Still more lazy thoughts from this one…

TMT: Sometimes a Great Movie

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This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time, a series that was begun here. Hard to believe I’ve any memories left for movies experiences and coming of age. Didn’t think I had much reason to revisit 1971 as it really, really wasn’t a great year for me1. This particular memory download sparked by a recent Trailers From Hell video (see below), involving a film practically no one saw. So, let’s examine the experience as it seemed tailor-made for this less-than-wonderful time, shall we?

Theatre

The Huntington Park Warner Theatre:


Movie

Time

December 19, 1971: Perhaps it’s not fair, but I’m going to blame my mother’s sisters for this. While Mom instilled a love of reading from afar2, my aunts would do the same for film closer to home. Can’t tell you how many times they’d drop by mi abuelita’s home on weekends or Sunday dinners — later for the free nana babysitting — and talk about the movies they’d seen amongst themselves. And since Paul Newman was hitting his initial peak during the ’60s, he was prime material while growing up.

Hell, he and my aunts were why I took in his later disaster movie.

By the time 1971 was coming to a (thankful) close, movie-watching for me offered a great respite for this now high school senior. More often than not, that now fond activity came with family or friends, or sometimes with a girl I was attracted to, sharing the experience. The latter was helped by my acquired 1963 Ford Falcon station wagon; yet it and my junior year ended with a low point the previous Spring. My mother’s favorite saying3 then caused me to reflect back on it all.

Or that’s what I told myself.

I came to the sudden realization this was my last Christmas school break ever from high school. Since Kindergarten, for almost 13 years, how I enjoyed those last two weeks off of school. Sleeping late and wondering what the yuletide season would bring dominated my thoughts at this time. But what would the future usher in after my own graduation from the cauldron in six months’ time? Both mom and grandma made it quite clear they wanted me headed to college right after.

Oh… joy.

Had already gotten a job permit from the patriarchal school administration, and for a time was a part-time janitor at a hardware store in nearby Huntington Park. So, working for a living didn’t seem a big deal, or so I thought. Wait, am I expected to leave home and get my own place after getting out of high school? But why worry about that as my obligation to register for the Draft4 was nearing, and my chances of getting picked for Vietnam were better than even money.

Great.

With me meandering about, and days before Mom’s clan would again gather on Christmas Eve at Ma’s grand central station home, went back to my favored local movie theater to check on Ol’ Blue Eyes and his most recent flick, Sometimes a Great Notion. And like the year itself, this Newman-directed movie wasn’t what I’d expected. Full of messy unforeseen family conflicts, surprising and tragic. Glad I got through it and the year only slightly scathed. The rest of the decade would surely be better.

Never more wrong was I.

The entire TMT series can be found here. If you’re interested how it’s put together, click here.

  1. Let’s see — managed to get my jaw broken and a few teeth missing from a car accident on Dearborn Avenue with a 1935 Pontiac, and the only reason I turned down that street was to catch a glance of the high school senior I crushed on since 1969. Who also up and graduated a few weeks later. So not a great year and with a bit of heartbreak to give it that added flavor. ↩
  2. Through no fault of her own, I ended up in her mother’s house from age four on due to my Mom’s health taking a turn for the worse (and being hospitalized) and good old dad abandoning his second marriage (and second set of kids). As the old man would say, “Life ain’t fair, so suck it up.” ↩
  3. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” ~ Socrates. ↩
  4. “In the United States, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.” ~ Wikipedia ↩

14 Responses to “TMT: Sometimes a Great Movie”

    • le0pard13's avatar le0pard13

      It’s been a very enjoyable series to do and sometimes I see things in a different light when reflecting back and writing about them. Who knew. Thank you very much, Rachel.

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    • le0pard13's avatar le0pard13

      Oh, I very much agree, J.D. The old movie palaces could be greater to experience than what was onscreen, but when it featured a great film, just made the whole experience that much more memorable. Thanks for the comment, my friend. 🙂

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  5. J.D.'s avatar J.D.

    What a cool-looking movie theater! Man, I miss those old movie theaters that used to be theaters from years gone by. They had so much character, not sterile like the multiplexes we have now.

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    • le0pard13's avatar le0pard13

      Yep. Many of today’s cineplexes don’t have any real character. You may enjoy the movie, but the experience is lacking. It all just blends into the background and becomes easy to forget. Thanks again, J.D. 🙂

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