Those of us now in our
fifties and sixties who were Southern born and raised in
rural or small town settings probably remember going to
the movies when we were kids. As for me, we lived
around Huntsville during the mid and late forties when it
was a much smaller place--before the boom, I suppose one
could say. There were two movie houses in downtown
Huntsville at that time, and I think I've forgotten the
names of both, but not the good times I enjoyed while
there. From the time I was ten years of age, at the
tail-end of 1945 (if not before), I was allowed to ride
the local bus and go to the movies on Saturdays by
myself. This went on until I was almost 12 and we
moved to another community. During the time I saw
all these movies, we lived at Farley in a village, called
Red Stone Park for arsenal workers and military
families. My dad was a guard at one of the
gates. Redstone Park was torn down in the late
fifties /early sixties to make room for some type of
manufacturing plant, maybe Western Telephone.
I attended Farley Junior High which is now an elementary
school in----ah, but I digress---
I was a bit of a tomboy; I
traded comic books (bought new for ten cents each), played
marbles with the boys until I lost all I had, rode their
bicycles, climbed trees, AND loved cowboys movies! My
parents were older than some when they married and started
a family, and I had a twin brother and sister almost five
years younger than me. I think my mother started
letting me go to these movies because: 1. I begged and
begged, 2. It was probably nice to be rid of me for a
time, 3. For 50 cents I could ride the bus to town
and back, see a movie and get a bag of popcorn, or do
without the popcorn and see two movies which I usually
did.
Needless to say, Saturday
was my favorite day of the week, and the memories of those
Saturdays spent watching my favorite western movies stand
out as sharply as anything I've ever experienced.
Just walking into the big, dimly lighted cool room was
magical; I felt as if I had stepped into another
world. I found my seat on the front row or at least
very near it and soon a big cheer went up; the lights went
out, the curtain parted and the show began. Just to
get us warmed up there was always previews of coming
attractions, a Looney Tunes cartoon, gigantic full color
pictures of all the goodies at the snack bar and part 13
of a 62 part serial always leaving the hero falling off a
cliff.
Now on to the main feature;
there was Lash LaRue, dressed in black and a pure menace
to the bad guys with that whip he always carried. Of
course next came Sunset Carson, tall, with black curly
hair. I saw him "live" one time when he and his
horse appeared on stage at the theater. I must
mention Red Ryder and Little Beaver, Monte Hale, Jimmy
Wakely, and Alabama's own Johnny Mac Brown. My
favorites were everyone elses also; Roy Rogers and
Gene Autry. When they were both playing on the same
Saturday, well--- that was just about as good as it
got. There were many others whose names and faces
have escaped me now, and many who were not the stars were
still fun to see. Gene's sidekick was Smiley
Burnette, Roy's was Gabby Hayes, the lovely Dale Evans,
and those wonderful musicians whose beautiful harmony I
can never forget, the Sons of the Pioneers.
I remember the spring school
had just turned out for the summer and I had been promoted
to the fifth grade; measles was making its rounds through
the community. My younger brother and sister had
succumbed and somewhat recovered. Both my main heros
(Roy and Gene) were appearing at the theaters the
following Saturday in one of their latest action-packed
"shoot-'em-ups". I was very excited and looking
forward to a day of sheer enjoyment. About the middle of
the week I noticed I didn't feel really well, but I just
knew I'd be fine by Saturday. Saturday morning
rolled around and I rolled out of bed, red and bumpy and
stinging all over-yep, a full-blown case of the old
fashioned red measles! Needless to say, I did not make it
to the movies that week.
Sometime before these
fabulous forties came to an end, an entirely new way to
watch movies came on the scene ; the Drive-In Movie.
What a novel idea, sitting in the comfort (?) of one's
automobile while watching a movie. My dad did not
think very highly of many modern ideas, but obviously this
was one to which he had given some thought and he finally
decided the family should go and try it. I have no
idea of what movie we saw or what kind of vehicle we had,
but as I recall, once is all we ever went as a
family. Of course as I grew older and was allowed to
go with boys in cars, (a dangerous combination) as long as
there was more than one couple, I did get to go to the
Drive-In theater. After a couple of decades, more or
less, these, too, became a page in history as more TVs
were in homes and better (?) more expensive movies were
being made.
"Gone With The Wind" was
made in 1939 and it was and still is a great epic.
It came to Huntsville during the forties and my "
movie" phase. I had seen the previews on a
Saturday and of course begged to go see it. I did
get to go see it, but I certainly did not understand much
of it at that tender age. It was big and beautiful,
though; in gorgeous color and LONG .
During this time of
attending movies, which covered a period of two years or
less, I was 10 and 11 years of age, but was very tall and
growing. After a while the tickets sales girls
started asking me if I were twelve. That would have
caused me to have to pay adult admission which was forty
cents to get in instead of ten. They asked me almost
every week and I know they surely remembered me from one
week to the next. I always told them my age, when I
was born, etc. For some reason, this made my dad very
angry, I mean, it burned him up, and he said I should
start taking my birth certificate to the movies. I
believe I did a few times, but when I took it, they would
not ask my age. I think once is all I ever showed it
to them.
Alas, just before I was 12,
we fell on tougher financial times and moved away from
there to a more rural community which had no local bus
service and soon the "movie" phase gave way to the "boy"
phase.
