Those of us now in our fifties and
sixties who were Southern born and raised in rural or small town
settings probably remember going to the movies when we were kids.
As for me, we lived around Huntsville during the mid and late
forties when it was a much smaller place--before the boom, I suppose
one could say. There were two movie houses in downtown
Huntsville at that time, and I think I've forgotten the names of
both, but not the good times I enjoyed while there. From the
time I was ten years of age, at the tail-end of 1945 (if not
before), I was allowed to ride the local bus and go to the movies on
Saturdays by myself. This went on until I was almost 12 and we
moved to another community. During the time I saw all these
movies, we lived at Farley in a village, called Red Stone Park for
arsenal workers and military families. My dad was a guard at
one of the gates. Redstone Park was torn down in the late
fifties /early sixties to make room for some type of manufacturing
plant, maybe Western Telephone. I attended Farley Junior
High which is now an elementary school in----ah, but I digress---
I was a bit of a tomboy; I traded
comic books (bought new for ten cents each), played marbles with the
boys until I lost all I had, rode their bicycles, climbed trees, AND
loved cowboys movies! My parents were older than some when they
married and started a family, and I had a twin brother and sister
almost five years younger than me. I think my mother started
letting me go to these movies because: 1. I begged and begged, 2. It
was probably nice to be rid of me for a time, 3. For 50 cents
I could ride the bus to town and back, see a movie and get a bag of
popcorn, or do without the popcorn and see two movies which I
usually did.
Needless to say, Saturday was my
favorite day of the week, and the memories of those Saturdays spent
watching my favorite western movies stand out as sharply as anything
I've ever experienced. Just walking into the big, dimly
lighted cool room was magical; I felt as if I had stepped into
another world. I found my seat on the front row or at least
very near it and soon a big cheer went up; the lights went out, the
curtain parted and the show began. Just to get us warmed up
there was always previews of coming attractions, a Looney Tunes
cartoon, gigantic full color pictures of all the goodies at the
snack bar and part 13 of a 62 part serial always leaving the hero
falling off a cliff.
Now on to the main feature; there
was Lash LaRue, dressed in black and a pure menace to the bad guys
with that whip he always carried. Of course next came Sunset
Carson, tall, with black curly hair. I saw him "live" one time
when he and his horse appeared on stage at the theater. I must
mention Red Ryder and Little Beaver, Monte Hale, Jimmy Wakely, and
Alabama's own Johnny Mac Brown. My favorites were everyone
elses also; Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. When they were
both playing on the same Saturday, well--- that was just about as
good as it got. There were many others whose names and faces
have escaped me now, and many who were not the stars were still fun
to see. Gene's sidekick was Smiley Burnette, Roy's was Gabby
Hayes, the lovely Dale Evans, and those wonderful musicians whose
beautiful harmony I can never forget, the Sons of the Pioneers.
I remember the spring school had
just turned out for the summer and I had been promoted to the fifth
grade; measles was making its rounds through the community. My
younger brother and sister had succumbed and somewhat recovered.
Both my main heros (Roy and Gene) were appearing at the theaters the
following Saturday in one of their latest action-packed "shoot-'em-ups".
I was very excited and looking forward to a day of sheer enjoyment.
About the middle of the week I noticed I didn't feel really well,
but I just knew I'd be fine by Saturday. Saturday morning
rolled around and I rolled out of bed, red and bumpy and stinging
all over-yep, a full-blown case of the old fashioned red measles!
Needless to say, I did not make it to the movies that week.
Sometime before these fabulous
forties came to an end, an entirely new way to watch movies came on
the scene ; the Drive-In Movie. What a novel idea, sitting in
the comfort (?) of one's automobile while watching a movie. My
dad did not think very highly of many modern ideas, but obviously
this was one to which he had given some thought and he finally
decided the family should go and try it. I have no idea of
what movie we saw or what kind of vehicle we had, but as I recall,
once is all we ever went as a family. Of course as I grew
older and was allowed to go with boys in cars, (a dangerous
combination) as long as there was more than one couple, I did get to
go to the Drive-In theater. After a couple of decades, more or
less, these, too, became a page in history as more TVs were in homes
and better (?) more expensive movies were being made.
"Gone With The Wind" was made in
1939 and it was and still is a great epic. It came to
Huntsville during the forties and my " movie" phase. I
had seen the previews on a Saturday and of course begged to go see
it. I did get to go see it, but I certainly did not understand
much of it at that tender age. It was big and beautiful,
though; in gorgeous color and LONG .
During this time of attending
movies, which covered a period of two years or less, I was 10 and 11
years of age, but was very tall and growing. After a while the
tickets sales girls started asking me if I were twelve. That
would have caused me to have to pay adult admission which was forty
cents to get in instead of ten. They asked me almost every
week and I know they surely remembered me from one week to the next.
I always told them my age, when I was born, etc. For some reason,
this made my dad very angry, I mean, it burned him up, and he said I
should start taking my birth certificate to the movies. I
believe I did a few times, but when I took it, they would not ask my
age. I think once is all I ever showed it to them.
Alas, just before I was 12, we fell
on tougher financial times and moved away from there to a more rural
community which had no local bus service and soon the "movie" phase
gave way to the "boy" phase.
