keep everyone calm.
Frazzled ushers tried to keep everyone calm.
Old ticket stub from the Park Theatre from Marty Martin...precious momento.
Next post: a whole lot of interesting facts about these theatres and their ancestors.
Of course, more about us, too.
When I think of the movies I have many memories.Today I want to talk about hurricanes and the movies.My mother was always at the movies during a hurricane.The day before the big hurricane of 1938 she and my godmother took the children to the Park to see Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.When the lights dimmed, my brother started to cry.My mother went home and left me with my godmother.The man at the ticketbooth gave her a pass and my godmother convinced her to go the next day as she would babysit the kids. We all know the hurricane was not predicted. The manager came on the stage to tell the patrons they had to go home as there was a raging storm outside. Her tale of the ordeal the Jackson-School Street Bus experienced to make its way up School St. was not only harrowing but miraculous! The poor bus had to use all the side streets as there were loads of trees down on School St. It made it to the corner of School and Purchase when it ran out of luck. My mother had to walk the rest of the way as my father was coming down the street with his umbrella inside out. I remember vividly looking out my godmother's window anxiously waiting for her to come home as the huge tree on the Rico property went crashing to the ground. What an ordeal our reunited family had to get up the side stairs to our house was hilarious and rather fun.The wind kept pushing us down the steps.
ReplyDeleteDuring the hurricane of 1944 I was with her in the State Theater. This time the bus made it all the way up School St.We were given passes.I even remember the movie we saw with the pass Lady in the Dark with Ginger Rogers. R
Arlene, just a wonderful story.
ReplyDeleteam looking forward to the next post of these wonderful theaters!! As I grew up on the east water street end of what might have been called the portugese village! Marty
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