Like television, motion pictures had the ability to transport viewers into another world. Like today, going to the movies was an exciting event shared among friends and lovers alike.

When the “magic of the movies” was still a relatively new pastime, it caught on quickly as more and more cinemas popped up around the country. And surprisingly, not much has changed in her eyes. “The movies were a special thing,” Regina says. “We would spend hours and hours [at the cinema].” She remembers the theater in her town as “big” and located in the downtown square. “People came from all around to see a picture on the weekends. I went on Friday and Saturday nights, and sometimes after church with the whole family.” She says it had a big ticket booth outside in the front instead of inside the theatre itself, like the newer theatres today. But another element that made the movies magic was the concession stand. “Everything was so cheap! It wasn’t even a dollar for a bag of popcorn. Now it’s how much?” (I told her about $8). She recalls that the theater was the only place you could get popcorn because it wasn’t sold in microwavable bags yet.

She remembers the explosion of drive in movies too. “That’s where you went if you really didn’t care what you saw,” she says. She adds that drive in movies played mostly B-movies that you would laugh at with a date in their car, or with a big group of people. Today, like we briefly discussed in class, drive in sales plummeted in the later 20^th century, so a lot of drive-ins have become vacant lots. 

Among the differences in movies today, she mentions that westerns and musicals were more common than action and comedies, which are the two most popular genres today. “The Searchers (from 1956), Ben Hur (1959), and Singing in the Rain (1952)” are some of her favorite classics she remembers seeing on opening night at the cinema. She references movies stars like John Wayne, James Dean, Clark Gable and Tony Curtis as some of the actors she had a crush on back in the day. “They all looked so handsome!” To their counterpart, some leading ladies of the forties and fifties were Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Jean Harlow and Elizabeth Taylor, and Judy Garland and Debbie Reynolds playing musical roles.

Not only did you go see a movie at the cinema, you also saw cartoons and newsreels before and after the show. “We would spend whole afternoons there,” she says. While she can’t remember any exact ones, some of these cartoons were probably Felix the Cat, Superman, and Betty Boop. Newsreels (a famous one was Movietone) played news from around the world. “This is how you got to see what was going on in the world,” she says. Movietone and other reels played footage of “famous people”, new technology, and importantly, what was happening overseas during the war era. 

Over time, the magic of the movies hasn't been lost. Today, Regina rewatches these classics and more on AMC and TCM, two cable channels dedicated to preserving the life of almost forgotten classics that meant so much to Regina and her generation. "Watching old movies brings so many memories back to life, it's wonderful," she says.