Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Journal Entertainment Page – April 1, 1972

Here’s a nice cultural snapshot from fifty years ago: the entertainment page from the Journal of April 1, 1972.

As usual there was something for everyone, movie-wise. The Godfather was playing at Midway Mall. The Palace had two movies directed by John Schlesinger, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Midnight Cowboy.

Clint Eastwood was starring in a great quadruple feature at Lorain Drive-in, where the lineup was A Fistful of Dollars; A Few Dollars More; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; and Hang’em High. Tower Drive-in was showing Who Slew Auntie Roo?, starring Shelley Winters and “Oliver” himself (Mark Lester), and The Return of Count Yorga. (It’s hard for me to accept Shelley Winters in a horror flick, after seeing her as the saloon girl in the classic Western Winchester ’73 with James Stewart.)

But what about family-friendly fare? Not everyone wanted to see gangsters and vampires.

Walt Disney Productions’ Lady and the Tramp and Bongo were showing at Liberty Theater in Vermilion; the Duke in Rio Lobo was the bottom of a triple feature at Carlisle Drive-in. Amherst Theatre had the rodeo Western J. W. Coop with Cliff Robertson.

Over at the Tivoli, Catch-22 was onscreen, along with Walter Mathau in Plaza Suite. Although I loved the book Catch-22 and reread it every few years, I disliked the movie, which I found unfunny and forced (which I blame on the script and the director). It has a great cast, however, especially Alan Arkin.

Strangely, the VL Cinema (later well-known for unsavory cinematic fare) was showing The Bible: In the Beginning.

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There’s a few restaurant ads of interest on the Journal page as well. Americana Inn (previously mentioned on this blog on a New Year’s Eve post) had two ads: one for its Saturday night specials, and another plugging its Easter Sunday menu. Most surprising of all was the ad for Harvest House at the Mall, which had a baked ham dinner as well as a Swiss steak special on the menu, instead of the usual year-round Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

Lorain’s nationality and social clubs are well-represented on the page, with ads for Polish American Citizen’s Club, Lorain Eagles and United Polish Club.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see Clint Eastwoods western trilogy was playing at the Lorain Drive In.In my opinion,those 3 plus Hang "Em High are some of the best westerns ever made.I never did care for the yodeling singing cowboy corny screwball comedy type westerns.Where instead of shooting a bad guy,somebody would bust out a tune.And then belt out a big long yodel.Like that old Ricolah commercial from the 1990s.Real cowboys didn't go around singing in the middle of the desert at the top of their lungs when it was 115 in the shade.

-Alan D Hopewell said...

The VL Cinema had been showing porn since the late Sixties, so that was a strange billing for them; I remember that THE BIBLE: IN THE BEGINNING premiered at the Ohio in 1968.

Buster said...

It's a newspaper page with actual news and useful advertising, providing in a compact form what the local population needs to know (well, maybe not the emphasis on Henrietta news). I like it!

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't mind stopping in at Harvest House after work today.Swiss steak dinner for $1.49.I'll take 3 of them.Oh snap,I just saw the date of this paper,I'm about 50 years too late.Oh well I'll just have to go to McDonald's and get a single flat-as-a-pancake hamburger for the same price plus an extra $.30 cents to boot.So much for the stagflation everyone's talking about.

Mike Kozlowski said...

....My mother would throw my brother and I into the station wagon and we'd go to the Tower to watch bad movies and make fun of them as we did. I distinctly remember 'Auntie Roo', and the Count Yorga movies - they were AWFUL, but it was a lot of fun stuffing ourselves with snacks (the hot dogs at the Tower were particular favorites) and being able to stay up late.