Remembrances of the Much Faded Past
Since we still do not have the latest updates from The TFI,BI, possibly due to the weather and internet blackouts, we will instead publish a true life story of a time from long ago. Kind of like reality TV from the late 1950s. It is from an area of southwest Detroit. The territory covered, had boundaries loosely delineated thusly: the edge of Clark Park, to the Cadillac factory, to St. Hedwig Church to Holy Redeemer Church. This was a pretty good sized piece of property. In this land of adventure, romance, hi-jinks, church and school activities and opportunities lost and won, there were many interesting events and characters. Amongst the general population, there were various miscreants, gangs like the Crows and the Bagley Boys, wannabe geniuses, bums, little kids, big kids, morons, has beens, coulda beens, frustrated parents and even dedicated priests and nuns trying to get them all on the track to heaven. There were many local stores and establishments where the population gathered. Some of the more famous located therein, Duly’s, Banner Market, Magic Bakery, Roses Bar, Cozy Sweet Shoppe, Mallon’s Drug Store, Morris Menswear, Pancho’s Chili House, the Kresge Dime Store, Cunningham’s and many more.
In this community, we might find starring roles played by the some of these leading lights, Smiley, Moon, Farouk, Muldoon, Pancho, Charlie Brown, Buzz, even Lawrencie. These were older kids, some who had established a name and were entitled to these nicknames, which many carried the rest of their lives. The younger kids didn’t have well known names and were generally ignored by the ruling class. There were three youngsters, who were sometimes known by the names, Pinkos, Szwapa and Mylenek (Robert, Stevie and Billy), which was also the name festooned on the side of the funeral home opposite St. Hedwig Church. How these names were applied to these kids is still clouded in mystery.
For this chapter of the reality show, we are going to take one day, date uncertain, from sometime in the late 1950s. It would be a Saturday in the summer for sure. The boys were at loose ends and decided that a day at the movies would be the best use of their time. Little did they know, that this happy occupation would soon be something that would fade from the local scene in the next ten years or so and never to be repeated again.
If you were going to the show, it would be the neighborhood movie house—The Stratford (on Vernor Hwy). We had no knowledge of the possible lofty intent of the original owners to connect this theatre to the Bard of Avon. In order to attend the Saturday matinee at the Stratford, it would require the acquisition of one quarter. So it was necessary to find pop bottles to return, parents to be shaken down, piggy banks to be robbed, any means that could produce that twenty five cents. Once arriving at the box office, you would surrender your quarter and receive thirteen cents change. Then you cold proceed into the lobby (semi-air-conditioned) and get into the long line at the concession stand. It was important to get into the theatre as early as possible, so you could buy your movie supplies and still get a seat and not miss any of the show. A typical purchase on that day would be, five cents for a Bonamo’s Turkish Taffy bar (chocolate, banana, vanilla or lemon) one box of popcorn for a nickel and then three pieces of penny candy, maybe a squirrel, Mary Jane, or a small Tootsie Roll. In this tight budget, there was no money for a pop purchase. There was no room for luxuries, and you wanted your snacks to last as long as possible.
Once the purchases were made, you had to go through the narrow door where a surly usher would be standing, ready to take your ticket, tearing it in half and giving you your passport to remain a citizen in good standing in the theatre. Now you had to find a seat as quickly as possible. You didn’t want to sit in the back, as that was not the most advantageous spot to view the movies. If you were lucky, you might find a couple seats on the aisle. This would be perfect. The auditorium was filling rapidly with hundred of other kids. It would be nice if you could get a seat in the balcony, but that was never opened until the lower level was completely packed with no seats available. Waiting for the balcony to open was a chance that was not something you usually took, as they sometimes waited till well after the show started before they would open it up. The ushers prowled the aisles enforcing the rules of the day. NO SAVING SEATS!!! was one of the biggest. You couldn’t try to sit down and occupy four or five seats with just one kid. The usher would just overrule you with brute force and seat another group into your saved seats. You had to stay in your seats until it was safe to get up at some point during the show.
If you had a Bonamo Taffy or a Holloway All Day Sucker, you might reach down to the floor and smack the bar on the floor before you opened the wrapper—that would allow you to have it broken into pieces and wouldn’t have to bite it off. Once the lights began to dim and the bright white light from the projector was hitting the screen, you would see a blizzard of flattened pop corn boxes skimming through the air, like flying saucers from space hitting the screen. This was the kick off. The first thing viewed, would be the previews. It might say, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The following films previewed would all show on those three days, then the next four days of the week would come up, and the films scheduled for those days would be previewed. This was a neighborhood theatre. Only the second and third rate movies would be shown here. If you wanted to see the latest Hollywood Epic, like Around the World in 80 Days, Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, you would have to go to downtown Detroit and see it at the ONE movie theatre that was showing it. If it was a big hit, it might stay there for months, and it would not make it to the local neighborhood theatre for six months or more. What we might be seeing on a Saturday afternoon, were low grade B movies or movies that had been around the block a few times. It could be an old Martin and Lewis film or a Randolph Scot western , or a current movie that was finally hitting the neighborhood theatres. (All movies that were shown at the matinee, were suitable for juvenile viewing.) It could also be one of those Italian epics of ancient times. Those Italian movies might have one American actor as the star and the rest of the cast were all Italians or Greek actors. It was puzzling to us kids, when you watched the guys talk and the words didn’t match what their lips were saying. We thought it was something wrong with the movie or the projector, not being aware of the dubbing process. It kind of ruined our viewing pleasure.
After consuming the majority of the concession stand purchases, you might regret that you didn’t have money for a pop. At this point, it was important to use good strategy. You had to wait till there was a scene in the movie, where the main female star was having a romantic conversation or love scene with one of the male stars, it was here that you could make a dash for the drinking fountain. You would run up the aisle and hopefully find the drinking fountain available. You would suck down as much water as you could in a few seconds and then dash back to your seat —hoping not to miss any important part of the movie. Also, by not buying a big cup of pop, you might not have to run to the bathroom as other saps had to do and thereby taking a chance on missing something very important.
So there you have it, first the previews, then there would be a cartoon and sometimes a news reel. Then the movie would start. You watched the first feature, then after maybe a brief intermission, followed by maybe another cartoon and then the second movie. On a hot summer day, Robert, Stevie and Billy would be sitting in comfort for four hours or more. Their parents were free from having to oversee their latest ill advised adventures for the whole afternoon. It was a break for all the players involved. No cell phones, tweeting or wasted jibber jabber, just a well spent afternoon. On the way home, the boys would discuss the merits of the movies that were seen that day, and whether they would recommend them to any of their friends that didn’t have the chance to get to the show yet. These reviews were better than anything Shirley Eder or Bosley Crowther would come up with in their entertainment columns, and more reliable. Life actually was a little more simple back then.