Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Memorable Movies

Movies were always a big part of my Mother's and my life.   She had a scrapbook full of articles and photographs of movie stars from the late 1940s/early 1950s.   I could just imagine my Mother in a sweater and skirt with saddle shoes and bobby socks, being the typical teenager swooning over Red Skelton, John Wayne, or whoever else was popular at the time.  I have tons of DVDs of loved films from all eras.  Some I could never live without.

I have some great memories related to movies.

This was one of my Father's favorite stories to retell.  The year would have been about 1973.   I remember my parents taking me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.   I can still see the bright lights of the marquee on the State Theater in Downtown Anderson as we walked in.   In the lobby, a cardboard advertisement showed the characters from the movie.  I stood in the seat between my parents to see the movie.   In one particular scene, Dopey is walking up the steps with a candle holder in his hand.   Just as he is about to open the closed door of the dark bedroom, I yelled out "Just go on in.  Nobody's in there but her."

Another great movie story happened in 1977.  I was eight years old.  A new movie was playing at the theatre behind the Mounds Mall, the only shopping center in Anderson.   My mother, her friend Janet, and I went to see a cheesy film that would spark a frenzy of imagination over the next year.   It had a stupid sounding name, but we went.

I can still see the front lobby of the theatre. Very modern looking with the concession stand along the back. Cardboard cut-outs and poster hung everywhere.  The movie was playing in the right portion of the theatre.   We sat down, waited, watched the previews...

Then the film started.   Big gold letters flying away from us back into outer space.  Gold-colored words scrolled followed the film title into space.  They sat the stage for the action, since we were coming in on the middle part of the story.   Then over our heads, the sound surrounding us, flew a small spaceship being fired on by a humongous spaceship...  And for the next two hours we were sucked into an intergalactic struggle to control the universe.   The story of good vs. evil.   Star Wars became more that just a movie; it shaped the make-up of toys in my toy box.

CSM

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