Weekend Memories: Saturday Matinee Movie Series

I think this may be where I got my love of seeing movies in the theater.

Back when I was a kid, the first few years I was in grade school, there was this program run by the city or the school district or something that would run matinee movies on Saturdays. I think it was in the mornings, but this was probably twenty-five years ago now. Hell, probably longer ago than that, now, because 25 years ago, I was ten, and I think the program was long since over by then.

But these were crap movies, not really worth the bother to remember much about. Probably the biggest thing I remember about them was that they were shown in a movie theater that was downtown in the city I grew up in. It was called the State Theater, and it was probably the coolest one I was ever in. Sadly, by then, the old State was getting to be in rather bad shape and had to be closed to the public for safety reasons. That was somewhere in the area of 25 years ago, too. Round about the time the Saturday movie series thing had to quit. That might have been part of the reason for it, too, now that I think about it.

What brought it to mind was thinking about those Sinbad and Three Stooges movies the other day. Those must have been some of the ones they showed there, though I think I've seen some of the Stooges stuff on TV since then.

Thinking further about this movie series thing, there was another local movie theater that was the sort of one, big, single-screen place like the State that I sometimes fantasize about running. It was called the K Theater, due at least in part to its proximity to a local K-Mart. I live about three blocks from there, but sadly, neither K is there any more. The Theater is a church now and the Mart is my neighborhood grocery store.

But this Saturday Matinee series thing is something I'd look into starting back up again if I had the money to. It was a cool thing to do. It got me acquainted with some classic movies, or at least some classically cheap ones and it gave my folks a little time with me and my kid bro out of the house for a little while.

Some days, it just sucks to be poor.