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“I am never going to the movies again!” said Uncle Max, our next door neighbor. He wasn’t our uncle but that’s what our parents told us to call him. He was cantankerous for sure, but a nice guy.
He had bought an expensive home entertainment system. In the 1950s and 1960s, even into the 1970s, you got them at a FURNITURE store! This was a six or seven foot long finished wooden unit with several compartments. He had a 25 inch color TV (we had a 12 inch black and white) an Emerson stereo record player, an AM/FM Tuner and a refrigerator and bar built in. With today’s money it ran him about $10,000! (with no remote controls)
Of course there was no internet, VCRs, DVDs ore even movie encyclopedias then. In that era New York had six stations, three network and three independents. (Indies). The indies had a lot of cartoons, reruns, sports and a lot of movies from the 1940s. These movies were perfect for TV. They were ¾, black and white and were usually 90-100 minutes long, so they fit comfortably into a two hour slot with commercials. Also, they were made era of the strong Hollywood code so censorship was never an issue.
Modern movies then were rare on the networks. CBS syndicated the Late Show movie which ran opposite then Tonight show. They also had the Early show movies. Both of these were usually older films. ABC had the 90 minute “4:30” movie which severely cut up 2 hours movies to fit a 90 minute slot (with 20 minutes of commercials). These movies were old, but not ancient and they had theme weeks: Sci Fi, Western, War. etc.
Starting the in the early 1960s, NBC presented “Saturday Night at the Movies.” This was a big deal. These were recent movies. However they were cut up to fit the time slot, panned and scanned and anything to do with sex, to much violence, social issues such as race, were cut out. This often made the movie or scenes in it, incomprehensible because they just didn’t cut out word, but whole sections of dialogue…and many scenes. Why they would attempt to broadcast a movie like “Midnight Cowboy” evades me. But it was big money so many movies, (Including Superman II) shot additional scenes and dialogue so an understandable movie could be shown on TV.
So seeing these crappy cut up, unintelligible movies, Uncle Max, complete with his new entertainment system, said that he was never going to the movies again! They were all garbage. When I explain what they did to movies on TV, he said that he did not have to the theatre to see nudity, bad language or “issues” he just wanted a good story. When I told him about a good movie, he’d say, “but it was no Casablanca, or Maltese Falcon or Gone With the Wind. The movies of the 1940s were great, they only make garbage today.” Of course few movies can compare to them.
Then came my biggest surprise at the time. I spent my lunch hour in the school library reading the microfilm of old newspapers. One day I went to the entertainment section of the NY Times for the early 1940s. There was no TV so entertainment then was Plays, radio and the biggy was Movies, which took up several pages. There were ten times as many movies out before TV and dozens more movie theatres. These theatres were palaces, holding a thousand seats, not like the smaller theaters we have today. (Of course there were NO multiplexes). Most theatres showed double features, and “A” and a “B” movie. The paper had small reviews for each movie and a bigger one for ones that just opened.
WELL, MOST OF THESE MOVIES WERE CRAP AND NEVER EVEN MADE ONTO TV. They did not survive at all. So what we were really getting all these years, “the best of that era.” Max did not even remember these pictures, some with big stars or stars that would become big. Nor did he know that “The Maltese Falcon” and the “Wizard of Oz” were remakes!
But he just wanted to see films that were a reflection of the era of his youth and showed the world the way he wanted to remember it.
So Max missed movies including: Psycho, The Magnificent Seven, Lawrence of Arabia, Goldfinger, Birdman of Alcatraz, Fail Safe, A Shot in the Dark, The Godfather, Odd Couple, Rocky and a zillion other films I knew he would have liked.
I REALLY swore that I would NEVER do that. I still go to the (smaller) movie houses and see new movies. Of course, I can now see at home, in great comfort, the full movies with the theatre experience but better surround sound. I notice that I like seeing the “smaller” movies at home “42,” “Midnight in Paris” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”
I do like original films, I really like seeing something new. The Man of Steel and Star Trek movies did not have original plots, but were still fun to see, but I left a bit disappointed because they rehashed old plotlines.
This site, and similar ones, tend to stress the male audience oriented high octane, loud and action packed movies, often showing the Earth being destroyed. Heat and any other movie with Sandra Bullock, for example (except Speed) will not be discussed. Only on these sites does a movie get a good review because it has great “LFE.”
His was my first, but every once in a while I wonder what Uncle Max would say if he had seen my Home Entertainment system.
He had bought an expensive home entertainment system. In the 1950s and 1960s, even into the 1970s, you got them at a FURNITURE store! This was a six or seven foot long finished wooden unit with several compartments. He had a 25 inch color TV (we had a 12 inch black and white) an Emerson stereo record player, an AM/FM Tuner and a refrigerator and bar built in. With today’s money it ran him about $10,000! (with no remote controls)
Of course there was no internet, VCRs, DVDs ore even movie encyclopedias then. In that era New York had six stations, three network and three independents. (Indies). The indies had a lot of cartoons, reruns, sports and a lot of movies from the 1940s. These movies were perfect for TV. They were ¾, black and white and were usually 90-100 minutes long, so they fit comfortably into a two hour slot with commercials. Also, they were made era of the strong Hollywood code so censorship was never an issue.
Modern movies then were rare on the networks. CBS syndicated the Late Show movie which ran opposite then Tonight show. They also had the Early show movies. Both of these were usually older films. ABC had the 90 minute “4:30” movie which severely cut up 2 hours movies to fit a 90 minute slot (with 20 minutes of commercials). These movies were old, but not ancient and they had theme weeks: Sci Fi, Western, War. etc.
Starting the in the early 1960s, NBC presented “Saturday Night at the Movies.” This was a big deal. These were recent movies. However they were cut up to fit the time slot, panned and scanned and anything to do with sex, to much violence, social issues such as race, were cut out. This often made the movie or scenes in it, incomprehensible because they just didn’t cut out word, but whole sections of dialogue…and many scenes. Why they would attempt to broadcast a movie like “Midnight Cowboy” evades me. But it was big money so many movies, (Including Superman II) shot additional scenes and dialogue so an understandable movie could be shown on TV.
So seeing these crappy cut up, unintelligible movies, Uncle Max, complete with his new entertainment system, said that he was never going to the movies again! They were all garbage. When I explain what they did to movies on TV, he said that he did not have to the theatre to see nudity, bad language or “issues” he just wanted a good story. When I told him about a good movie, he’d say, “but it was no Casablanca, or Maltese Falcon or Gone With the Wind. The movies of the 1940s were great, they only make garbage today.” Of course few movies can compare to them.
Then came my biggest surprise at the time. I spent my lunch hour in the school library reading the microfilm of old newspapers. One day I went to the entertainment section of the NY Times for the early 1940s. There was no TV so entertainment then was Plays, radio and the biggy was Movies, which took up several pages. There were ten times as many movies out before TV and dozens more movie theatres. These theatres were palaces, holding a thousand seats, not like the smaller theaters we have today. (Of course there were NO multiplexes). Most theatres showed double features, and “A” and a “B” movie. The paper had small reviews for each movie and a bigger one for ones that just opened.
WELL, MOST OF THESE MOVIES WERE CRAP AND NEVER EVEN MADE ONTO TV. They did not survive at all. So what we were really getting all these years, “the best of that era.” Max did not even remember these pictures, some with big stars or stars that would become big. Nor did he know that “The Maltese Falcon” and the “Wizard of Oz” were remakes!
But he just wanted to see films that were a reflection of the era of his youth and showed the world the way he wanted to remember it.
So Max missed movies including: Psycho, The Magnificent Seven, Lawrence of Arabia, Goldfinger, Birdman of Alcatraz, Fail Safe, A Shot in the Dark, The Godfather, Odd Couple, Rocky and a zillion other films I knew he would have liked.
I REALLY swore that I would NEVER do that. I still go to the (smaller) movie houses and see new movies. Of course, I can now see at home, in great comfort, the full movies with the theatre experience but better surround sound. I notice that I like seeing the “smaller” movies at home “42,” “Midnight in Paris” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”
I do like original films, I really like seeing something new. The Man of Steel and Star Trek movies did not have original plots, but were still fun to see, but I left a bit disappointed because they rehashed old plotlines.
This site, and similar ones, tend to stress the male audience oriented high octane, loud and action packed movies, often showing the Earth being destroyed. Heat and any other movie with Sandra Bullock, for example (except Speed) will not be discussed. Only on these sites does a movie get a good review because it has great “LFE.”
His was my first, but every once in a while I wonder what Uncle Max would say if he had seen my Home Entertainment system.
