When I saw that documentary about movie palaces last week, it conjured memories for me of my own hometown movie houses from Mount Vernon, New York. We were blessed to have two in town and within walking distances. There were others we frequented in the Bronx and Yonkers. But there was nothing more glorious about those two cinematic cathedrals near by. It is worth remembering them once again.
Take, for instance...
The Loews Mount Vernon movie theater.
This cinema house of worship was the site of my first ever movie going experience. My mom took me to the first afternoon showing of "Tom Thumb." Unfortunately, we didn't get far into the movie. I was totally frightened by the dimming of the lights and the opening of the curtain. I screamed mercilessly, which was a bigger problem given that there was nobody else in the theater and the echoes had to be piercing.
Disgusted, my mother dragged me out into the sunlight. I can still feel her anger as she ripped up the tickets out on Stevens Avenue and flung them into the gutter, waxing loudly about this big waste of money. At the time, the two tickets probably cost no more than $1,50. For several years thereafter, my movie attendance was predicated on start times. If it was the first show of the day, we always entered the theater ten minutes into the movie. Curtain already open. Lights already out. I was a happy little camper.
But, once I got over these phobias, the Loews Mount Vernon (like the RKO Proctor Theater a block away) would be an unbelievable childhood haven. Pronounced inexplicably "low-wees," this was one of these three-level movie palaces that just reeked of opulence. I remember the smoking lounge on the second floor was huge. I remember the smoking lounge mostly because my mother was there mostly.
The magnificent lobby was always full of fun little gadgets that heralded movies that would be there in "coming weeks." Sometimes, there would be a big display that clicked through View Master-like screen shots of the movie starting next Wednesday. Indeed, I knew by heart the studios that had deals with Loews. They always got the latest films from MGM, Paramount, and Columbia after they came up from "downtown."
When I was old enough (probably 8 or 9) to venture to the movies by myself, I would spend whole afternoons and days at Loews. I probably saw "Bye Bye Birdie" four or five times in the one week that it played there. For some bizarre reason, I became entranced with the movie "Jumbo" and devoured that a few times over a weekend. After all, once you were in the theater, you could stay all day right through the double feature and then over again.
This theater was also where I experienced the Beatles for the first time. Yep, I was there for the very first Mount Vernon, New York showing of "A Hard Day's Night."
For a little while, one of my neighborhood chums had a grandfather who was the chief ticket ripper at Loews. Even better, he would let us in without the ticket or the ripping. No matter what was playing, he got us in there.
One day, we got the pass and settled in for the movie which made us all incredibly uncomfortable. It was a lot of women and men doing some things we had only heard about in passing whispers. I felt so dirty that I left, raising the eyebrows of the elderly ticket taker who actually got pissed that I was throwing back the free entry. My mom asked me why I was home so early. I replied simply that it was something with the Three Stooges and I had seen it already.
Years later, I saw the offending movie on TV. "Walk on the Wild Side." Jane Fonda barely dressed and living in a whorehouse. Uh-huh. So much for Parental Guidance.
Loews Mount Vernon didn't last for too many years after that as it died several years before the city did. It was replaced by a huge parking garage, which is ironic because there is absolutely no reason to go there.
Next week, we go one block east for the marvelous RKO Proctor's.
Dinner last night: Chicken apple sausage at the Arclight.
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