Going to the movie theater was a magical event for me as a child, for it represented an opportunity to escape into a fascinating world of fantasy where anything could happen. It provided entertaining stories full of animation and fun on a massive scale incomparable to what could be seen on television. The screens were wider, the sound was louder, and the experience would be accompanied by lots of popcorn. And so it was with great enthusiasm that I would rush with great enthusiasm to the front porch every Friday morning to get the daily newspaper.
There were two newspapers covering the local events : The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald. My parents chose the Herald because it was cheaper. Although the Morning News had a stronger reputation and a strong team of writers to back that reputation, its competitor seemed like the better paper since the articles were written to reach a larger crowd, at least that's the way it seemed to me at the time because I could read them more easily.
Regardless, I grabbed the latest issue of the Herald each Friday and searched to the find the F section of the paper, possibly standing for Fine Arts. The odd thing was that it didn't cover much of the museum exhibitions, art galleries, dancing shows, and theatrical performances. Instead, it focused the majority of its space to the latest in motion picture entertainment. And that's what I was after.
As usual, the front page contained reviews of the latest new releases. I always checked here first to see if my favorite have-to-see films were opening at theaters. If not, I still looked there to see what might grab my interest. At first, I didn't care about what the reviews said, for I was just interested if the films were being released that particular weekend. This changed as I grew older, for I began to become curious what others had to say about the film I wanted to watch. I first looked at the bottom to see the letter grade, often getting angry at the critic if he gave a low grade, for critics were just as arrogant and snobby then as they are now. I then read the first few paragraphs of the article to find out about the film's plot, hoping the writer wouldn't spoil anything in the early stages of the critique like some liked to do on occasion. And I tried my best never to venture past the fourth paragraph unless I had already seen the movie because the critics had the tendency to reveal all the major plots. There was also the matter of getting angry if I forgot to look at the letter grade or wanted to find out why that particular grade had been given. This resulted in much frustration with the author, even though on many occasions I had not seen the movie when I forgot about the possibility of spoilers. As it turned out, getting frustrated with the critics was a common occurrence because they only seemed to like were boring dramas with subtitles that lasted longer than three hours. The only exception seemed to be a writer named Philip Wunch, a name I still remember for reasons unknown. Because he was the exception to the rule, I often viewed critics as the enemy of real entertainment and tried to spend as little time as possible with them. Besides, there were more important things to view in Section F.
After the reviews, movie advertisements of all sizes started filling the pages. The small ones usually mentioned small-budgeted films, adult flicks, foreign films, and upcoming movies. Depending on the anticipated success, some of the ads revealed movies which were planned to be released a year later. They usually had a simple banner with the words “Coming Next Year” or “Coming in 1978”. As time wore on, the message would change to “Coming This Summer” or “Coming This June”, often showing in the paper before the trailer was released. A new font would appear and sometimes a fee images or illustrations would join them. Names of the cast were displayed as well. The ads would become bigger as time marched on. Instead of giving a general date, a countdown would start, showing the phrases “Three Months to Opening”, “Two Months To Opening”, “One Month . . .”, “Two Weeks . . .”, “One Week”, and finally : “This Friday”. The ad became larger. More illustrations, pictures, and more were added. Quotes from movie critics, famous and unknown, appeared along the sides. The director, main actors, and production crew were listed at the bottom. And at the top was a phrase that would dominate the top of every major ad as the movie came roaring in : “Grand Opening”. Everything was a grand opening for a movie that promised to be popular. These ads often took an entire page by the public premier and sometimes received the honor of being in full color, effectively making them a mini-poster. Of course, such special treatment was reserved for the big films. The other movies got half a page if they were lucky and might get a color ad on rare occasions. At the bottom of each ad, regardless of size, there would be a list of all the theaters where it was playing, along with the showtimes and any special audio system being used.
In addition to announcing the grand opening of a new movie, ads also displayed the declaration that it was the film's “First Big Day”. Everything seemed to be big in this regard. There was the “First Big Weekend”, “First Big Week”, “Second Big Week”, “Third Big Week”, “First Big Month”, and many other “bigs” to continue if the movie did well. If a film was an enormous success theaters decided to renew their leases of it, the movie was “Held Over”, “Held Over One More Month”, and “Held Over Again”. The number of times this occurred would be impossible to count, making you wonder if they were making some of it up.
Of course, all good things must come to an end, including movie runs at the theater. Whenever it came time for a film to leave the cinema, it was a big thing because there were no videocassettes or cable channels. If a movie was popular, it might return to theaters in five years, if you were lucky. They might arrive on television in seven years, but they would be filled to the rim with commercials and edited to remove objectionable material or shorten the length for broadcast purposes. Lesser films found their way to TV in three years or maybe less with the same editing practices. The really bad movies sometimes skipped the prime time spot and went straight to the channels showing reruns, often referred to as the U-Channels. Regardless of the method used to arrive at the small screen, if you missed the showing, there was a big chance that you would have to wait another year or two before seeing it again. To make things worse, there was no way to record them if you forgot about it, had to go grocery shopping, or perform some other errand.
Such uncertainty of watching your favorite movies again at your own leisure made the departure from local theater a big thing. Ads declaring “Now Showing” transformed into ominous proclamations that the movie would soon disappear. To emphasize this, they posted countdown messages of “Final Two Weeks”, “Final Week”, “Five More Days”, “Three More Days”, and “Final Day”. Obviously, this was done to ensure that the studios could get as much money as they could during this period. Such was the world of newspaper advertising.
There were two newspapers covering the local events : The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald. My parents chose the Herald because it was cheaper. Although the Morning News had a stronger reputation and a strong team of writers to back that reputation, its competitor seemed like the better paper since the articles were written to reach a larger crowd, at least that's the way it seemed to me at the time because I could read them more easily.
Regardless, I grabbed the latest issue of the Herald each Friday and searched to the find the F section of the paper, possibly standing for Fine Arts. The odd thing was that it didn't cover much of the museum exhibitions, art galleries, dancing shows, and theatrical performances. Instead, it focused the majority of its space to the latest in motion picture entertainment. And that's what I was after.
As usual, the front page contained reviews of the latest new releases. I always checked here first to see if my favorite have-to-see films were opening at theaters. If not, I still looked there to see what might grab my interest. At first, I didn't care about what the reviews said, for I was just interested if the films were being released that particular weekend. This changed as I grew older, for I began to become curious what others had to say about the film I wanted to watch. I first looked at the bottom to see the letter grade, often getting angry at the critic if he gave a low grade, for critics were just as arrogant and snobby then as they are now. I then read the first few paragraphs of the article to find out about the film's plot, hoping the writer wouldn't spoil anything in the early stages of the critique like some liked to do on occasion. And I tried my best never to venture past the fourth paragraph unless I had already seen the movie because the critics had the tendency to reveal all the major plots. There was also the matter of getting angry if I forgot to look at the letter grade or wanted to find out why that particular grade had been given. This resulted in much frustration with the author, even though on many occasions I had not seen the movie when I forgot about the possibility of spoilers. As it turned out, getting frustrated with the critics was a common occurrence because they only seemed to like were boring dramas with subtitles that lasted longer than three hours. The only exception seemed to be a writer named Philip Wunch, a name I still remember for reasons unknown. Because he was the exception to the rule, I often viewed critics as the enemy of real entertainment and tried to spend as little time as possible with them. Besides, there were more important things to view in Section F.
After the reviews, movie advertisements of all sizes started filling the pages. The small ones usually mentioned small-budgeted films, adult flicks, foreign films, and upcoming movies. Depending on the anticipated success, some of the ads revealed movies which were planned to be released a year later. They usually had a simple banner with the words “Coming Next Year” or “Coming in 1978”. As time wore on, the message would change to “Coming This Summer” or “Coming This June”, often showing in the paper before the trailer was released. A new font would appear and sometimes a fee images or illustrations would join them. Names of the cast were displayed as well. The ads would become bigger as time marched on. Instead of giving a general date, a countdown would start, showing the phrases “Three Months to Opening”, “Two Months To Opening”, “One Month . . .”, “Two Weeks . . .”, “One Week”, and finally : “This Friday”. The ad became larger. More illustrations, pictures, and more were added. Quotes from movie critics, famous and unknown, appeared along the sides. The director, main actors, and production crew were listed at the bottom. And at the top was a phrase that would dominate the top of every major ad as the movie came roaring in : “Grand Opening”. Everything was a grand opening for a movie that promised to be popular. These ads often took an entire page by the public premier and sometimes received the honor of being in full color, effectively making them a mini-poster. Of course, such special treatment was reserved for the big films. The other movies got half a page if they were lucky and might get a color ad on rare occasions. At the bottom of each ad, regardless of size, there would be a list of all the theaters where it was playing, along with the showtimes and any special audio system being used.
In addition to announcing the grand opening of a new movie, ads also displayed the declaration that it was the film's “First Big Day”. Everything seemed to be big in this regard. There was the “First Big Weekend”, “First Big Week”, “Second Big Week”, “Third Big Week”, “First Big Month”, and many other “bigs” to continue if the movie did well. If a film was an enormous success theaters decided to renew their leases of it, the movie was “Held Over”, “Held Over One More Month”, and “Held Over Again”. The number of times this occurred would be impossible to count, making you wonder if they were making some of it up.
Of course, all good things must come to an end, including movie runs at the theater. Whenever it came time for a film to leave the cinema, it was a big thing because there were no videocassettes or cable channels. If a movie was popular, it might return to theaters in five years, if you were lucky. They might arrive on television in seven years, but they would be filled to the rim with commercials and edited to remove objectionable material or shorten the length for broadcast purposes. Lesser films found their way to TV in three years or maybe less with the same editing practices. The really bad movies sometimes skipped the prime time spot and went straight to the channels showing reruns, often referred to as the U-Channels. Regardless of the method used to arrive at the small screen, if you missed the showing, there was a big chance that you would have to wait another year or two before seeing it again. To make things worse, there was no way to record them if you forgot about it, had to go grocery shopping, or perform some other errand.
Such uncertainty of watching your favorite movies again at your own leisure made the departure from local theater a big thing. Ads declaring “Now Showing” transformed into ominous proclamations that the movie would soon disappear. To emphasize this, they posted countdown messages of “Final Two Weeks”, “Final Week”, “Five More Days”, “Three More Days”, and “Final Day”. Obviously, this was done to ensure that the studios could get as much money as they could during this period. Such was the world of newspaper advertising.