EARLY MOVIE MEMORIES

BY DAVID SHUGERT

Do you remember the first movie you ever saw? Was it scary, boring, or just the coolest experience ever? Did it make you cry or laugh or scar you for life? Your fellow BPLers tell about their first movies—movies that made them laugh, cry or even reject an entire film genre—or movies they saw early on that left an indelible impression on their young psyches.

For Monnie Nilsson, a certain iconic ‘60s sciencefiction film left her feeling cold to the genre:

“Honolulu, 1970: My parents took the family to see 2001: A Space Odyssey at the big theater in town. I was a wee kid at that point (what were they thinking?), and don’t remember much except feeling like space was a cold, scary place with a creepy voice saying, ‘I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.’ It’s probably why, to this day, I’m not a science fiction fan. LOL.”

Hannah Parris had a warm spot for bloody funny British comedy from an early age:

“My dad is a big fan of Monty Python, and I first saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail when I was 6. I thought it was hilarious even though I didn’t understand a lot of it. Not too long after watching it for the first time, my family went to a high school Shakespeare play where there was a death scene. As my parents tell it, right after the actor fell dying on stage, my tiny 6-year-old voice piped up and said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a flesh wound!’ in a British accent. It’s a movie that I still find hilarious and my family quotes all the time!”

Barbara Magill‘s first movie experiences occurred in the 1970’s (and I have to believe that characters in the latter two movies exclaimed the title of the first as they faced water and/or fire):

“The first movie I ever saw in a movie theater was Oh, God!, when I was 13. Also, I remember being mesmerized by a double feature at the Drive-in before that [of] The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. (I wish Drive-in theatres would make a comeback. I loved playing on the swings under the big screen while the cartoons were playing before the movies started).”

Disney’s classic animated tale Bambi is the kind of movie that makes a lot of people say, “Oh, deer.” Pun intended. In fact, it brought two BPLers to tears: One of them, sub Specialist Anita Stuehler, says, “The first movie I remember seeing is ‘Bambi’. I still remember crying so hard.”

And Adrienne Strock recalls, “The first movie I remember going to see in the theater was Bambi. I cried the whole way home because Bambi didn’t have a mom anymore.”

For Nicole Ball, William Shakespeare proved irresistible:

“I spent an entire year trying to convince my parents to take me to see [Kenneth Branagh’s] Henry V. Finally, when it was only playing in one artsy theater far away in Denver, my dad agreed. I loved the movie (we both loved [it]), and the theater was SO FANCY! For the next few years, anytime I found a movie too artsy or edgy for my friends (and I sought out those movies), I'd go with my dad. Sometimes we even had to go to Denver again to watch them! It was a really nice way to spend time with him when I was a teen.”

Jessica Ashcraft fell in love with one of the more unusual cinematic creations of the 1980’s, a project written by a member of Monty Python, produced by Star Wars guru George Lucas, and directed by Muppets creator Jim Henson:

“My most favorite movie ever as a kid was Labyrinth, starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. I was OBSESSED with it. The movie would end and pop out of the VHS player, and I would make my older siblings immediately push the tape back in to start the movie all over again. A bit of an odd choice for a little one to love, but I guess it explains why I am the way I am today (a little weirdo!). I even have a ‘Babe with the Power’ tattoo.”

As a youth, Rebecca Doyle was a big fan of another classic Disney tearjerker:

“One movie I remember watching repeatedly as a young child was the 1957 Disney film, Old Yeller. I was probably only 5 or 6 when I started watching it, so I guess it's strange that I was so captivated by a movie that doesn't shy away from showing the harsh realities of life. Although it has a notoriously tragic ending, you can just rewind, start over, and Yeller is back to being the ‘best doggone dog in the West’ once again.”

Aimee Schumm recalls her first films as being Raiders of the Lost Ark and the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans (directed by late stop-motion animation master Ray Harryhausen):

“My family loved packing up our station wagon and heading to the drive-in movie theater. This particular night it was a doublefeature. I was 7 years old and distinctly remember the Medusa character in Clash of the Titans—she was terrifying. To this day, I cannot see anyone portraying Medusa in film. I think my parents were hoping my brother and I would fall asleep before Clash of the Titans came on, but of course we didn’t.

"[Raiders] is still a favorite, though.”

David Farnan has a pretty vivid memory of seeing his first movie:

“My first movie was the last movie shown in my hometown. Yes, a little like The Last Picture Show, every little rural town in America at one point had a movie theater. My town had less than 1,000 people growing up and the movie house was right next to the hardware store. It probably had fewer than 50 seats. I am not sure why it closed down. I assume that like cinema everywhere it struggled with attendance as televisions, news of the war in Vietnam, and ‘variety shows’ took over every household every evening--[programming like] Walter Cronkite, Laugh-In, and The Carol Burnett Show “I think it was 50 cents to go to the movies. It was 1970. I knew the movie house was closing and that this would be the last movie. We had spent all day at my aunt and uncle's house in a different town. I think we ate spaghetti. I was worried the whole time that we would not make it back in time to see the movie. But we drove home, and my mother and father dropped my brothers and I off at the movie theater in time for the previews.

“The movie was Pufnstuf. It was a musical. I don't really remember much of the storyline. I think in my mind as a kid it was tied up with the song "puff the magic dragon" but I don't think the two are related. Even now, reading the blurb on Wikipedia, the story doesn't seem that familiar. The Wikipedia entry says that the last song has the line, ‘When good friends pull together, they can do anything.’ I like that. “My brothers and I walked home after the movie. The theater closed the next day.”

Lisa Holmberg remembers “going to see movies at the drive-in theater, although I don’t remember which ones. In High School, I worked at the local AMC theater. I ate and sold a lot of popcorn and watched the beginning and end of a lot of movies.

Terzah Becker’s first movie experience was of another sci-fi classic:

“The first movie I remember seeing was the first Star Wars film, A New Hope, which came out in 1977. I was four years old, and my sister Mandy was three. My parents took us to see it at a drive-in movie theater, which was still an option for movie-goers back then, especially in smallish-town Missouri. My memories of the movie itself are impressionistic: the pew-pew sound effects, tie fighters wheeling, Luke Skywalker who looked like my Uncle Ace, the menace of Darth Vader. But Mandy and I got restless, so mid-movie my dad took us over to the sandy playground the drive-in theater offered. Mandy lost one of her sandals in the sand and dark, and my poor dad missed out on a good chunk of the movie looking for it. I hope he and my mom went again without us!

“Happily, when The Empire Strikes Back came out [in 1980], I was old enough to sit raptly through it, and three years after that I saw Return of the Jedi with my cousins. I've been a fan of the first three Star Wars movies ever since. They are in my proud, Gen-X DNA.”

Alice Eccles’ early memories of going to the movies involved an animated fox:

“One summer--I must have been at least nine, but definitely not older than eleven--I had a student summertime movie pass and went to see a movie once a week. I don't remember much about the movies, but I am pretty sure that one of them was Disney's Robin Hood (1973). I felt very grown up taking the bus by myself into downtown Boulder to the movie theater!”

Melissa Holladay’s first time in a movie theater was apparently anything but a sweet experience:

“I think the first movie I saw in a theater was Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in 1971, [when] I was 3. I remember standing up in my seat facing back (away from the screen), looking into the eye of the projector. This entire movie freaked me out! The Oompa Loompas left a lasting impression that has fed my nightmares for years. Each one of the naughty kids and their punishments made me want to mind my manners to avoid turning into a blueberry, getting sucked up into a chocolate tube, shrunk or sent away with the bad eggs. I have seen it since that first time but still close my eyes when the Oompa Loompas "doompety doo" their way into the screen.”

As for me, I don’t really remember what movie I first saw in the theater. My parents say I saw the 1977 Star Wars five times, but I was only 5 when it first came to theaters. I guess the first one I actually remember seeing was Airplane!, which my parents took me and my twin sister to see for our 9th birthday in 1980. I didn’t get a lot of the humor at the time, but now I count it as one of my all-time favorites.