During the fifties and sixties we kids loved the Saturday afternoon shows with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. I remember walking by marquee’s announcing the latest movie by Doris Day or Elizabeth Taylor. It’s the place where I first saw “Song of Bernadette” and I wanted to be a nun-saint that very night…. One time around 1962 I saw a “hand-out” in the lobby asking patrons to help put a stop the “terrible” idea of pay-TV called cable. The gloom and doom prediction saw an end to the film industry. lol
I had many good times at the Strand Theater back in the fifties and sixties. I remember the female manager Ann and the Thanksgiving movie special, where the price of admission was a can of food for the poor. I remember the cartoons prior to the movie… My favorite time was standing hours in line with other fans for the special Beatles ticket for the opening of “Hard Days Night.” I didn’t think I could afford the fifty cents admission, but it was the Beatles, so I managed to cough it up. I seem to remember a balcony, and the screaming was so loud during “Hard Days Night,”, no one could hear the dialogue, which at the time didn’t matter much. lol lol lol
I remember the Plainfield Paramount theater very well. Back in 1960 when I was a young girl, sometimes my mother would take me there to see old Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy movies. The theatre was a sea of deep red velvet, yellow-gold sculptures and edgings, and heavily emphasized a by-gone era. I thought it might have once been a place for live acts and first-run movies. How magical it all looked. I remember feeling so sad that entire area was torn down to make way for the “Madison-Park” renewal project, a euphemism for parking lots, then some sort of “mini-park-like” setting in a now-unsafe neighborhood.
During the fifties and sixties we kids loved the Saturday afternoon shows with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. I remember walking by marquee’s announcing the latest movie by Doris Day or Elizabeth Taylor. It’s the place where I first saw “Song of Bernadette” and I wanted to be a nun-saint that very night…. One time around 1962 I saw a “hand-out” in the lobby asking patrons to help put a stop the “terrible” idea of pay-TV called cable. The gloom and doom prediction saw an end to the film industry. lol
I had many good times at the Strand Theater back in the fifties and sixties. I remember the female manager Ann and the Thanksgiving movie special, where the price of admission was a can of food for the poor. I remember the cartoons prior to the movie… My favorite time was standing hours in line with other fans for the special Beatles ticket for the opening of “Hard Days Night.” I didn’t think I could afford the fifty cents admission, but it was the Beatles, so I managed to cough it up. I seem to remember a balcony, and the screaming was so loud during “Hard Days Night,”, no one could hear the dialogue, which at the time didn’t matter much. lol lol lol
I remember the Plainfield Paramount theater very well. Back in 1960 when I was a young girl, sometimes my mother would take me there to see old Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy movies. The theatre was a sea of deep red velvet, yellow-gold sculptures and edgings, and heavily emphasized a by-gone era. I thought it might have once been a place for live acts and first-run movies. How magical it all looked. I remember feeling so sad that entire area was torn down to make way for the “Madison-Park” renewal project, a euphemism for parking lots, then some sort of “mini-park-like” setting in a now-unsafe neighborhood.