Movie Memories
My very first trip to the movies
Here's the first trip to the movies I remember.
Mom took me to a kiddie feature at the Midwood. A tiny man-
like creature in a box is given to a princess as a present. As soon
as she falls asleep it comes out of its box. We see its shadow grow
and grow to fill the wall; its giant hand comes down to snatch her
and carry her off.
After the movie Mom checked samples of wall-to-wall carpeting at a
flooring store for an eternity. I knew the movie had some kind of
happy ending but all that stayed with me was that eerie scene. It
gave me nightmares for months and became a permament memory. Mom,
of course, has no memory of the movie or the trip to the
store.
I recently tracked the movie down on video: a cheesy little epic
called Jack the Giant Killer. The matted-in stop-motion monster
looks pretty crude to my now-experienced eye, but that
transformation scene is just as I remembered it. And its STILL
pretty creepy.
Midwood hero at the Midwood moviehouse
Woody Allen was the neighborhood legend. The apartment house on
Avenue K where he grew up. The place on Avenue J where he'd played
pool. My elementary school -- PS 99, just down the block -- had
been his, too. If I ever corner him, I can drive him nuts with our
incredibly dopey school song.
I remember a mid-70s Woody Allen triple bill at the Midwood. Some
telephone bit where he's hard up for a date, calling every girl in
his address book.. ending up with some girls' mother on the phone
and telling her, "she may remember me from Midwood High School" and
the audience roared. There's nothing like a hometown crowd.
Sad to say, that movie theater, where I saw everything from
Jack the Giant Killer to Easy Rider to Scenes
from a Marriage, has been a discount store for several years.
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