Adventures in moviegoing 2: SF in ‘78
Above: front and back of a Strand schedule from 1978 (click to enlarge)
I don’t believe anyone who came of age with cable TV or home video can appreciate this brand of powerhouse programming. Back in the day we had to make due with commercial interruptions during movies broadcast on TVs with thirteen stations and rabbit ears, hopelessly oblivious of widescreen vs. pan-and-scan. The powers that be conditioned us with cropped CinemaScope images and heavily cut prints.
The Strand represented the tail-end of the revival houses and art theatres that flourished during the decade, and the knowledgeable billing provided an instant education in cinema. Unemployed and in the throes of my formative film years, I spent many, many days at the Strand (check out the early bird admission), in the front row of the balcony, absorbing every 35mm frame as it flickered by.
If anyone wants to see more of these schedules, let me know and I’ll scan what I have.
posted by Ray Young at
2:51 PM
7 Comments:
Please do. I love stuff like this. It's funny in the age of two disc, director's commentary special edition, I miss not having been able to take advantage of dying prints at fleapits.
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Oh, how I'd love to see more! I spent at least a half-hour on each page of these calendars!
I think back to the days when the Nuart here in LA changed its program daily, and I really mourn for the loss of this kind of programming.
And I really like that the folks at the Strand were no bunch of art snobs either!
Earlier today I was talking online with my friend Jon. I haven't seen him or gotten together with him in a long time. Like 6-8 months. So anyways, we decided that later we'd go see Superman Returns.sportsbook The movie was supposed to start at 8 and we were supposed to meet out front of the theatre at 7:30. I got there a little early and bought my ticket and went outside to sit on the steps and wait.
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Seeing this Strand theater schedule from 1978 is making me weep. OMG! I was there that very same summer! I was 15 years old and had come to spend the summer in SF with my laidback, pot smoking ex-Hippie Dad. While there, I wound up befriending the cast of "Double Feature" and I soon found myself performing The Rocky Horror Picture Show with them every Saturday night at midnight. That's Marnie right there! Dressed up as Frankenfurter in the photo at the bottom of the schedule. Denise Erickson played Magenta and there you can see her sister Michelle, who played Columbia. Brad was Steven Cheeriness (sp?).
I can still smell that wonderful musty damp smell of the theater and I can remember running down the steep slope of the aisle to get backstage before they started letting the audience in at midnight. I also remember the surreal B&W Bettie Bop Cartoon of "Snow White" they would play before Rocky Horror. In it, a cartoon Cab Calloway ghost sang "Saint James Infirmary" .
It was the first time I was out from under my mom's wing. It was the first time I was on my own, hanging out with the cool kids. I had finally "arrived". I was finally a TEENAGER. And everything in life was in front of me. Holy shit! Those were the days. Those were the very first days of who I am now.
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