Well, here's a Lorain Palace Theater ad for a back-to-school show aimed at kids that ran in the Lorain Journal on Sept. 2, 1964. In the good old days, kids didn't start school until after Labor Day.
Not only did the moviegoing kids get to see six cartoons (which I assume included classic Tom and Jerrys) and a feature, but they also received a nifty pencil box filled with school supplies. All for 40 cents!
It's funny thinking how in the 1960s school supplies used to consist mainly of pencils, paste, scissors, a ruler, maybe a protractor, etc. Now in 2012 (depending on their grade level) elementary school kids in Sheffield Lake also have to bring Kleenex, wipes, hand sanitizers, head phones, and paper towels. (Here's the actual list). Avon Lake's list is even longer, including such things as USB flash drives.
Yessir, times change.
But getting back to that Palace promotion. It seems the feature film was ahead of its time. Interestingly, it was a 1960 Japanese anime film about a monkey, and one of the earliest of that type of film released in this county according to this Wiki entry. To make the film more appealing to audiences for its U.S. release, a soundtrack was prepared featuring the voices of Jonathan Winters, Arnold Stang and Sterling Holloway (the original voice of Winnie-the-Pooh) as well as the singing voice of Frankie Avalon.
Nevertheless the ad is a throwback to simpler times, when kids had a longer summer, and all it took was a cartoon marathon to make them happy.
****
Hey, Dennis Lamont just informed me that part of Alakazam the Great is on YouTube. It's a random assortment of clips, but you get a pretty good idea of what those Lorain kids sat through 48 years ago at the Palace.
1 comment:
I was one of those happy kids at that show! The cartoons and movie were great, the pencil box was cool, but I had to have my older cousin, Todd, explain what the compass and protractor were for.
Post a Comment