Another warm and humid morning. The summer doldrums have set in. Mornings start out in the ’80s while humidity hovers around 90%. It really is time to hang in the coolness of the air conditioned house.
In my youth these were the days to enjoy that summer job at the movie theater. The dim, dark, air conditioned house of Hollywood dreams. From my earliest teens my summers were spent down on main Street in Houston. The Lowe’s State theater. It was closed down in my 18th year… And demolished.
Built in the late twenties, it was an opulent showcase. Marble and brass, antique furniture, painted murals on the walls, plush padded seating for 2,600 people. It was built as a vaudeville theater. There were three floors of dressing rooms. It had a full basement under the stage. It was the first mechanically air conditioned large theater built west of the Mississippi River. It only had one screen, and the run of a movie would last all summer long.
For two complete summers Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman were my constant companions. I could quote the lines of Midnight Cowboy in my sleep. The first summer it was a new release… Summer number two it was an academy award winning film and they brought it back. As bad as that was you did not rival the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Summer…
It was my home away from home for over a dozen years. A playground from the age of six. Even the roof was part of our growing up experience. And for a boy from Pasadena it introduced me to a whole new world of friends, acquaintances, and running buddies. Hero worship, young love, other cultures… All were experienced in that one square block of downtown Houston.
Y’all stay safe, stay healthy, and pray for the nation and the world. Enjoy your summer time Saturday.
It’s interesting — I don’t remember movie going as a particular part of childhood and my teen years. I remember a few films — Gone With the Wind, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Bridge on the River Kwai — but we just weren’t movie goers. Maybe it was because we were midwestern kids, and it was far more comfortable to be outdoors. Bike riding and such were more our speed.
I went to the movies more than most because my dad had a second job working in theatres for much of my life, We would go in with him to work on weekends. He worked at indoor theatres when we were young then drive-ins when we got older. It made me and my siblings very popular with our friends having access to free shows… very popular.