What is the first movie you remember seeing? How old were you? What, if any, special memories do you have of that occasion?
The first movie I remember watching was E.T. It was at the drive-in, of course. I was around 7 years old. The great thing about this occasion was that there was a double feature at the drive-in. The second movie was Stripes. My Mom told me I had to crawl in the back of our old station wagon and go to sleep. I covered up, but left enough room to peek out the side. What a great film for a seven year old boy!
Back around 1965, when I was about 4, my grandmother took me to see “That Darn Cat” at Radio City Music Hall (back when they still showed movies… they stopped doing that when I was in high school).
I’m pretty sure that was the first movie I ever saw, but I don’t remember a dang thing about it!
I can’t be sure of this. I was pre-school for sure. The only theater in town was visible from the back porch at my grandfather’s house, where we were living at the time. The screen of the theater was visible from the street! Like those drive-ins that you could see from the road – I never have figured out the “logic” for that.
So, anyway, the movie I first saw was either a war movie or a newsreel of actual combat situations. I don’t know. But I do seem to recall bits and pieces of Red River that had John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, John Ireland, etc. This had to be later than that first glimpse (the war movie) since I would have been school age when it came out.
There was some Red Skelton movie (no idea which) that I saw that scared me real bad. I had nightmares over it. It was a comedy, no doubt.
There’s also a vague memory of seeing Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night but it would have to have been a rerun since that movie came out many years before I was born. I do remember seeing it (being in the theater with it) with my aunt in Birmingham.
I also have vague memories (it may even be from seeing the posters at the theater and not the movies themselves) of Duel In The Sun and Blood On The Moon. I have checked IMDB for the dates on all these and they seem to fit with my memories.
P.S. While I was browsing IMDB I noticed a news item that says Charles Bronson is on his death bed.
“Mary Poppins.” 1977. I remember the year because there was a trailer before the movie for “Star Wars.” I was terrified that they were going to show “Star Wars.” I kept tugging my dad’s sleeve going “But where’s Mary Poppins? Isn’t this supposed to be Mary Poppins? I don’t want to see that.”
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the second time it was on. I was almost 3. All I remember is crying when he had no friends, and when the dentist elf popped up my family tried to tell me “Look he’s got a friend” but I was in hysterics and remember nothing else. Hell I WAS young.
According to my mother, I spent most of the summer of 1977 in a movie theater, because it was hot and the local cinema was having a Disney movie fest. I remember none of this.’
The first movie I actually remember seeing in a theater was The Empire Strikes Back, which is still, to this day, my all-time favorite.
Heehee, we waited in line for 5 HOURS for Empire Strikes Back (opening day) and would have waited 12. We’d been dying to see it for years…Star Wars really changed the world; I kid you not - I was 12 I think and nothing was the same after it came out…
I was about 3 or 4 and I saw Star Wars on a film projector in our living room. The first movie I remembered seeing in theatres was E.T. which would have made me 5 or 6.
The Green Slime when I was 5 or 6, at the now torn down Joy Theater. My mom dropped my brother and I off. It cost $0.45 to get in, and cokes were a dime!
Snow White when I was a little over two. Apparently the folks were concerned I’d be fussy and squirlly, but I guess as soon as the characters appeared on screen and the music started, I was enchanted and stared wide-eyed the whole hour and half.
I have vague memories of the event, but as I’ve seen the movie several times since it’s hard to really know what I remember from then vs. later.
When I was 5 we were on vacation in the Wisconsin Dells and my parents took us to the drive-in to see Bambi.
I remember my dad backing our station wagon into the space and opening up the back so we could all sit and watch the movie. And IIRC we were all in our pajamas.
My first movie in a theater was Freaky Friday, the original one, released in 1976. I was six years old at the time. It was played at a theater that specialized in Disney and other children’s fare.