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

[Robert Crawford]

The first movie I have vague memories of seeing in a movie theater was "Elmer Gantry" in which my parents took me and my siblings to see one summer day. At that time, I was the youngest by five years until my younger brother came along. Anyhow, I fell asleep as the movie was much too complicated and long for 4 or 5 five year old in 1960. I do remember Burt Lancaster running around like a mad man and the tent fire.

 

[Keith Cobby]

My aunt took my sister and I to see The Sound of Music.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

This was announcing the opening of New Jersey's first Jerry Lewis Theater in March, 1970, with a personal appearance by Jerry. This was a venue near where both the Sultan and I lived (I don't know Joe at the time). Coincidentally, later on we both worked for the manager, Robert Bateson, at different theaters he ran.

 

[Gary OS]

I'm honestly not positive. The first one I can remember is The Aristocats in 1970 at age 5. But the film that left the biggest impression on me was in the summer of 1975 when I got my dad to take me to the theater on a Saturday to watch the reissue of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. I had seen plenty of films before then, but that was the most fun I had at the movies up to that point.

Gary "my family made a regular habit out of going to the drive-in to watch all kinds of fun stuff in the 70's, and I went to Saturday matinees all the time as a kid" O.

 

[mark brown]

Dad took me, when I was four, to see The Vikings, when we lived in Denver.

 

[Joe Wong]

Is your real name Steven Spielberg??

And the potential response:

1. “Please. My friends call me Steve.”
2. “That’s my professional name.”
3. “Steven? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time.”

 

[billw6560]

This tells you my age, but its the original War of the Worlds, and while released in 1953, it must have been a re-release in the early 1960's when I saw it in the theater (without telling my mom, lol). I was an impressionably young 12 years old, and oh boy, it scared my bloody socks off. With George Pal's special effects team, the Martian ship and its heat ray were very realistic. One of the best SciFi movies of all time.

 

[KPmusmag]

Mary Poppins was my first movie. My mother says that when it was over I wrapped my arms around the armrest, refused to leave, yelling "More! More!" I believe that would have been in Denver.

Who knew that someday I would be able to watch it on endless repeat.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I'm relatively certain mine was Star Wars, when I was about three years old.

 

[jayembee]

If I recall correctly, the first movie I saw in a theater was Disney's Sleeping Beauty. I remember being simply stunned when Maleficent turned into a dragon. I can't say where I saw it...I would've been about five years old at the time.

On the other hand, the other really-early filmgoing experience that I remember was maybe a year or so after that, and I think it at Boston's Paramount Theater. I recall my father taking me and my brother to see The Mysterians. It was on a double-bill with another film set in Africa that I couldn't remember the title of for decades. I eventually did a little research and figured out what it had to be: Watusi. Buying Warner Archives' DVD-R of that movie confirmed that it was indeed what I saw back then.

 

[Sam Favate]

Pretty sure it was Dumbo, upon its re-release in 1972, although it’s possible it was The Aristocats in 1970, or Bednobs and Broomsticks in ‘71.

However many movies I saw in theaters before it, Star Wars was the Big Bang for me and theatrical films. After that, I saw pretty much everything.

 

[Keith Cobby]

The two films I remember most fondly were seeing Ice Station Zebra and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when I just turned 8. My Dad took me to Ice Station Zebra for a birthday treat, I can still vividly recall the whole film from the initial satellite crashing, the Tigerfish filling with water, Patrick McGoohan's fist hitting the table, the Tigerfish breaking through the ice, and the final showdown. A big film on a big screen that holds up remarkably well today.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

Keith,
"I want you to blow a hole thru that ice and get me up there!"

 

[Keith Cobby]

Howard Hughes's favourite film, now there was a man with taste!

 

[Faber]

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. Turns out a first-grader probably isn't ready for that movie.

 

[Ruz-El]

Mine was Star Wars when I was 3-4 years old. I still remember the theater, though Dad would tease me later that I kept standing on my seat, pointing at the screen yelling "OH! OH! OH!" completely out of my ding-dong mind.

I wouldn't count Star Wars as my favourite series/film now, but it absolutely set me on a love for films that I've had my whole life. Still kills me that I couldn't get it together to make my own.

 

[Bartman]

ZULU must have been first run Saturday afternoon kids matinee at The Plaza, Romsey, Hants, UK. I was eight years old and it scared the hell out of me. I had a similar reaction to SHE a year later, I had nightmares for months!

 

[Jeff Heise]

First film I saw in a "hardtop" was SON OF FLUBBER, and I think the first one I saw at the drive-in was THE MUSIC MAN. To show you how naive I was-we had the OCR of "The Music Man" which I loved to play and I thought what they would do is show the record label spinning while the music played and that would be the movie; when the actual images came on I was blown away and have loved the film and movies in general ever since.

 

[sitman]

Sitting Pretty, 1948, with Clifton Webb as Mr. Belvedere. My mother took me, at our theater in my home town of Allison, Iowa, population about 850. Every little town had a theater back then.

 

[TallPaulInKy]

I went with my mom to see Gone With The Wind sometime in the late 50s or very early 60s. Looking at the reissue schedule it may have been in 1961, anniversary of the start of the Civil War. I don't have any real special recollection of that day..but I do remember my mom for weeks would say around the house to herself "How did they make it color?" At that time we were living in a large city, and saw the film at a large ornate theater.

Now I know that the film was originally made in color. However, my mother grew up in a small rural town in Virginia, she was from that generation of young girls who wondered who would play Scarlet and we always had a copy of Gone With The Wind in the bookcase. She'd read it usually once a year. In the 80s sometime, I was reading a book (don't remember the name) on the history of MGM. Naturally they had something on GWTW. The book said back when the film came out, the studio sent out black and white copies of films to theaters in small markets as a cost saving measure. Apparently, this was typical for the time. Besides they figured these "country bumkins" (my wordage) was used to seeing films in B&W anyway. My mom grew up in that type or rural town so I don't doubt when she went to see the film with her girl friends..it was probably in B&W. That's the only reason, I an sure GWTW was the first theatrical film I saw in a theater.

My moms experience may explain why rumors persist that GWTW was filmed in B&W.