WHEN a DAY at the MOVIES REALLY WAS...

In 1941 or 1942 when I was 9 or 10, I distinctly remember going to the ‘Riviera’ theater in Rock Island and watching “Frankenstein” with Lon Chaney in 3D. They passed out the paper and plastic glasses that had a red lens and a green lens. Whenever I tell somebody this they think I am making it up. Nobody thinks they had 3D back then. (In those medieval days). But I know what I saw. We sat in the front row and thought for sure the cauldron of hot liquid was going to fall right on us.

The ‘Riviera’ theatre was one of 6 theaters in town. There was the Rialto, the Rocket,



which was the easiest to sneak into by the back door. There was also the Spencer, the Ritz and the



Fort which was the classiest. They had live shows like the Ziegfeld Follies.



When we were about 14 we lied about our age and got in to see the ziegfeld and all the bare legged dancers. Wow! But if you watched the aisle at the Riviera during the movie you would occasionally see a mouse running around or even a rat. I saw many, many movies there. It was my favorite theater. ‘Back in those days’ It cost 16 cents under 12 years and 21 cents over 12 years. For that you would see 2 main event movies (Double feature), a cartoon or 2, a ‘short film’ and a serial which showed every Friday like the ‘Lone Ranger’, ‘Captain Marvel’, ‘Flash Gordon’ or some other hero that brought you back every Friday night. On top of that, during World War 2, they showed the RKO news of what was happening on the war front. This may be hard to believe for the young today or even the middle-aged but it was true. Another thing is that you could go in any time as they never had intermission. All the shows run continually so you could stay for as long as you wanted. Even watching the same show over again, if you wanted. That is where I first saw “Gone with the wind”. It really was 4 hours long.

For a little over a dollar one could go to the movie, buy a bag of popcorn, a box of malt balls, a drink and have enough left to go next door after the movie to the ‘Coney Island’ diner and have a bowl of chili (the best I have ever eaten ever) with oyster crackers and maybe even a hot dog.