“For me, there is nothing more valuable about a movie than how people feel in a movie theater.”
— Will Smith, American actor, entertainer, and film producer.
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Forget taking me out to the ol’ ballgame, I want to go out to the movies.
Nothing makes me feel finer than a good flick. However, movies worth a couple of hours of my life are films experienced the way they were intended to be enjoyed.
Sitting in a movie theater with people. On the third or fourth row. With a bag of popcorn.
Research reveals entertainment films debuted in 1894 in Berlin, and the first commercial, public screening took place in Paris in 1895. They were black and white, short (around a minute), and silent.
Which is sad because they lacked memorable movie quotes we enjoy repeating today. “Surprised, Eddie?… If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised.”
Tell me you don’t know the name of the movie.
Movies gradually grew into an industry perfecting “new” techniques. Editing, lighting, and camera movement. Creating the captivating “credits,” which were until the mid-1950s, at the beginning of the movie. More on that in a moment.
“Talkies” entered the picture in 1927 when television was but a faint vision. In 1933, the comedy-mystery “The Crooked Circle” aired on the half-dozen or so homes with a TV set in the Los Angeles area at the time.
It would still be a while, however, before Hollywood successfully romanced TV. Not until 1956 when the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz” became the first network television feature film. Which left movies to be enjoyed, for a little longer, where they were intended to be viewed.
Sitting in a movie theater with people. On the third or fourth row. With a bag of popcorn.
Around 1956 or 1957, both my parents’ and my grandparent’s households were introduced to the phenomenon of black-and-white TV. Dad and his father watched Friday night boxing matches together. Grandmother watched Art Linkletter. My mother watched “Queen for a Day.” None of them were frequent movie goers, but I was becoming one.
Beginning during early grade school years at Crockett, when I walked from Perry Brothers, where Dad worked, to the Ritz Theater. Becoming mesmerized by 1950s B-movie sci-fi flicks on Saturday afternoons. The Blob, Them, and It Came from Outer Space.
After moving to Seymour, my film focus became the 50s epics. The Ten Commandments, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and Ben-Hur. It didn’t hurt either, that the Texan theater was just across the street from Perry’s 5-and-dime store.
Once we arrived in Mount Pleasant, the Martin Theater on Third Street was great for Saturday bicycle trips to town. High school and my first car soon shifted my movie preference gears. 1960s film classics like The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dr. Strangelove, and high-tech gadget spy films such as the James Bond films Dr. No, Goldfinger, and Thunderball.
Sitting with a date in a movie theater. In the back row of the balcony. With a bag of popcorn.
In 1963, Hollywood movies on television propelled cinema into regular weekly TV with NBC’s “Monday Night at the Movies.” Which became Wednesday Night at the Movies. Before it became Tuesday Night at the Movies. Another movie story for another time.
Today, movies experienced any night in a theater are still my favorite. The big screen visual. The bold theater sound. Laughing with friends one minute, crying the next.
Oh, and those credits? I am always the last to leave after the very last line. Watching the gazillion names and job titles. Marveling at how many people it takes to make a movie. Scanning the music score. Where was that movie filmed?.
Wondering … what in the world is a “best boy” or a “gaffer” anyway?
All of this, I can enjoy in Center, Texas. At The Rio Theatre. A genuine 1920s “walk-in” that’s within walking distance of my house. A movie theater that retains it’s work-of-art neon facade and marquee.
The Rio Theatre turns 100 next year. The local icon on the downtown square remains a movie theater where owners still sell tickets themselves, welcome moviegoers as they arrive and thank them for coming as they file out. Like Mike and Nita Adkison have been doing at the Rio for almost 50 years.
It’s a place where anyone can experience every movie the way it was intended to be enjoyed.
Sitting in a movie theater. With a friend. On the third or fourth row. With a bag of popcorn.
—Leon Aldridge
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Aldridge columns are featured in these publications: The Center Light and Champion, The Mount Pleasant Tribune, the Rosenberg Fort Bend Herald, the Taylor Press, the Alpine Avalanche, the Fort Stockton Pioneer, the Elgin Courier, The Monitor in Naples, and Motor Sports Magazine.
© Leon Aldridge and A Story Worth Telling 2025. Excerpts and links may be used, provided full and clear credit is given to Leon Aldridge and ‘A Story Worth Telling’ with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.
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