What Was The First Theatrical Film You Saw? (1 Viewer)

[Sultanofcinema]

I have been asked and have asked every film person I come in contact with this question. The majority of the responses are a Walt Disney film and the majority of the responses claim seeing that film in a drive in theater. Tell me yours and where if you remember. Remember some folks have seen films (Gone With The Wind, Fantasia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Even 1969's Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid /Remember? 1974? Butch And The Kid are Back!. Just for the fun of it!) on reissues. The Bond films especially (James Bond Goes Red Carpet!)

 

[Matt Hough]

My mother took me with her to see it at when I was about five (I think), and I remember only tiny bits and pieces of it: Johnny Guitar.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

Wow! What a first film to see Matt.

 

[KeithDA]

‘Snow White’ when I was aged 5 in the Odeon, Middlesbrough. I remember being fascinated by the ‘beam of light’…

 

[Tino]

The Poseidon Adventure at the State Theater in Jersey City NJ December 1972. I remember it vividly. It was a spectacular experience for that wide eyed 9 year old. I’ve never been the same since.

 

[Indy Guy]

Hans Christian Anderson starring Danny Kaye at the Miramar Theater in San Clenmente CA. The theater is now abandoned but the city is trying to preserve it historically.
I was given the LP soundtrack for "Anderson" and it was unusual in that it was a 10" LP rather than 12". It still holds the destiction of being my fist piece of physical media!

 

[Walter Kittel]

This question comes up from time to time on the HTF. I don't recall if it was the first theatrical experience for me, but the one that stands out in my memory is 1968's Planet of the Apes. So I usually go with that film.

Growing up with shows like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Lost In Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, etc. I started out as a pretty big fan of SF, so seeing Planet of the Apes on the big screen was a pretty memorable experience. (The finale blew my adolescent mind. )

- Walter.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Great thread. I wish I could remember what it was I saw, but I can’t. It may have been Herbie The Love Bug. I do remember the first film that had an impact on me was The Wizard of Oz- I was less than 10, and I was pretty scared by the Wicked Witch of the West, and how I cried when Dorothy said goodbye to her friends.

 

[Carrie Beth]

Sure enough, my first was a Disney film: the original release of Beauty and the Beast (1991). I was three, and my Daddy took me up to the theatre on Main Street, in Port Washington, NY. I remember spending part of the running time with my face pressed against Daddy's flannel shirt because, at that tender age, the wolf attack frightened me. But the rest was glorious!

 

[David Weicker]

Mary Poppins - late July 1966 (I was 4 1/2) at the Holiday Theatre in Park Forest, IL. It was preceded by Winnie The Pooh And The Honey Tree.

Apparently local theaters back then had some latitude in what cartoons could be shown prior to the main feature.


First Drive-In was a few years later (1969) - double feature of Hello Down There and True Grit.

 

[Wayne_j]

A re-release of Disney's Jungle Book.

 

[BobO'Link]

The first one I remember seeing was How the West Was Won at The Lowe's Palace in Memphis (during its original road show run). I was almost 8 at the time. We went to Burger King for lunch, where I got completely stuffed, and then to the movie. I remember being fascinated at the joins between the 3 sections and spent almost as much time watching those as the movie. We sat in the balcony (at my and my sister's insistence - I'm surprised dad didn't insist we sit downstairs closer for a more immersive experience) and *still* couldn't see the entire screen without turning our heads.

 

[Malcolm R]

I can't recall my first actual title, but I know I first started to be a "regular" at the local movie theaters in 1984: Gremlins, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, The Terminator, Police Academy, Revenge of the Nerds, The Karate Kid, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Beverly Hills Cop, The Neverending Story....

I didn't see all of these, but I saw quite a few (and several more than once).

I have a memory of being in a big theater with my parents at an earlier age, but I have no memory of what film that was.

 

[compson]

Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear, in a theater in North Carolina when I was four. I still remember the opening. The movie spoke to me.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I don't remember firsthand, but I have been told it was Pinocchio. Disney last reissued it in June 1992, so I would have been three at the time. I was told that I was so terrified that I wanted to leave before the previews started and that once the movie was going, I was scared of Stromboli.

I think the second one was probably Aladdin, which came out at Thanksgiving 1992. I remember that one more specifically because I'm pretty sure we went twice. I thought it was the best thing ever, and I still think that.

 

[Josh Dial]

The first movie I have a distinct memory of seeing was ET at the drive-in with my parents (in our Pontiac Parisienne).

 

[bujaki]

My first clear memory (although not my first film) is of The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954. I was 4. Loved it, particularly the sexy scene when the Creature tickles the soles of the feet of the luscious heroine. Watched in my hometown theater for a nickel.

 

[Ross Gowland]

When the North Wind Blows at the Esher Embassy, south west of London.

It was an inauspicious start. A vaguely watchable film about snow tigers that no one seems to have heard of. When I tell people it was my first cinema experience, people usually confuse it with the cartoon about survivors of a nuclear Holocaust.

My second film, a few months later, was The Rescuers and I really enjoyed that, along with the support feature Born to Run.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

The memory I have that is definite was a double feature of The Wacky World of Mother Goose and The Family Jewels (with Jerry Lewis), that would have been 1967. At the Merrick Theatre in Merrick, Long Island. Don’t recall another movie until 1968 after we moved to New Jersey.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

Hey Pete!,
The Family Jewels is the first film my wife saw in Queens, NY, she thinks the Jackson theater. In '67. I was busy watching repeat showings of You Only Live Twice.