Looking at the movie page from the Journal of July 26, 1962, I'm amazed at just how many area screens there were, and what a wonderful variety of movies there was.
Here is some of what local movie-goers back then could look forward to.
Jerry Lewis fans – and what kids didn't love Jerry Lewis? – were enjoying a special double feature at the Palace consisting of The Sad Sack and The Delicate Delinquent.
Here's the trailer.
We used to have a few Sad Sack comic books around the house. I don't know, but it's hard for me to see wacky Jerry Lewis as the low-key loser Sad Sack.
Over at the Tivoli (beginning the next day) was the comedy-mystery The Notorious Landlady, with Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon and Fred Astaire.
The ad makes it look pretty racy for 1962. Happily, Kim Novak is still with us.
On the more wholesome side, baseball fans could enjoy seeing Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in Safe at Home! at Tower Drive-in. (Too bad fellow Yankee Jim Bouton wasn't in that movie too.)
Safe at Home! was the bottom half of a double feature with Ride the High Country (a favorite of mine that I discussed back here).
Other local drive-in fare included Splendor in the Grass and The Hustler at Lorain Drive-in, and the odd double feature of Sweet Bird of Youth and Walt Disney's Greyfriars Bobby at the Carlisle Drive-in.
Over at Ohio Theater was the Disney comedy Bon Voyage, with Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman. (Fred MacMurray's My Three Sons housekeeper William "Bub" Frawley was in that Yankee baseball flick.)
Perhaps the most interesting thing on that 1962 movie page wasn't a movie at all; it was yet another of those special, live monster shows at the Palace starting the next day: Dr. Jekyl and His Weird Show.
The ad copy sounds like it was written by a beatnik. It reads, "Hey Man! Dig This Crazy Show! Do not judge by anything seen before! So scary makes Dracula - Frankenstein look like daises [sic]!
Ambulances and nurses were helpfully on call at all times for patrons that couldn't handle the show, with its 'hideous apparitions" roaming the theatre, and "Beauties at Mercy of Inhuman Monsters." The ad also warns, "Monsters Grab Girls From Audiences."
Also on the movie page is a nice ad for Cedar Point promoting an appearance by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and an ad for Evans Grill and its Fish Fry.
4 comments:
This is my idea of a newspaper. You could learn not only what was playing at the movie houses, you could see who was in and out of the hospital and the clink, plus the doings of your local pastor, and so much more. And that's just one page.
I was always fascinated by the "scream shows" put on at the Palace, and I finally went to the last one, in 1973.
Alan - Did you scream or require a nurse or ambulance?
Naaah, no nurses, doctors, or ambulances for this one; no budget, I guess.
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