Monstrous Marquees

[Hepcat]

Get me a time machine & a ticket to Nebraska, I'm there!!!

I need to get my Delorean fixed and go back in time.

And not just for the first run flicks at proper theatres! I want to scour all the variety stores for cards, comics, magazines, model kits, rack toys, etc. I want to hit all the five-and-dime stores and department store toy departments. I want to scour every hobby shop, hardware store, book store, five-and-dime for whatever cool model kits they'd have. Finally, I'd like to hit all the fabulous diners, drive-ins, lunch counters at five-and-dime stores and drug store soda fountains for breakfast, lunch and supper! Then of course there would be the cars at auto dealerships...! Oh man....

 

[Mord]

And not just for the first run flicks at proper theatres! I want to scour all the variety stores for cards, comics, magazines, model kits, rack toys, etc. I want to hit all the five-and-dime stores and department store toy departments. I want to scour every hobby shop, hardware store, book store, five-and-dime for whatever cool model kits they'd have. Finally, I'd like to hit all the fabulous diners, drive-ins, lunch counters at five-and-dime stores and drug store soda fountains for breakfast, lunch and supper! Then of course there would be the cars at auto dealerships...! Oh man....

 

If I stayed long enough, I'd ask the theaters if I could have some movie posters & lobby cards. Hell, I might not come back. I'd wait to the 60's and pick up first run Auroras, Don Posts, & Marx stuff.

[Scatter]

Today, all these films would be shown (without such fanfare) in one twenty mini theaters in the multiplex. Such a shame.

A puke-worthy thought.

[Mord]

A puke-worthy thought.

Yeah, and they don't give you those cool barf bags anymore.

[Monsters For Sale]

This is taken from a linen postcard.  It was not uncommon for a postcard company to use paintings of photographs for their cards.  Color photography was difficult and very expensive in the early years.


(Click on picture for full-sized image.)

Ghost of Frankenstein, The  &  Design For Scandal - Garde - New London, Connecticut - 1942

[Monsters For Sale]

This is an interesting photo for a couple reasons.


(Click on picture for full-sized image.)

Tom Sawyer & Gorilla, The - Pastime AKA: Greenfield - Milwaukee, Wisconsin - 1930

"Tom Sawyer" stars Jackie Coogan, who would play Uncle Fester on "The Addams Family" TV show.  He would reprise the role of Tom in 1931's "Huckleberry Finn".  (Note all the boys on the street are wearing the style cap that Jackie was photographed wearing so often.)

"The Gorilla" was the first talkie version of a man killing people under the guise of a gorilla.  This 1930 version starred Joe Frisco and Walter Pidgeon.  A silent version had been done in 1927, starring Charles Murray and Walter Pidgeon.  "The Gorilla" would be remade again in 1939, starring the Ritz Brothers, Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi.

[Scatter]

This is officially my favorite thread!

[Monsters For Sale]

When the Screaming Stops,  Walk of the Dead  &  Stark Raving Mad - Dallas Drive-In - Dallas, Pennsylvania - Sometime between 1983 (When "Stark Raving Mad" was released) and 1985 (When the Dallas closed)

[Monsters For Sale]

Same movie, two different cities:




Gorgo  &  Sniper's Ridge - Capitol - Rome, New York - 1961.

(This doesn't look like a summer release.  Everyone is dressed very warm.)


And...



Gorgo - Fox - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 1961. 

(That's snow in the foreground.)

[Monsters For Sale]

A classic in every sense of the word:




Psycho - DeMille - New York City, New York - 1960.

(Note the incomplete sign to the right warning patrons that "No one will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance."  There were also signs in all theatres warning movie-goes not to give away the ending.  I will never forget them - I was still 13 when "Psycho" came to our little theatre.)


The big studios thought the subject matter was too distasteful and refused to put up the money for this film.  Hitchcock produced it independently and shot it on the familiar Universal back lot at what was then being called Review Studios.

Hitchcock died in 1980.  Two years later, Universal began pumping out a string of sequels and a scene-for-scene remake.

In the original film, Anthony Perkins affected a nervous habit of popping candy corn in his mouth from time to time.  Product placement is everything.  Wonder if sales of the much-maligned Halloween treat went up or down in 1960?

[Mord]

Damn, we're all still stuck in 2014.

[Mike Scott]

When the Screaming Stops,  Walk of the Dead  &  Stark Raving Mad

Classic drive-in movie fare!

[Monsters For Sale]

Classic drive-in movie fare!

A local drive-in had just put up a double bill that I planned to go back and see the following day:  "Torso" & "Autopsy".

When I went back the next night, the prorgam had already been changed!  Their marquee stood right next to a fairly conservative neighborhood of upscale stucco homes and just above a grammar school bus stop.

I think there had been complaints.

I was pissed.

[Mike Scott]

Do you remember what they showed instead?

[Monsters For Sale]

This one was previously posted, but I can now identify the theatre:




Mummy, The - Rivoli - Rutherford, New Jersey - 1932.


Most of the marquee pictures on the Internetweb are posted with no identification.  Luckily some pictures are attributed.  I have been spending some time studying the pictures that show enough building detail, and matching them to known theatres.

Some photos are of the marquees only, of theatres at night, or where only one unidentified example is available.  A lot of these buildings are no more.  We may never know where they were.