Memories of the Court

The revitalized Court Theater, in Saginaw, Michigan.

A Michigan friend, Benita Vierke Collins, was kind enough to send me this current photograph showing the current revitalization efforts surrounding the old Court Theater in Saginaw, Michigan.

This brought back a flood of memories, of their grand Saturday matinees.  Two features, cartoons and a serial, all for chump change.  I don't believe admission was much more than a quarter, and just a few quarters more would get you a huge soft drink, popcorn and candy.

The place was packed with kids....wriggling, squirmy happy kids....all ready for a full afternoon's entertainment!  

I would try to go each and every week, and I'm sure my parents were often glad of it, giving them time to do other things (wait...it just occurred to me after all these years what that might mean...okay, I'm going to try not to think about that).  Many times the movies would be great action movies, science fiction or westerns or mysteries).  I even went when it wasn't my cup of tea - I mean, somebody had to go with my sister when she wanted to see the Elvis Presley doubleheader!

The biggest treat of all was the serial.  A chapter from one of the serial movies of the forties, it was pirates and spacemen, spies and cowboys.  It made you just HAVE TO come back!   chapter would end with the hero walking the plank, falling off  a building, about to get shot, with the damsel kidnapped by the villain.  You just HAD TO come back the next week and see what happened, even if you had to beg and plead with your parental units.  You just HAD TO!

Even evening movies were only around 75 cents.  They would turn around quickly, sometimes two a week.  I do remember seeing The Godfather there, with my Evans Bentley and his brother, Wayne. 

People went to the movie theaters much more often back then.  My parents would go very often, and many times they would take us.  One of the first movies I remember seeing was One Hundred and One Dalmatians at the huge Temple Theater in downtown Saginaw.  It had multiple balconies, and was the largest movie screen I remember.  I took some of my first dates there, including Barbara Bloomfield to see Barefoot In the Park, which was a play we were doing together in high school. I remember seeing Robin Hood there with Carol Dierich.  

This may amaze some people, who might expect to see things only through a happy nostalgic lens, but I do remember people talking more in the theater back then, more than they do now.  Nowadays, that conversation has been replaced by an electronic smart phone glow.

Another great downtown Saginaw theater was The Franklin.  It also had balconies, and I remember being in that balcony to see such movies as Gone With the Wind and Hawaii (my first exposure to certain parts of the adult female anatomy).  I also remember going there to see The Food of the Gods, a cheesy movie spun abstractly from the H. G. Wells story, but I remember as special because I saw it with just my Dad.  For that reason, it was a very special movie.

My quick research shows that the Temple is still there, but used for "special events", whatever that means.  The Franklin is long gone....it may have been lost in a fire even before I left Michigan.  I am glad to see the old Court still there.  Sometime I'll have to go back, but the prices won't be the same, and the good ol' serial won't be there.  And the squallering kids will all be texting away.

Waycross has an old downtown theater, called the Ritz.  I hear Alison's Mom wax nostalgic about it.  It's still there, but it's not used for movies anymore.

It's a community theater. WACT...Waycross Area Community Theatre. And I have strode it's stage many a time.

A different kind of memory, and one where I and my family are still making new ones.  So...stay on the edge of your Duane Caswell/Hugh Williams designed seats!  The next exciting chapter is about to begin!