What Was The First Theatrical Film You Saw? (2 Viewers)

[maxfabien]

"Them" (1954). I was 4 years old. My parents took me and my big brother and big sister to see the original theatrical release. I loved the giant ants, and I've been a monster fan ever since!

 

[Sultanofcinema]

"Them" (1954). I was 4 years old. My parents took me and my big brother and big sister to see the original theatrical release. I loved the giant ants, and I've been a monster fan ever since!

James Whitmore lives!

 

[Bob Graham]

My father took me to see Fantasia in 1956, when I was 5 years old. It didn't make much of an impression me, because it's not really a film for a 5 year old.

 

[anytimepally]

The Muppets Take Manhattan.

 

[PeterPowerPop]

Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971). I was 10.

 

[uncledougie]

My first film experience was HOUDINI (1953) at a drive-in (most likely the South Loop in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, which was closest to the small burg of Ferris to the south, where I spent my childhood). My parents didn’t intend to share it with me; I was supposed to be asleep in the back seat. I found it all exotic and fascinating, but vividly recall being a little traumatized with the incident of Tony Curtis being trapped under the ice in the frozen Detroit River, the upside down stunt in the water tank, and curiously by the passing of Houdini’s beloved mother (the concept of the loss of a parent truly shook me at the time, far more than the various physical perils and hazards). My poor parents learned quickly I wasn’t one to pass up the films to waste time sleeping. Since the release date was almost exactly one year after my birth, it had obviously cycled through its first run and secondary houses (I don’t remember the accompanying feature), so this was probably during the summer/fall of 1954, putting me at the ripe age of 2. But the memory is indelible.

 

[richardburton84]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), when I was 1-2 years old.

 

[avroman]

Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, with Lon Chaney Jr.
I remember drawing my feet up on the seat, so something wouldn't grab my ankles from under the seat.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, with Lon Chaney Jr.
I remember drawing my feet up on the seat, so something wouldn't grab my ankles from under the seat.

Avroman,
Believe this when I tell you even as old as I am, I put my feet under my backside in an empty screen of Open Water!

 

[octobercountry]

For me my first trip to the cinema was "The Sound of Music" at the very end of its first release, back in mid-1969. We saw it in the local downtown theatre, which was originally built as a vaudeville house, and which sadly closed in the late 1970s and was torn down... sigh... That very first viewing started a love affair with the film which has lasted these many years.

 

[Tommy R]

It was the summer I turned 3 years old and my family went and saw “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”. Made a huge impression on me and really started my love of not just movies in general but seeing them on the big screen.

 

[MarcS1]

The Apple Dumpling Gang

 

[filmnoirguy]

My parents loved musicals. On a family vacation to Winnipeg, we went to a beautiful downtown movie theater to see MGM's 1951 version of "Show Boat" with Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ava Gardner and Joe E. Brown. I now have it on Blu-ray and still enjoy watching it.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

My parents loved musicals. On a family vacation to Winnipeg, we went to a beautiful downtown movie theater to see MGM's 1951 version of "Show Boat" with Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ava Gardner and Joe E. Brown. I now have it on Blu-ray and still enjoy watching it.

Fine Film, do you know if you saw the original version with movement in the background during the credits or the other version where the background is frozen?

 

[Frankie_A]

My mum tell me she took me to see DUMBO and always recounts how I had nightmares for days after. But I have no memory of it, so I can't really say it was the very first movie I saw. What has been burned into my brain however, as wildly memorable were the Saturday Kiddy Shows where they ran 6 WB Loony-Toons in a row (and I loved every one of them) plus a serial to get you back the next Saturday. But the first film that I remember as if it were yesterday is THE HOUSE OF WAX in 3D. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and how I could feel the "space" between everything in the image -- so real that when the glass tubes of melting wax brake apart in the last reel, I kept trying to reach out and touch them as they seemed to be dangling right in front of me! I begged and pleaded with my poor mum to sit thru the film a second time and when I insisted we stay for a third run, she refused telling me she would send my dad to pick me up. From that day on, I became a avid 3D fanatic and learned everything I could get my hands on about 3D and how it worked; love it to this day...oh, and LG and Sony -- a curse on both your houses for discontinuing making 3D TV sets.

Then maybe a year or two later, the parents took me to see THIS IS CINERAMA and it was the curved, humungus wide screen that impressed me -- the travelogue, not so much. Within that same time period, they took me to see THE ROBE, and while I was impressed with the fact the satin cream-white curtains kept opening wider and wider, I quickly realized that it definitely wasn't CINERAMA and absolutely, positively it wasn't 3D which was VERY disappointing to this kid, since the 1-sheets all said: CinemaScope, the miracle you see WITHOUT glasses. Even as a kid, I knew I was somehow being bamboozled -- thank you Daryl Zanuck for giving a 9 year old his first taste of disillusionment. I kept tugging on my dad's jacket complaining, Daddy, this isn't 3D...it isn't. Poor guy finally had enough and told me to shut up and watch the movie.

Thing is, like KeithDA, I was mesmerized and totally fascinated by that magical beam of light coming out of the hole-in-the-wall high above (or in the case of Cinerama, out of three holes...imagine!).

Funny how we all want to recapture the experiences of our youth when everything was a such a glorious, breathtaking wonder. I grew up loving movies and the theatres where you went to see them -- you know, when theatres were great Movie Palaces and not these utilitarian cookie-cutter, assembly-line multiplexes with gleaming glass and chrome and neon block-long concessions stands flanked by dark, dank "cinemas" alongside it as if they're an afterthought. Turns out, I wound up working since I was 20 in a projectionist and film technicians in variety of movie theatres across the country and finally wound up the director of cinema at a performing arts center in NY where I finally got to run THE HOUSE OF WAX in interlock 3D on two Simplex XLs! I also ran THE ROBE. For that engagement, an associate and I searched all the fabric stores on Canal Street in Manhattan (there are MANY) and only after many hours of looking at bolt upon bolt of fabric, I finally found this beautiful, cream-white satin material that matched the curtains that I remember seeing in the 1200 seat Century Theatre in Fresh Meadows NY that premiered THE ROBE. The 30 something adult designing an install in a 2500 seat art-deco theatre simply HAD to have THAT very same fabric for its curtain. Yes, I HAD to have a curtain and curtain warmers light that cause the satin to shimmer in the folds as it opened as the 20th Century Fox logo played across it. I had the satin fabric that we found on Canal Street made into a curtain for my theatre.

And so the circle was completed. The kid made his adult career running classic movies and making them come alive for newer, younger audiences. And sure, they watch movie on their minuscule "devices," but when they see a classic in my theatre, there is always audible ooh-ing and ahhh-ing as those curtains glide open and the Warner Bro Merry Melodies cartoon hits the screen. The kid in me still insists every show start with a WB cartoon.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

Frankie A,
What a wonderful story and the fact that you wanted to recreate something like that from your past proves your love and affection for Cinema. I don't know how you managed to make it thru Cinema Paradiso, I had a tough time. I was one half (with another Gentleman) Division Mgr for 12 theaters and a drive in NJ. One of the theaters we had was The Pascack Theater in Westwood NJ was one of the last great palaces of entertainment. We had an organ player come in on Friday nights and play the Mighty Wurlitzer before the show. And of course a single theater, incredible screen and ....CURTAINS! I have always felt that those big theater experiences and watching those films on those screens was one of the reasons we remember with fondness the films we saw. I have talked about this in various segments on my radio show how going to the movies in the 50's and 60's was a classic night out. Folks were dressed up, men in suits, ladies in dresses and dinner first!

 

[origmnd]

"Serpico" at essex street theatre in NYC. still watch that movie every year or so

 

[Edwin-S]

I honestly couldn't say. I don't remember which exact film I saw first. Most likely a Disney animated film as I have always had a soft spot for animation. It is my favorite film medium.

BAMBI sticks in my mind though. It was and still is a favorite of mine, even though Disney's meddling on the video releases have destroyed the look of the film for me.

 

[RMajidi]

I recall mum and my aunts took us cousins to see a bunch of Disney animations: Snow White and Cinderella were likely the earliest.

As to live action film, it was definitely The Thief of Bagdad, sometime in the mid to late sixties in one of Tehran’s plush movie theatres (hence my avatar).

The place was very different to what I see and read about these days in the news. English language films and TV shows - superbly dubbed - were hugely popular. And mum and my aunts never wore head coverings… nor were they yoghurted or arrested.

Not long afterwards followed The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The Love Bug, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Absent-Minded Professor and the glorious Kurt Russell Disneys.

I still recall specific lines of dialogue dubbed in Farsi from The Sound of Music, as they were so hilarious and well delivered. Songs were never dubbed though - they had more sense than to try.

While I had a happy childhood in Iran and was fortunate to leave several years before the revolution, these and other films blew my mind and opened up a vision of a world rich in beauty, colour, character and heroic adventure.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

I recall mum and my aunts took us cousins to see a bunch of Disney animations: Snow White and Cinderella were likely the earliest.

As to live action film, it was definitely The Thief of Bagdad, sometime in the mid to late sixties in one of Tehran’s plush movie theatres (hence my avatar).

The place was very different to what I see and read about these days in the news. English language films and TV shows - superbly dubbed - were hugely popular. And mum and my aunts never wore head coverings… nor were they yoghurted or arrested.

Not long afterwards followed The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The Love Bug, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Absent-Minded Professor and the glorious Kurt Russell Disneys.

I still recall specific lines of dialogue dubbed in Farsi from The Sound of Music, as they were so hilarious and well delivered. Songs were never dubbed though - they had more sense than to try.

While I had a happy childhood in Iran and was fortunate to leave several years before the revolution, these and other films blew my mind and opened up a vision of a world rich in beauty, colour, character and heroic adventure.

Interesting to see an American or British film dubbed in another language. I got see Dr. No in French and For A Few Dollars More in Spanish.