Movies and Me and the Meme

There's a great movie meme going around, and I've been wanting to do it, but trying to come up with a definitive list of my favorite ten movies makes my brain hurt. So I'm going to share ten memorable movie-going experiences, since that seems to be part of it, too. These are all in the theatre movies, although of course I've seen some on TV in the years since. I may have shared some of these stories in the past. And I've got eleven.

1. Around the World in 80 Days - This was released in 1956, but I think I saw it a year later when it was re-released, so I was four. The family was away on vacation at a hotel in the Catskills (mountains in New York state where there are a lot of resorts) and we all went to see this one rainy Sunday afternoon. All through the movie, I kept telling Shirl that I was sick, and she kept shushing me. When we got back to our room, I had a fever of 104, and spent the rest of the vacation in bed.

2. Old Yeller - 1957 - Jack took me to see this at the Queen Anne Theatre in Ridgefield Park. I remember going and seeing the movie, but I don't remember seeing the end, and I've never watched it again. What I remember most about the day is having to pee and Jack having to take me into the men's room.

3. Sleeping Beauty - 1959 - The first Disney movie I remember seeing in a theatre, also at the Queen Anne. I was 6; I went with my friend Lori, who was 4, and her father. When the wicked queen turned into the dragon, I was scared to pieces, and was very jealous of Lori who climbed right up into her dad's lap, but I was on my own.

4. Sink the Bismarck! - 1960 - Also at the Queen Anne, which years later became a porn theatre. Anyway, this is my first memory of going to a movie without my parents. My sister took me, along with a friend her age and his younger sister. I was 7, so I'm sure I went with the Sibs alone before, but this is the first memory I have of it. A year later, we moved to Bizarro Town, and I started going to the Saturday afternoon movies with just friends right away.

5. My Fair Lady - 1964 - When this first came out, it was being shown in a very fancy theatre in New York City, like a Broadway play, and OldFriend's parents got tickets for opening week. We had to dress up, and wear white gloves and black maryjanes and the whole thing. I remember seeing limos dropping people off at the front, and Mr. O. (as we called OldFriend's dad) bought us each a hardcover program all about the movie.

6. A Hard Day's Night - 1964 - It was in the summer; Lori and I and her cousin Donna, who lived with them every summer, went every day to the town day camp, which was really somebody babysitting groups of kids at the town pool; we all hated it. Anyway, we came home one afternoon and were informed by Shirl and Doris (Lori's mom) that they were taking us to see A Hard Day's Night at the Paramus drive-in! And may I add !!!!!!!!!!!!! The three of us started screaming and did not stop until the movie was over, even though it rained through most of it. It was sublime.

7. Romeo and Juliet - 1967 - My high school best friend and I ordered tickets and went into the city to see this on a school vacation right after it opened. The theatre was right next to the Plaza Hotel. The entire audience was composed of 14 to 16 year old girls; we all sighed and sobbed in complete unison, and were all delighted at the sight of Leonard Whiting's exquisite behind.

8. Easy Rider - 1969 - The Warner, in Ridgwood. It was Christmas Day, the same high school friend and I were literally the only two people in the theatre. Just before the movie started, the Star Spangled Banner started to play. This was extremely surreal, and we looked around in the dark for some kind of explanation, but finally we just stood up and waited until it was over and then watched the subversive movie.

9. Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange - 1975 - WORST DOUBLE FEATURE OF ALL TIME, CASE CLOSED. The Hubs and I saw this on a date at the Oakland Duplex. I had my hands over my eyes through both movies.

10. Star Wars - 1977 - At the Warner in Paramus on Rte. 4. I had just started teaching in February, and one of the kids who hung out in the library told me about this incredible movie, which was already getting lots of hype, but he was telling me how it looked like an action film but was really about the classic struggle between good and bad, and all the mythic archetypes in it, so one Sunday morning, the Hubs and I went to see it. Well of course the place was full of screaming kids and we walked out of there thinking "Eh." When we saw it again, we got it. Also, when it was re-released a year or so later, I took eldest nephew to see it at the Paramus drive-in, his first movie ever.

11. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 1977 - Somewhere in Paramus with the Hubs. I totally loved this movie. On the way home, I kept my eyes on the sky, as if I was looking for the mother ship to land in New Jersey.

WATCHING YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN :: ENTRY #1860
READING: The Professor and the Madman by ??