# What was seeing a movie like in the 1960s-1970s? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 11, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661 "2017-06-11T01:10:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/21 "2017-06-11T02:33:34Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > We had B&W TV and got 7 channels. The movies were so much better than TV. :eek: You had 7 channels! We only had 4, and had to have someone stand by the TV to hold the antenna just right to get two of those! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/22 "2017-06-11T02:34:17Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > 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 got better. > > Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk Yeah. When I was a little kid, you could smoke while shopping at the A&P. You could also go barefoot there. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/23 "2017-06-11T02:37:15Z")
Don’t get me started on A&P; I miss the pickle barrel. ---
**Author:** ![Periwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Periwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Periwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/24 "2017-06-11T02:42:40Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > [TV commercial for “Willard” (1971)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG64o0hJTLg); scared the living shit out of me. It was actually scarier than the movie. > > ETA: Note the rating (GP). Here’s the one that scared the hell out of me (Beyond The Door) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QKqzFb0O_x0/maxresdefault.jpg "Beyond the Door (1974) - Trailer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKqzFb0O_x0) The first movie I remember seeing in a cinema was “Love Story”, that was a big hit in 1970. From what I remember the floor sloped up and there were comfortable padded chairs that flipped up, but I don’t think there were cup holders. I remember the big velvet curtains that swept open at the beginning. I don’t think there was any smoking, I don’t remember it anyway. There were lots of movie trailers on TV, and ads and features in the paper. Similar to today, many actors turned up on talk shows to promote their movies. I think fan magazines were a bigger thing back then too. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/25 "2017-06-11T02:48:23Z")
We had to crank the films by hand over a 120 watt bulb. Only cost a quarter. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/26 "2017-06-11T03:02:04Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > :eek: > > You had 7 channels! We only had 4, and had to have someone stand by the TV to hold the antenna just right to get two of those! 😃 We had seven - Ch. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 - well, 13 was educational and didn’t count, so six (this was N.Y.C.). I was almost electrocuted changing the channel on our Admiral portable B&W with a pair of pliers (the shock instead knocked me partway across the dining room). Anyway, movies don’t seem very different to me now compared to the period the OP is asking about. I think the first movie I saw on my own was _The French Connection_ in a small theater in Times Square which had a brief but exciting glimpse of female nudity.\* Also stimulating was the fact that some of the action took place in the same area where I went to high school. \*On screen, though nudity in the audience would not have been a shocker. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/27 "2017-06-11T03:02:45Z")
In no particular order. Bond films were very big in the 60s and 70s. Smoking was allowed in every theater I recall into the 70s. They might have no-smoking sections. Later they had smoking sections with no smoking the default. Finally it was banned. As I recall it was banned in theaters before it became generally not allowed indoors. In the late 50s you could go to a Saturday afternoon movie that had coming attractions, a short, a cartoon, and episode of a serial and possibly a double feature. Most theaters had only one screen. A movie might be popular enough that there were four showings back to back (possibly with some of the fillers listed above in between). While each theater had only one screen, there were many more theaters. There were four I cold ride my bike to all within a mile of my home, and I lived in a suburb not a city. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/28 "2017-06-11T03:04:20Z")
They played the national anthem before the movie began. Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/29 "2017-06-11T03:05:30Z")
You could often buy movie programs in the lobby for major releases. They were pretty cool souvenirs. I still have the ones I got for 2001, Apocalypse Now, Close Encounters and Ice Station Zebra. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/30 "2017-06-11T03:06:18Z")
> [@Periwinkle](#): > > Here’s the one that scared the hell out of me (Beyond The Door) > > [https://youtu.be/QKqzFb0O\_x0](https://youtu.be/QKqzFb0O_x0) \ Didn’t need to access the video, that’s burned into my memory. Sweet Juliet (“Nanny and the Professor”) Mills and her spinning head. Had an English class in late '70s high school that would show us trailer reels. The whole 50 minutes! So cool! “The House That Dripped Blood, Blood, Blood, Blood…” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/31 "2017-06-11T03:12:55Z")
> [@Reddy\_Mercury](#): > > 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? > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > 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.). There was also _The Exorcist_. That was a huge hit when it came out in 1973 (two years before _Jaws_ and four years before _Star Wars_). ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/32 "2017-06-11T03:27:15Z")
Here are some pics of a local theater that was restored in the '80s. There is a slope to the floor but nothing like in modern theaters. The [Panida](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=662&q=panida+theater+sandpoint&oq=panida+th&gs_l=img.1.1.0l2j0i30k1j0i24k1l7.1272.5805.0.9232.9.9.0.0.0.0.894.1578.5-1j1.2.0....0...1.1.64.img..7.2.1576.loFGlYGmNT0#imgrc=bYYtzbQEqwNeTM:) was built in the '20s so is more of a multi-purpose building than some. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/33 "2017-06-11T03:28:10Z")
Where I lived in the 50s & 60s, the big downtown theaters played only one film at a time on a single screen, but it was preceded by trailers, shorts (cartoons), newsreels, and rarely – ads. You saw one show and left, since a matinee had several hours before the evening show started. Some of the ads were for stuff sold in the lobby; talk about a captive audience. Sometimes you bought tickets early, to be sure of getting a seat, then went for a bite or window-shopping and came back at curtain time. If there was more than one showing that day, the curtain closed and the theater cleared out completely before the next one. In contrast, the suburban theaters, which were also single-screen boxes, would show a double feature, cartoons and newsreels, continuously. Weekdays, this might start at 4PM and go to midnight, but on Saturdays, there was a show from early in the morning to late at night, no intermissions at all. If you came in late for the start of one show, you just stayed until it repeated to see what you missed – “this is where we came in, let’s go”. One ticket got you in for as long as you wanted to stay. Then there were driveins, oh, the driveins! Not usually first-run films, but double or triple features, lots of cartoons, lots of ads for the Salmonella Snack Bar, lots of necking in the front rows and fucking in the back rows. Playgrounds below the screen for kids before dusk. Strangely, family and fun-friendly. For the technically-minded, the suburban houses were 35mm dual projectors with mono optical sound, but the downtown theaters often had 70, 95 or 120mm projectors with multi-track, magnetic sound. Theaters tried to compete with what marginal advantages they had over TV – wider, bigger screens, sharper pictures, color, and better sound. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/34 "2017-06-11T03:35:12Z")
My memories go back to the mid-50s. The kid next door was my best friend, and every Sunday his father took us to the next town and dropped us off at the movie theater. They always showed a double feature of B movies like _The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms_ or _It Came from Outer Space._ Between the movies were newsreels, shorts and of course cartoons. During intermissions we always got more candy or popcorn. The floor was always sticky. After the second movie we’d leave, and my friend’s father would be waiting for us. Sometimes my whole family would go to a movie in a more upscale theater. It was air-conditioned (a really big deal) and had fountains with colored lights and a juke box in the lobby. The one I especially remember was a re-issue of _Gone with the Wind,_ though I think I slept through most of it. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/35 "2017-06-11T03:35:43Z")
They had air conditioning! It was a huge draw. They had a card in the window advertising KOOL cigarettes, “It’s KOOL inside.” On Saturdays there were two movies, previews, cartoons, newsreels, and sometimes a drawing for dishes. Yes, really. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/36 "2017-06-11T03:53:08Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > We had to crank the films by hand over a 120 watt bulb. Only cost a quarter. I saw movies on my GAF\* View Master. One stereo frame at a time. 🙂 - You have to say it like Henry Fonda. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/37 "2017-06-11T03:54:07Z")
Here are photos of my childhood theater, which is still standing and used for other purposes. The interior was all art deco. It is presently in danger of being destroyed. Blockbusters were things like _Spartacus_, _The Ten Commandments_, _Mad, Mad (etc) World_, and a lot of musicals like _Oklahoma_ and _West Side Story_. _2001_ in Cinerama was awesome in 1968. Bond was huge. I saw every one as it came out. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/38 "2017-06-11T05:11:30Z")
The movie experience wasn’t much different. Most theaters only had one screen, the theater might play only one movie for a week or two but often had different movies for early shows. Double features were shown also. The theaters I went to had more seats for that one screen. Some theaters had balconies. You could smoke, the seats had ashtrays. They showed trailers for upcoming movies. Snack bars at popcorn and candy, not as ridiculously priced as now. One theater in town didn’t have a snack bar at all, they had a machine that sold lemonade in those drop down cups and and a candy vending machine. People were better dressed for the evening shows. We had drive in movies also, there the snack bars offered lots of food, hot dogs, hamburgers, milk shakes and fries, some had playgrounds for kids, and seating areas for walk-ins. You usually paid by the person to get in so teenagers would hide in the trunk to get in cheaper. Once there people would get out of their cars and move around and mingle, drink, get in fights, and may not pay attention to the movie at all. There was a lot of sexual activity going on in the cars. My first job was working at a drive-in snack bar, short lived because I was only 14 and not supposed to be working. The food served there was disgusting but the customers didn’t seem to mind. That theater and others in the area were soon showing porn at the late shows, and before long that’s all some of them showed, it wasn’t real XXX stuff, just stuff like Candy Stripe Nurses. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/39 "2017-06-11T05:48:28Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > 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. Wow. We even had those in the late 1990s! I remember being asked on a date after a co-worker was reading a newspaper and saw that a movie she wanted to see was coming out. And then we went and she didn’t even watch the movie! ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661/40 "2017-06-11T05:50:02Z")
My family didn’t watch that many movies. We saw a couple in the local drive in and apparently Bambi was too much for this five-year-old boy. The first movie I saw in Japan was in the early 80s and was probably similar to US movie theaters in the 60s, although there were obvious differences. People would just show up at random times. You would start watching the movie from that point, watch the next movie in the double feature and then the first was again, leaving when you got to the point where you had started. Smoking was allowed of course. It wasn’t banned until much later than in the US. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-seeing-a-movie-like-in-the-1960s-1970s/788661.md?page=3)