Mark Schweickart
Fred,
Thanks for coming through for me. I knew I could count on you. I am thrilled that I actually came up with the name, "Hunts", because it means there may be hope yet for my fast deteriorating memory cells . However, I think you may be wrong about assigned-seating tickets purchased in advance. I am sure I did not do that, although maybe this was true, as you say, for the first release of the big premium pictures, and so I would assume this would probably not be the case for more run-of-the mill pictures and re-releases. According to the internet, "How the West Was Won" came out in 1962, but I am pretty sure I did not see this until my college days, so it must have been a Cinerama re-release. Similarly, regarding Dave's comment about "This is Cinerama," he described the openiing exactly right because I saw this just a few years ago here in L.A. at the appropriately named Cinerama-Dome Theater. However Dave, you too, must have seen this as a re-release because (again according to the internet) it was initially released in 1954, and as good as your memory is, I doubt you would remember this in such detail from being a six-year old. But then again, given the many other steel-trap memory postings you have done, I probably should not bet on that.
Regarding The Palace Theater, I remember my younger brother Bob and I being dropped off there by my parents to see matinees of "The Shaggy Dog" (apparently, if the internet is to be trusted, in 1959) and "The Absent-Minded Professor" (apparently in 1961). The place was packed with kids, and given the size of that auditorium, that was indeed a lot of screaming kids. It was no wonder that the parents took a pass on accompanying us, and preferred to just pick us up after the show. Ah, flubber! What a concept.
I also had my first-ever date at the Palace Theater. Again a matinee, this time it was "My Fair Lady," and my own fair lady that day was classmate Marcia Spanner. This would have been in 1965, and since the film came out in '64, I suppose Fred is correct in saying the original run would have been at the Hunts Cinestage, and was probably in re-release the following year at the Palace. But it might as well have been "The Absent-Minded Professor," for I was as flubberingly clueless as Fred McMurray, as I awkwardly sat next to Marcia wondering if I should dare touch her hand, but instead just reached for the popcorn as the rain in Spain fell mainly on the plain.
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