My parents always took us to the drive in and we saw tons of wonderful movies — Spencer’s Mountain, Shenandoah, Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, all those Blubber movies with Fred McMurray, but i think the first moviehouse movie would have with the the Girl Scouts and how those who sold a lot of cookies got to see a free movie. I remember seeing 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and just being amazed!

my 1st one was “beyond the valley of the dolls”. it was a drive in (and my parents thought i would fall asleep). they got a call a couple of days later after i told ALL about in show and tell the following day. still makes me laugh- and i have it on dvd now. still traumatized by “bambi”.

Interesting Dona. My sister and I were given a quarter every Saturday, for an ice cream soda and a double feature at the local (Chicago) movie theater. How could I forget…Busbly Berkley, we went every Saturday for years, AND had the soda. Movie fan ever since!

I can’t remember the first movie — however, I do remember the first Broadway show — it was called “Wish You Were Here” it was about a resort in the Catskill Mountains. As far as movies, I used to go every Saturday and meet all my friends there, I remember a scary movie and a kid on my block was in the theatre — when I walked home it was dark, he hid in the driveway and jumped out at me, boy did I get scared.— I remind him of this all the time.

Reading so many comments reminds me there are a lot of movies I may have to rent or add to my DVD collection. I was born in 1958 but I very clearly remember going into a theatre to see 101 Dalmations. I don’t remember too much more than being carried in by my dad who was wearing a suit while my mom held my older sister’s hand at the ticket booth. A few years later w/ clearer memory I remember all the details going to see Mary Poppins. My older sister and I were the priveledged kids on this trip(based simply on age). I remember going w/ my parents to my grandmother’s apartment and dropping my younger sister and brother off to spend the night there. Then walking w/ my parents up to the brightly lit ticket booth at the little movie theatre in Santa Monica that was on Montana. I remember sitting up close to the front and sitting w/ my sister in the seats between my parents. I remember thinking how handsome Dick Van Dyke was. We enjoyed all the music and, looking back, it’s amazing that a musical could hold a child’s attention like that. The scenes that I believe stood out the most was that remarkable scene that seemed like magic to have Dick Van Dyke dancing with the cartoon penguins and the “I love to Laugh” song where they floated to the ceiling. That was a very special night… I wonder if I stayed awake all the way to the end. Doesn’t matter though. Here I am at just about 50 years old and it still ranks as one of my favorite memories.

I started going to movies before I could tell which was the movie and which was my life. So I don’t remember my first movie. I do remember seeing Peter Pan and playing one of the roles in Peter Pan with several friends on and off for months afterward. It was a film that went on giving, if you were four years old. But around the same time I was going every Saturday morning to a matinee, and one time they showed the 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. It was completely terrifying to me for some reason. I had nightmares for a long time after. At that age, I was much more content with Howdy Doody. A puppet you could count on.

My grandmother took me to see Cinderella. I will never forget the experience and love movies today. LOVE going to see kids movies with MY grandchildren as well. Keeps me young.

My grandmother took me to see Cinderella. I will never forget the experience and love movies today. LOVE going to see kids movies with MY grandchildren as well. Keeps me young.

The one and only movie I saw when I was young, was SAMSON AND DELILAH, starring Victor Mature. It played at an ornate theater, located not far from my paternal grandparents home. The old movie house ran cheap Saturday matinees; usually old movies of the forties. I was twelve years old, and I remember the terrible anxiety I felt, knowing my mother did not want my sister and me going to the movies, while my father thought it was ‘high time’ we did something ‘regular’ on Saturdays; something most ‘normal’ kids would enjoy, rather than the ‘high minded’ activities, which my mother preferred. Knowing my mother disapproved of the movies, my father ‘fibbed’ to my mother that day, telling her we would be visiting his parents. Instead, he dropped us off at the theater, gave us extra money to buy as much popcorn and candy as we could eat, then to pacify my anxiety, he explained that because it was a ‘Bible’ movie, that we should not worry. “Your Mother won’t be upset,” he promised. But, I knew she would be upset. And, I did not enjoy the movie. I would not see another movie in a theater until I was eighteen years old. There was an ongoing ‘culture’ war in our home, because my mother made sure we attended afternoon theater productions at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, or at other concert halls whenever possible. In fact, I vividly remember SHOWBOAT, the first theatrical production I saw, and SWAN LAKE, my first ballet. And, summers, we spent on the lawn of Philadelphia’s, Robin Hood Dell band shell, where Eugene Ormandy conducted the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra. Music, theater, art, and museums were the only ‘cultural’ activities deemed appropriate by my mother, who was brought up in a rich intellectual circle of African American scholars. The ‘movies’, was deemed too provocative and inappropriate in my mother’s social culture. My father had other ideas. He was from a ‘bawdy’ background. His father owned neighborhood supper clubs, beer gardens, and did well selling bootleg during prohibition. Also, my grandfather was in the ‘numbers’ business. The contrasts in my parents social background could not have been more extreme. Ironically, my paternal grandfather had more wealth than my paternal grandfather, even though my paternal grandfather was a college professor, and contributing editor/writer of THE NEGRO DIGEST, He was among the African American Intellectuals of the 20’s & 30’s including W.E. Du Bois. At home, my father seemed more ‘flexible’ than my mother, and he appeared to tolerate her parenting beliefs with less resistance than what my mother exhibited in response to the types of things he thought we should do. Subsequently, the disparity between my parents was often tense. Often, my father simply ignored my mother’s sometimes ‘belittling’ criticisms. Worse, were the times my father - out of defiance - would show up at our ‘formal’ Sunday dinner table wearing only an undershirt. Dad simply wanted us to have ‘fun’. He bought us the latest popular toys and games (without censor), no matter how much my mother complained - (including, sling-shots, cap-guns, and be be guns, for my brothers; hula hoops, and lots of ‘make-up’ kits, and skates for me and my sisters). And to irritate my mother, he made sure we had the latest comic books, and … he bought us bubble gum!!! Ha! I’ve sort of gotten ‘off topic’. However, looking back, I realize that my parents gave us a ‘good balance’. I think my younger siblings born after the mid 50’s benefited more from ‘popular’ culture. Most were in Phoenix by the time they were old enough to go to the movies, or roller-skating, for example. And … Mother had certainly ‘mellowed’ in her parenting. Actually, although I knew that my mother wanted to be an opera singer before she met and married my father, I discovered that she ALSO had a interest in the ‘alternative’ (devil) entertainment of her era. She was 80 years old when she confessed that she had been on several soirees to Harlem’s, popular SMALLS PARADISE, and THE COTTON CLUB. Ha!!! No wonder she fell in love with my father.

we used to go to the “free shows” cass bartnik had at m-53 and m-81. he had a gas station and junkyard, and he used to put up a big screen. i don’t know how we got the sound into the cars—i was little then. dad would have us kids wash the windshield with old newspapers and vinegar, and mom would make lots of popcorn. there were 5 of us kids. first would come the cartoon—one that left a permanent impression was from the great depression in which the whole countryside dried up, and a man paid a huge bundle of money for a cartoon sized (big) drop of water. usually the cartoon was followed by an episode of tiger woman or some other such. then the main feature would come on. by then it was dark enough to see it really well. i saw “giant” that way.

It was Cinderella—with no doubt. I identified with her, because she did all the menial work at her house while the ugly stepsisters & their mother were mean to her. That’s how I saw myself with my emotionally “ugly” sister, brother & mother always being mean to me. I dared not dream that Cinderella’s ‘happy-ever-after’ would happen to me—but I looked for a way to survive emotionally from her example & I found it. I’m not good with animals like she was with the birds, mice, etc , but I recall distinctly that they said Cinderella did not change her happy & kind attitude even though she got mean treatment from others. No. She stayed happy & kind herself despite all the meaness done to her—it said so in the book too—which I got at the library. I remember begging for & getting the Cinderella watch for Christmas. It’s my favorite childhood gift—usually I got only things that Mom wanted me to have. I still have it in my jewelry box. I’ve fallen down on Cinderella’s example a few times in my life—& become mean & hateful in return for the same treatment from others—but I always get back up eventually.

Star Wars (the original) I lived on a farm and we never went to the movies…I went to BGSU to stay with an aunt for Little Sibs weekend and she took me to see Star Wars. I was amazed, it was the best of the time.

JUNGLE BOOK - I was so frightened, crying and screaming so hard, the manager made my brother take me home.