yes let me add some more details regarding the Vitaphone my spouse’s comments shown above (jobeard)
Yes let me add some more details regarding the Vitaphone my spouse’s comments shown above (jobeard). My wonderful hubby remembers many of these highlights but I seem to remember the admission was only $5.00 each and a smaller amount for the kids. What a fantastic bargain!
When I was a kid I loved going to the Saturday matinees in an Inglewood suburb in the mid 50’s. Since I was basically a latch key kid with both my folks working long hours I had always adored the older films that would show from time to time on Channel 5, 9 and 11 in Los Angeles…they turned me into movie buff at a young age! And I was safe and entertained. Besides reading I became a movie fan as young as 7-years old, At 10 I remember going to the 1956 premiere The Ten Commandments at the downtown LA Pantages theatre complete with movie program and absolute breathless excitement.
In the mid 70’s and early 80’s my husband and I moved to the high tech world of Cupertino in Northern California. I was overjoyed when we discovered this marvelous little film club as our two kids jr high and one in elementary needed a real education of film , history and exposure to clean entertainment .
The first time we came I’ll never forget we were blown away that TWO major films on the same night: The Adventures of Robin Hood Earl Flynn/Basil Rathbone and Easter Parade with Fred Astaire/ Judy Garland plus old fashioned movietone newsreels, cartoon and shorts went with the double feature! Free cookies and coffee and reasonable priced treats at the concession stand. From then on as my husband (JOBeard) quips we didn’t care what was playing we were there every Friday night. We often discussed the films with our children to answer their questions about the history or themes each film displayed…all of us loved the Vitaphone. Later my third child our youngest son was enjoying these films too and was so impressed he read many Dumas' stories including The Three Muskateers after seeing them at the Vitaphone . He even began fencing lessons in school!
Pat often quizzed us on movie trivia during intermission Since I was already a movie buff the Moore’s often treated me to the grand prize of a free sundae many times. One answer regarding music and the same composer Alfred Newman I won three weeks in a row! I am sure these prizes added to my girth by at least ten pounds!
One week The Greatest Show On Earth played with Pat Moore displaying his beauticul red and gold circus uniform in costume. He had so much fun and so did we…There was nothing like it in the country!
Just before John Wayne grave illness, I offered to design a movie tribute booklet to Mr. Wayne chock full of his film titles, art and stills with room for lots of signatures by the club members. Sadly he passed away just before we could give it to him but I understood Mr. Moore did present it to the Wayne family posthumously which I am sure the Wayne family appreciated.
Some times there were a few times of unexpected humor that Pat sometimes thought we were ridiculing the film…but I do not think he appreciated that the humor was usually unintended.
For example Pat once showed The Uninvited (1944)with Ray Milland/Ruth Hussey which had a tense close up shot of a scottie terroer dog “Bobby” barking on the full screen. What Pat did not see is just then a couple of Pat’s cats sauntered across the bottom of the stage with their proud tails in silloutte to the screen… When the huge dog barked on screen they must have jumped 10 feet —it was hilarious the whole audience roared.
Yes sometime we did laugh with an old fashioned line or two but it was never to ridicule it was just funny in retrospect…Hearing the name of the “FuzzyWuzzies” in the classic Four Feathers adventure film. I remember one scene of an unremembered old film had the actor saying something like ..“let us go to a secret place so far away, no one knows about”…only to discover the scene blended into a fade in of a common shot of “the lone Cypress” in Monterrey which was a little too close for fellow Silicon Valley viewers to consider so remote! Sometimes we laughed to see how things had changed and what was different over the years…not ever to ridicule but just part of the great enjoyment. Sometimes we laugh for many different reasons but the entertainment was always enriching, wonderful and priceless!
I’ll never forget once my lazy 11 year old balked and complained about her school homework where she needed to learn historic ancient Greek names in history…stubbornly she moaned…“I mean really Mom …who cares who Socrates was…” I insisted she learn them as I told her you never know when that name will come up in conversation…and won’t you feel stupid you didn’t even know who he was, just because you were too lazy to learn!“ Believe it or not, that very night was our Saratoga Vitaphone night and she sunk into her theater chair in acute embarrasment when I roared in laughter when part of the dialogue casually mentioned "Socrates” in the film dialogue! Boy that was rich…(parents 10/children 0) Thank you dear Pat and Vi for contributing to our childrens' love of films, education and enriching film history despite themselves!!! You are always in our memory and you are loved, appreciated and remembered! with love and gratitude—-Eilene Beard
yes let me add some more details regarding the Vitaphone my spouse’s comments shown above (jobeard)
Yes let me add some more details regarding the Vitaphone my spouse’s comments shown above (jobeard). My wonderful hubby remembers many of these highlights but I seem to remember the admission was only $5.00 each and a smaller amount for the kids. What a fantastic bargain!
When I was a kid I loved going to the Saturday matinees in an Inglewood suburb in the mid 50’s. Since I was basically a latch key kid with both my folks working long hours I had always adored the older films that would show from time to time on Channel 5, 9 and 11 in Los Angeles…they turned me into movie buff at a young age! And I was safe and entertained. Besides reading I became a movie fan as young as 7-years old, At 10 I remember going to the 1956 premiere The Ten Commandments at the downtown LA Pantages theatre complete with movie program and absolute breathless excitement.
In the mid 70’s and early 80’s my husband and I moved to the high tech world of Cupertino in Northern California. I was overjoyed when we discovered this marvelous little film club as our two kids jr high and one in elementary needed a real education of film , history and exposure to clean entertainment .
The first time we came I’ll never forget we were blown away that TWO major films on the same night: The Adventures of Robin Hood Earl Flynn/Basil Rathbone and Easter Parade with Fred Astaire/ Judy Garland plus old fashioned movietone newsreels, cartoon and shorts went with the double feature! Free cookies and coffee and reasonable priced treats at the concession stand. From then on as my husband (JOBeard) quips we didn’t care what was playing we were there every Friday night. We often discussed the films with our children to answer their questions about the history or themes each film displayed…all of us loved the Vitaphone. Later my third child our youngest son was enjoying these films too and was so impressed he read many Dumas' stories including The Three Muskateers after seeing them at the Vitaphone . He even began fencing lessons in school!
Pat often quizzed us on movie trivia during intermission Since I was already a movie buff the Moore’s often treated me to the grand prize of a free sundae many times. One answer regarding music and the same composer Alfred Newman I won three weeks in a row! I am sure these prizes added to my girth by at least ten pounds!
One week The Greatest Show On Earth played with Pat Moore displaying his beauticul red and gold circus uniform in costume. He had so much fun and so did we…There was nothing like it in the country!
Just before John Wayne grave illness, I offered to design a movie tribute booklet to Mr. Wayne chock full of his film titles, art and stills with room for lots of signatures by the club members. Sadly he passed away just before we could give it to him but I understood Mr. Moore did present it to the Wayne family posthumously which I am sure the Wayne family appreciated.
Some times there were a few times of unexpected humor that Pat sometimes thought we were ridiculing the film…but I do not think he appreciated that the humor was usually unintended.
For example Pat once showed The Uninvited (1944)with Ray Milland/Ruth Hussey which had a tense close up shot of a scottie terroer dog “Bobby” barking on the full screen. What Pat did not see is just then a couple of Pat’s cats sauntered across the bottom of the stage with their proud tails in silloutte to the screen… When the huge dog barked on screen they must have jumped 10 feet —it was hilarious the whole audience roared.
Yes sometime we did laugh with an old fashioned line or two but it was never to ridicule it was just funny in retrospect…Hearing the name of the “FuzzyWuzzies” in the classic Four Feathers adventure film. I remember one scene of an unremembered old film had the actor saying something like ..“let us go to a secret place so far away, no one knows about”…only to discover the scene blended into a fade in of a common shot of “the lone Cypress” in Monterrey which was a little too close for fellow Silicon Valley viewers to consider so remote! Sometimes we laughed to see how things had changed and what was different over the years…not ever to ridicule but just part of the great enjoyment. Sometimes we laugh for many different reasons but the entertainment was always enriching, wonderful and priceless!
I’ll never forget once my lazy 11 year old balked and complained about her school homework where she needed to learn historic ancient Greek names in history…stubbornly she moaned…“I mean really Mom …who cares who Socrates was…” I insisted she learn them as I told her you never know when that name will come up in conversation…and won’t you feel stupid you didn’t even know who he was, just because you were too lazy to learn!“ Believe it or not, that very night was our Saratoga Vitaphone night and she sunk into her theater chair in acute embarrasment when I roared in laughter when part of the dialogue casually mentioned "Socrates” in the film dialogue! Boy that was rich…(parents 10/children 0) Thank you dear Pat and Vi for contributing to our childrens' love of films, education and enriching film history despite themselves!!! You are always in our memory and you are loved, appreciated and remembered! with love and gratitude—-Eilene Beard