Last week I was sitting in the dark at 10:30 am stuffing my face with popcorn. A very strange breakfast you are probably thinking, and you would be correct.
The Wheaton/Herman/Norcross football team was playing in the semifinal championship football game at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis the home of the Minnesota Vikings.
We had the choice of riding a bumpy, noisy school bus three hours to view the game or sleep in that morning and take in the game in our local movie theater.
We chose the latter.
The seats don’t recline like those fancy ones in those modern theaters but there are cup holders and all the popcorn you can eat.
We arrived well before game time so as I was munching on very salty popcorn I had some time to reminisce about the movie theaters in my life.
I am old but not so old that my first movie memories were of the silent kind with a women playing a piano to add to the movie’s drama.
The first theater that I attended was brand spanking new in the little town of Clinton, Minnesota. It was 1950 and a local farmer had just had a bumper crop of flax.
The flax was fetching $6 a bushel and that was a lot of money in 1950. So, the suddenly well to do farmer built a new movie theater in downtown Clinton.
We were poor farm kids, so movie attending was a real luxury for us. The weekly egg check and cream check were required to stretch and provide food, clothes and other necessities for the week. Often times there was no money left over for frivolous things which included a family of five attending the local movie theater.
Occasionally our mother would make a surprise announcement that we would be attending a movie that evening if we got the chores done in time.
Well, there was never any problem getting the chores done after that announcement! The cows got milked, eggs got picked and the sheep, cows, pigs and chickens received their daily supply of food and water.
That was seventy-tw0 years ago and I can still feel the excitement as I anticipated a trip to the movie theater.
We each had our dime for our ticket and a nickel to purchase a candy bar or bag of popcorn.
During those early days of movie viewing there was a show every night of the week. Sometimes if we were lucky there would be a double feature….two movies for the price of one! 🙂
At the beginning of each month a movie guide would arrive in the mail. It was a single sheet of paper and resembled a page from a calendar. It showed each day of the month and announced what movie would be showing each evening.
That valuable piece of paper was hung on the wall and we kids lusted and dreamed of attending every movie.
Of course, that was impossible as we were Catholics and that meant we had to follow the church’s Legion of Decency which was the church’s attempt to evaluate the wholesomeness of the movie.
A movie that was rated A-l or A-2 would be safe for us to view. A-3 movies were a no, no for younger children. If anyone (adult or child) went to a C movie that meant you went straight to hell, no questions asked! 🙁
Being a strong Catholic our mom ruled the roost on movie attendance. Many a time a movie came to town and my classmates were raving about it and I knew I would not have a chance of viewing it because of its rating. But then I didn’t have to worry about going to hell either. 🙂
I often think how our mom would react if she could pop back from her Heavenly realm and attend today’s movies. It would be a short visit I’m sure.
The movie theaters had struggles as television became more popular. It was predicted that movie theaters would not survive. Some didn’t.
The Clinton Theater built from a bumper crop of flax was one of the theaters that did not survive. The farmer eventually closed the theater and turned the building into a storage bin for corn.
Today the corn is gone, and it has become Clinton’s post office.
Movie theaters faced another challenge as the movies went digital and the process of changing to digital cost thousands of dollars.
I remember being so proud of our little town of Wheaton as people stepped up and donated money and we were able to save the theater that seemed destined to join the hundreds of other empty theaters scattered across our country.
The new technology opened new doors for small town movie theaters. Years ago, it would be unthinkable to be able to watch your hometown football team playing in the Vikings home stadium!
What other capabilities and surprises will be in store for the small- town movie theaters?
Only time will tell.
Right now I’ve got a letter to write. This blog reminded me of that Legion of Decency thing with our church and I’ve got a bone to pick with the Pope. I’m sure going to a C movie would not have condemned me to hell!
I had enough things to feel guilty about back in those days with- out piling on ‘going to hell’ C movies! 🙁
Until next time.
