OCTOBER 1957 LINN THEATRE SCHEDULE CARD

Hey, where's all the scary movies? Is this October schedule a misprint for a different month? Nope, it looks like the Linn Theatre missed out on playing horror movies in October of '57. They even got stuck with a musical comedy on Halloween. At least their schedule card has some nifty Halloween artwork at the top!

This is just the second item I've found related to the Linn Theatre from Linn, Missouri. The first was a beanie cap!

THE VINCENTACULAR VINCENTENNIAL

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Vincent Price’s birth! May has been Vincent Price month in St. Louis, Missouri, the birth place of the master of macabre. I was fortunate to attend a few events of the aptly named Vincentennial.

But first, I want to ramble about why I’m a Vincent Price fan.

I’m not sure when or how I discovered Vincent Price, but it was most certainly from television in the 1970’s. Vincent seemed to show up everywhere on the tube and I quickly fell under his spell of funnies and frights. I’ve always liked my horror mixed with humor and he was tops in that department. From his appearances on Hollywood Squares, surprise cameos on variety shows, the creepy guy on Brady Bunch, to one of my favorite guests on The Muppet Show. I didn’t see too many of his films until the late 70’s or early 80’s when we got cable TV. That’s when my appreciation really kicked into high gear. He was such an amazing actor and it’s hard to pick a favorite VP film. For me, it’s probably House on Haunted Hill. It was a sad day when the world lost Vincent in 1993 just a few days before Halloween. He continues to live on through his films, his art books, cookbooks and especially through events like Vincentennial.

Even though, I only had a small sampling of Vincentennial in St. Louis this past weekend. I can say the first lady and I had a most excellent time!

The Vincentennial is the brainchild of St. Louis native Tom Stockman and big props to Tom and his crew for putting on such a memorable event. The Vincentennial is one part film festival, one part art gallery, one part museum and one part horror convention. We jumped in with a showing of the classic William Castle flick, The Tingler, at the historic Hi-Pointe Theatre.

It was fun seeing this movie with an audience complete with “scare the audience” gimmicks that tried to recapture Castle’s Percepto. Yes, for a moment the Tingler was loose in the theater!

The next day we visited Star Clipper Comics to view Vincent Price Presents, an art gallery featuring many talented artists from St. Louis paying tribute to Vincent. I neglected to take photos, but you can see a sampling at We Are Movie Geeks.

Afterwards, we spent some time at the Sheldon Art Galleries to view an amazing collection of Vincent Price artifacts and memorabilia. On display is his baby book, personal letters (one to Evie Karloff in condolences to the passing of Boris on Holiday Inn stationary), photographs, toys & models, movie posters and even two life-size Price characters. Check out The Sounds of Vincent Price Blog for an excellent tour video of this museum display.


Dr. Phibes looks too life like and kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies. The Prof. Jarrod figure from House of Wax is wearing the original screen used costume from the 1953 film!

Later that night we returned to the Hi-Pointe for a viewing of The Tomb of Ligeia.


This was Roger Corman’s last Edgar Allen Poe film with Vincent Price and it was really a treat to see. Especially since I had never seen the whole film. Back when I was a kid, I could never sit through it. The gothic romance thing just wasn’t exciting to a ten year old. Before the film, Roger Corman showed up in-person and talked about his films with Vincent Price.


It was an excellent interview by Rondo award winning Tim Lucas, editor of Video Watchdog. DownRightCreepy.com posted the entire interview in eight parts. Watch the first part here and follow the links on YouTube for the rest of the interview. I now have a new fondness for The Tomb of Ligeia and now I want a pair of those cool sun glasses Vincent wears. Did he steal those from the Invisible Man?

(Oops, sorry to interrupt this post, but I just took a break and walked outside. The neighbors cat was staring at me and showing his best impression of the movie poster.)

After the movie, there was a nice video greeting from Elizabeth Shepherd who plays Lady Rowena. She was scheduled to be at the showing, but had a conflict with a stage play she is starring in. It was a perfect ending to the evening.

Today, I scribbled Vincent as Vernon Fell for a simple tribute.

He kinda looks more like Willy Wonka, but I wanted to draw something for today's festivities.

Here’s some more photos of the Hi-Pointe.






We had a neato cool weekend celebrating Vincent’s 100th. Hey, I even caught up with some blogger pals like Karswell, and Max the Drunken Severed Head.

If you’re in St. Louis today, be sure to catch The Vincent Price Legacy: Reflections From a Daughter with Victoria Price tonight at 7:00. Tomorrow night at 8:30 is an outdoor screening of Edward Scissorhands. The display at the Sheldon Art Galleries goes on until Aug. 6.

One last thing. I found this 1954 St. Louis Studio ad from an old St. Louis Magazine called Prom. It advertises Portraits by Vincent Price. Maybe some of the VP experts will know about this. Did this studio have a gallery of some of VP's photographs?


Now I'm off to watch some Vincent Price movies. See you at the next Vincentennial in a hundred years!

LET'S ALL GO TO THE MAJESTIC

Last summer we took a detour on the way to Chicago and visited the town of Streator. This Illinois town has a gem of a theater known as the Majestic. The 85-year-old theater had a complete restoration in 2007.



We were hoping to see Toy Story 3 here, but the town had a power shortage just minutes before we arrived.




We waited in the lobby hoping the power would come back on, but it never did. Even though our matinee was canceled, we did enjoy viewing the theater’s collection of old movie cameras on display in the lobby. It was too crowded and kind of dark for photos, but I did manage to snap a photo of the logo from a VistaVision camera.


After a nice visit with the owners we moved onto Chicago. And yes we did catch a late showing of Toy Story 3, but in a modern theater. One of these days, I hope to get back to the Majestic and catch a flick. Maybe next time the power will stay on!

The Majestic's website can be found here and their facebook page here.

OLD MOVIE THEATER STUFF ON FLICKR

Last week, I archived most of my movie theater collection on flickr. Yep, for years I’ve collected old tickets, postcards, snapshots and miscellaneous stuff relating to old movie theaters. When I'm out and about digging in antique stores or flea markets and I see a theater trinket - I buy it. (Well, if its on the cheap I do!) So many movie theaters from palaces to small town cinemas to ozoners have disappeared from the landscape. The only things we have left to remember them by are the photos and memorabilia that somehow survived. For more than a century, many generations have the shared memory of going to the movies. Unfortunately, not too many people ever thought to snap a photo of their local theater or keep their ticket stubs. As much as I love going to the movies, I never thought about taking a photograph of a theater until the mid-90's. You can see my set of theater photos here and my new set with theater stuff here.

Every theater has a story that can be just as interesting and dramatic as the movies they played on the screen. For example - the photo of the Burns Theatre below comes from a postcard in my collection.


This small town theater in Newport, Vermont had the oddest (and disturbing) giveaway promotion of any theater. They gave away a human baby girl! Yes, according to a post on the Cinema Treasures page for this theater, a little baby girl was to be given away back in 1939.

Some theaters have fun and clever names like the Lucky 13 Drive-In. Here's a ticket from this extinct drive-in once located in Boliver, Missouri.


Most theaters handed out little schedules listing what movies will be shown during the week or month. Most of these have fun graphics or picture a popular movie star. I like this one with the pair of giant penguins that have trapped a poor helpless movie theater in a block of ice.


So far, I’ve archived more than 300 theater items and in this set. Maybe you’ll find something related to a theater in your hometown or a theater that your parents or grandparents might have talked about. Periodically I’ll add more items to the set.



I’ll leave you with this scan - the cover of a herald from M.G.M.’s The Hollywood Revue of 1929 along with a great scene from the movie.


It stars Gus Edwards singing Lon Chaney’s Goin’ to Get You If You Don’t Watch Out. It has ugly dancing monsters and cute dancing girls!

Video uploaded by Mitch0115 a relative of Gus Edwards.

CAPITAL 4 THEATRES IS CLOSING

One of the last movie theaters from my youth is about to fade away. The Capital 4, located in the Capital Mall in Jefferson City, Missouri is closing Aug. 27. This makes me a little sad.


The Capital 4 might not be a movie palace, but for me it has lots of fun memories. Most of them are from the mid to late 80's when it was fun to go to the mall hang out with friends, play video games at the Land of Oz arcade, snack at the food court and see a flick at the Capital 4.

One of the first movies I saw here back when the theater was new is one of my favorite movie theater memories. Apparently, the theater opened sometime in 1979 or 80 and then it was just the Capital 2. I was ten years old and bored out of my mind tagging along with my mom and grandma Christmas shopping in the mall. We happened to walk by the theater and I noticed Flash Gordon was playing.


Just like in the Queen song, “Flash - ah - he’ll save ev’ry one of us”, Flash saved me from a dreary day of shopping. After pleading with my mom to see the movie by myself she reluctantly agreed. Wow, this was a historic day for me ‘cause it was the first movie I would see by myself! Boy, did I take advantage of my new found freedom. I ordered some cotton candy, large popcorn, large soda and a box of candy. I think it was a box of Junior Mints since that was my movie candy of choice. With my arms full I took my seat way down in front and was lost in the wonderful world of Flash Gordon!

This past Saturday I ended my run with the Capital 4 Theatre with another great space fantasy and one of this year’s best movies, Star Trek.

Here’s some photos -








Big thanks to one of the managers for letting me snap a few pics of the projector.

Also, check out Cinema Tour for some photos from the late 90's.

I'll end this with a quote from Prince Vultan - "Oh well, who wants to live forever?"

Good bye Capital 4, you will be mised!

ST. LOUIS DRIVE-INS MATCHBOOK COVER

Learn more about these extinct Wehrenberg Drive-In Theaters with these links.
Ronnie's
South-Twin
66 Park-In

CHICAGO'S GRANADA THEATER 1929 SNAPSHOT PHOTO

This tinted snapshot of the Granada Theater is dated August 25, 1929. The theater was designed by Edward Eichenbaum and was built in 1926. Sadly, it was demolished in 1990. Lots of wonderful info and memories at Cinema Treasures.

JAWS MOBILE

Dun dun dun dun dun. . . here comes the Jaws Mobile!


According to the clipping below the Jaws Mobile terrorized the highways and theater parking lots in Cincinnati and was created by Don Wirtz, promotion director for Mid States Theatres.


Clipping is from August 25, 1975 Boxoffice magazine.

WEYMOUTH DRIVE-IN THEATRE MATCHBOOK

The Weymouth Drive-In opened in 1936 and is considered the fifth drive-in to ever show movies under the stars. View Cinema Treasures profile here.

1924 BAKERSFIELD THEATRE NEWS PROGRAM

Info links to the California Theatre, Pastime Theatre and The New Hippodrome.

THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD THEATER DISPLAY

Check out this clipping from the August 25, 1975 Boxoffice Magazine.


The managers of AMC’s Indian Springs 4 theaters inside the Indian Springs Mall located in Kansas City, KS knew how to promote a movie. It reminds of a giant Fisher-Price Movie Viewer!

HEART DRIVE-IN THEATER MATCHBOOK COVER

CinemaTour's Heart Drive-In Theatre profile with photos.