# Your first movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370 "2003-08-15T12:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![moejuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@moejuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejuck)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/1 "2003-08-15T12:05:07Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/2 "2003-08-15T12:12:43Z")
Jungle Book, in the cinema, when I was about 3. I loved it, and I still do. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/3 "2003-08-15T12:29:03Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/4 "2003-08-15T12:33:32Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/5 "2003-08-15T13:21:23Z")
Probably **Sleeping Beauty** when it first came out. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/6 "2003-08-15T13:25:11Z")
_Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country_, 1991. Age: 11 ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/7 "2003-08-15T13:34:56Z")
“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_.” Julie ---
**Author:** ![Anniee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@Anniee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/8 "2003-08-15T13:50:17Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/9 "2003-08-15T13:53:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Anniee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@Anniee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/10 "2003-08-15T13:57:02Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/11 "2003-08-15T14:02:40Z")
Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/12 "2003-08-15T14:11:25Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/13 "2003-08-15T14:14:59Z")
[The Green Slime](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0064393) 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! ---
**Author:** ![SpaceForRent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@SpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/14 "2003-08-15T14:46:35Z")
Star Wars was the first movie I remember seeing. I was about 6. ---
**Author:** ![austen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@austen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/austen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/15 "2003-08-15T14:56:03Z")
_Star Wars_ when I was about three and a half. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/16 "2003-08-15T15:10:17Z")
_Mary Poppins_, when I was about 2. My mom says I could say “supercalifrajalisticexpialidocious,” but I don’t remember that. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/17 "2003-08-15T15:16:04Z")
_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. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/18 "2003-08-15T15:27:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/19 "2003-08-15T16:22:15Z")
My first movie in a theater was [_Freaky Friday_](http://www.imdb.com/Title?0076054), 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. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370/20 "2003-08-15T16:30:06Z")
The first film I saw in a theater was _The Flintstones_ in 1994, which would make me 9, I believe. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-movie/195370.md?page=2)