Thursday, December 1, 2022

On Area Movie Screens – December 1, 1962

We'll kick off December with my favorite go-to topic when I don't have anything else prepared: what was playing on area movie screens sixty years ago.

If you sneak a peek at the Journal page above (from December 1, 1962), then you can see what star was dominating the screen: namely, Elvis! At the Palace was Girls! Girls! Girls! (with Stella Stevens); Follow That Dream (1962) was at the Dreamland; and Kid Galahad (1962) was at the Liberty Theatre in Vermilion. That's three flicks from the King, all released in 1962!

Alan Hopewell's jolly favorite, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was slaying them at the Avon Lake Theater. Out in South Lorain, the Pearl was showing Spanish-language films: Ojos Tapatios and La Mujer Y La Bestia (The Woman and the Beast).

The ad attracting the most attention on the Journal page was probably the mayhem-filled one for The Pirates of Blood River at the Tivoli. "Women fighting for their lives... as blood thirsty buccaneers ransack a lost tropic island," reads the headline at the top of the ad. It's a Hammer film, so of necessity it has Christopher Lee in it.
After seeing the trailer, I think the poster looks better!
Other film fare in the area included The Vikings with Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine (clothed, I hope) and Janet Leigh at the Lorain Drive-in; Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window at the Amherst Theatre; and Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin in If a Man Answers at the Ohio.
What, no Duke anywhere? What gives, Pilgrim? And no Stooges either.
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I like the ad for Ye Olde Hen House cooped up between the ads for the Ohio and the Lorain Drive-in. That's quite a weekend special: pan fried chicken, home made soup, potatoes, cole slaw, home made biscuits and honey and coffee – all for a buck and a quarter. 
Ye Olde Hen House much later became Jack & Diane's Lounge, as I noted on this post back in 2013.

6 comments:

  1. With inflation, that's the equivalent of about $11.62 today. Still an okay deal.

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  2. When Elvis was making the movie "Follow That Dream" in Florida, a young ten-year-old boy, whose aunt and uncle worked for the production company, met Elvis on the set. That meeting inspired the young boy to become a rock-n-roll singer. His name was Tom Petty. He is among the many that were inspired by Elvis to become singers.
    While Elvis is much maligned for his movies, it is important to know that in the 60's he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood and all 31 of his movies made money. It wasn't his fault the material he had to work with wasn't very good.

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  3. Keep Ernie in his clothing - please!

    I've never watched an Elvis movie.
    Mostly 'cause I don't care for Elvis.
    But, I'm willing to give the guy a chance...

    Anybody have a suggestion as to a reasonable one?

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    Replies
    1. JAILHOUSE ROCK.
      I saw FOLLOW THAT DREAM probably that same day, along with ASSIGNMENT: OUTER SPACE, although I don't remember anything about the Sci-Fi movie, which doesn't say a lot about it.
      (How can this be SIXTY YEARS AGO...?)

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  4. Follow That Dream is a very good Elvis movie.I remember that when Tom Petty would give interviews and if Elvis was mentioned he would talk about how Elvis got caught up in the drugs and rock n roll lifestyle.And he would sort of talk down about Elvis falling in that trap.Then I find it ironic that the very thing that Tom Petty put Elvis down for doing,also killed Tom Petty.Tom got caught up in the rock n roll lifestyle of excessive drugs and pills.Tom had numerous painkillers in his system when he overdosed.But I'm glad Elvis inspired Tom Petty.Lots of good music was made.

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