What was it like to see a movie in the 1960s or 1970s? I’ve seen a photograph circa 1958 of my local movie theater and it seems like theaters only played two movies at most at a time - is this true? In the photo I’ve seen, the billboard only lists two films. How big of an experience was seeing a new movie prior to Jaws? What I mean is, was there anything like the concept of a blockbuster picture prior to Jaws? How wide was the selection at a movie theater say prior to 1975?
How did word travel about new movies? Were trailers a thing - and did movie trailers play on TV at home if so?
Also, a side question but how big were the James Bond films in the 1960s to early 1970s with your parents if you recall. I’m curious if my grandad (who I never met, who was born in 1920 and died in 1975) might have been into them.
My parents do not remember a lot of the 1960s or 1970s at all and so I’m curious about a world I never go to experience.
Before “Jaws,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” was the big blockbuster and ushered in the disaster film craze (“Gone With the Wind” had made more money, but had been re-released a bazillion times.).
We had these things called, um, newspapers (?) in the '60s and '70s. Big print ads; charts full of listings–a movie ran longer than 2 weeks. There were theaters that were so huge (and had balconies), you could chop them up into a quad-plex and still have leftover space.
Can’t help you with J. Bond, my folks were not movie-goers (occasional drive-in with a back seat full of kids; once was a Matt Helm film–pretty racy.).
If I remember correctly, when I was a kid in the early 70s, all the theaters in town had just one screen (which would have made it confusing if they played two movies at the same time, though there may have been some double features). Eventually, some of them got reconfigured to add another screen(s), while others just closed. (By the way, your question inspired me to check Wikipedia to find out when multiplexes started becoming a thing.)
As I understand it, movie theaters in the old days were more likely to be downtown, and were more likely to be fancy and ornate and seat a lot of people (all in the same auditorium), and going to see a movie had more of the feel of attending live entertainment than it does today. Which I kind of miss.
First of all, the stadium seating that’s common today was unknown, so the person in front of you was at eye level. So if you were a kid and some basketball player sat in front of you, this was a problem. Second, if you wanted to know what was playing and when, you could check the newspaper (most of the theaters had display ads listing the movies they were showing and the show times) or you could call the theater. I remember that they would have a taped announcement of the movies and show times that you could listen to.
Movies are movies. Back in the mid-sixties, Mom would drop me off at one of the movie houses downtown (usually the Crest, although the California and Studio houses also got play) for the afternoon and I’d watch movies. Usually two, an A picture followed by a B picture. It kept me busy and out of trouble for 5 hours or so. I remember seeing my first movie boob when The Blue Max came out in '66. I was 11. No ratings back then, so I saw all sorts of stuff that later would be PG-13 at least, maybe soft R. If I recall correctly, the whole afternoon cost me 1.50, plus popcorn and a soda, so maybe another .50.
Smoking sections? Folks who wanted to smoke just smoked in any old place, back then.
My parents weren’t into Bond films, but I was. They were a thing, a popular one.
As others have noted, there were things back then called newspapers, which were widely available, and they had not only ads for coming attractions and lists of showtimes, but also reviews of movies, to help you decide which pic to see. The sunday edition of these newspapers usually carried extra info about the movie situation.
Duplex cinemas were just becoming a thing in the late 60’s and early 70’s. A movie house would have TWO SEPARATE THEATERS inside. It seemed extravagant, but it gave more choices. Some old move houses were refurbished to provide this same experience. There was some talk about building places with 3 screens, but that just seemed crazy.
Movies had trailers at the beginning, and also some cartoons. Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny were frequently featured. I even recall a few newsreels, but not real often anymore by the time my theater-going experience began.
They also had Drive Ins, but that’s a whole separate experience. One I enjoyed a LOT more once I started dating.
Having watched quite a few older movies, I get the impression that double features used to be more common and that many films were scripted to be shorter, so that a double feature would have kept silenus off the streets for only about three and a half hours.
Again with the smoking theme, I’m sure a major reason for the intermission, or the break between two halves of a double feature, was to give audience members the chance to go out to the lobby and light up.
By the way films were shown on actual film back then. (Today virtually all theaters are projecting films that are transmitted and stored digitally.) For one thing, this meant that there was a signal on the screen (usually a small object that briefly appeared in the image) that told the projectionist to change the reels. If you were in a secondary market, the print you were viewing might have been projected many times and not be in the best condition.
Where I live (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) we at one time (in the 1950s-1970s) had MANY movie theaters within a just say a two to three mile radius. I can think of three off the top of my head. Of those three, only one exists. There were probably more. For whatever reason, this area was, until the late 1970s, a haven for movie theaters.
No. One could smoke anywhere. There were no restrictions. Maybe an operating room and possibly church.
When I started working in the mid-1980s I could smoke in my cubicle, and I did.
I don’t know why you keep saying this. Smoking was a thing in theaters all over the US and Europe, and prohibitions on smoking at the movies did not start until the 1970’s, nor become widespread until the 1980’s.
Intermissions were always about bathroom breaks and selling snacks/drinks (and yes, cigarettes, which would be smoked then AND during the 2nd half of the movie).
I don’t think you see this any more but, the line for, “The Exorcist,” usually ran down the block, around the corner, off into the distance, summer, winter, whenever. First run of, “Deep Throat,” same thing.
I went to movies a lot in the 70s-- not so much in the 60s. I was born in 1967. By the time I was going to PG movies in 1977, most theaters had banned smoking except in the lobby, because theaters were firetraps, and their insurance companies had made them ban it. Live show theaters had banned it even earlier, for the same reason. Drop a cigarette in those wooden seats and flammable cushions, and “FOOM!”
It was normal for theaters to regularly sell close to capacity, and for lines at the box office to be long. You still usually got to sit with your friends, but it was normal to be in close proximity to strangers.
They played previews, movies advertised on TV, and there were ads in the paper. As a courtesy, the paper also published a grid of all the theaters, and all the titles and times.
Malls a lot of times had duplexes, or even quadruplexes. A few large theaters had converted their balcony areas to second run houses, or lower demand movies (“art” or foreign films) but still showed the big films on the big screen.
Candy and soda was more expensive there than anywhere else, but it wasn’t as outrageous as it is now.
If you put your feet on the back of the seat in front of you, an usher would come around and tell you to put them down. You’d do it, then put them right back up as soon as he left.
The floor was always sticky.
Going to a movie was glorious. It was so fun. We had B&W TV and got 7 channels. The movies were so much better than TV.
