Major film fare for me in my early years included "Old Yeller" (which was a major box-office hit) and "Sleeping Beauty" (which Disney set high hopes upon, only to be disappointed by its reception). I loved both those films.
My mother took me to see "Exodus", which was overwhelming to me, and "King of Kings", which was, again overwhelming. I never saw "Ben-Hur" or "El Cid" or "Spartacus" in their first releases.
Two epics captured my attention, though, through magazine articles and newspaper stories: "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Cleopatra."
Brando in Tahiti and Liz in, first, London, and later, Rome, were the primary "movie stars" of the early 1960s. Both were given extraordinary salaries for these movies and both wielded enormous influence over how the productions were being handled.
I wasn't able to see "Mutiny on the Bounty" until early in 1963, but meanwhile:
A huge event for me came in the summer of 1962 when I was visiting an aunt and uncle in Asheville NC and my aunt took me to see "The Music Man." The theater was decked out in all kinds of National Theater Service regalia...lots of posters and huge banners and tons of lobby cards and stills all over the entry and in the lobby. And what a great movie!!!!
Later that summer, I discovered "Gypsy" (which I thought merited as much fuss as "The Music Man," but didn't get any of it).
It was in the fall of 1962 that I encountered one of the most remarkable films I'd ever seen (and it's true to this day): "To Kill A Mockingbird."
When "...Bounty" opened, it was clear across town and my mother and I went to see it. I was mesmerized and thoroughly delighted with it. One of my Christmas presents had been the boxed deluxe edition of the soundtrack with the souvenir book and it was well-played for years and years.
After the Oscar show that year, one which delighted me for Gregory Peck's acting Oscar and Ray Heindorf's music adaptation Oscar for "The Music Man," I was pretty much bummed that "...Bounty" hadn't won anything and more than a little curious about this film called "Lawrence of Arabia." It was several months before "Lawrence..." came to town, too, but when it did, I had my first major dose of David Lean and the power of a great vision. As overwhelming a visual masterpiece as I think this film is, it still doesn't hold a higher place in my esteem than "TKAM," but being from the South and understanding what that meant in Harper Lee's story, I connected more readily to it. I still do.
In the spring of that year, I saw a rerelease showing of "The Robe". It was the most amazing display of CinemaScope I'd ever seen...the Carolina Theater in Greenville had the state's first and largest CinemaScope screen but I'd never seen the screen filled up, with the curtains all the way open before. It was electrifying for me. I still hold a special place in my heart for this film, especially for its astounding music score.
The first true roadshow to hit Greenville, SC (where I grew up) that I recall, where you had to reserve seats, was "Cleopatra." This was in 1963, several months after its big city engagements had begun. It seemed fitting, somehow, because it was the most-talked about, most-reported on, and easily the most-hyped film ever made up to that time (and possibly since). Infamous is also what it was, but it was an international cause de celebre. Fox had spent more money on that film than any other and it nearly bankrupted them. What we saw in Greenville was a cut version of the film that opened in New York. It played two performances a day, though and was well over 3 hours long. I remember being in awe of its production design, its spectacle, but a little less impressed with Taylor and Burton than I thought I'd be.
The next roadshow film to hit Greenville was "The Sound of Music" in May 1965. "Lawrence..." and "...Bounty" had certainly been roadshows in major cities, but were in continuous runs and popular prices by the time they hit Greenville. I'm not sure why Fox didn't put "Cleopatra" into popular prices earlier than it did, but they handled "The Sound of Music" much differently than any other film. This was an extraordinary event. 20th-Fox cannily saw early on that this film resonated with audiences more than anything they'd ever experienced. They made more prints for "roadshow" performances than they'd ever done with any movie and got this movie out into circulation very quickly. We had to reserve seats to see "SOM" in Greenville and that made it very special to us. I was in the first night audience, dead center, and I was enthralled. I saw the film again and again and again over the three-plus months it played to packed houses in Greenville. The film was a phenomenon wherever it played, which included four years in London.
In early 1966, "Doctor Zhivago" opened as a roadshow. I carted my mom off to see that and it remains her favorite film, although I'm not "that" fond of it.
Other films would play as roadshows in future years, too, like "Oliver!" and "Funny Girl" and "Camelot." while "The Fall of the Roman Empire" and "Finian's Rainbow" would weigh in at popular prices.
None were as satisfying to me as "TKAM", but they were "events".
Those were staggeringly difficult years for me, too: My teens, high school, assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and, when I was in college, Martin Luther King Jr., plus we were experiencing the cold war, and we had problems in Cuba, including the Bay of Pigs -- all this going on while I was trying to cope with growing up and dealing with my peers. The horors of Viet Nam were their own worst nightmares and they got worse and worse throughout the decade. Guys I went to high school with and to college died in Viet Nam before I graduated from college. So it was, in some cases, the movies -- special movies -- that made a huge impact on a lot of people during those times.
I know that we are still in trying times and I'm sure some movies resonate with young people more than they do for those of us who have our own special memories.
