Off to the flicks

We went to the movies yesterday, partly because it was Cheapo Tuesday ($8 with our seniors card) and the movie looked like it should have been a good one.

I don’t normally go to movies because inevitably I get some kid with his/her feet on the back of my seat or noisy people eating mice-smelling popcorn nearby. There were people eating popcorn from enormous buckets, but they weren’t so close as to bother me. The experience was OK.

It was a five out of ten. The story line was written by a high school kid and had the usual baddies and goodies. The goodies had a fall guy and the four of them got into all sorts of strife. In the end the good guys triumph and the baddies end up sort of goodies as well. That’s about it.

Driving home I recalled the flicks of my youth at the Mayfair Theatre in Bicton. The Mayfair and the Richmond Theatre in East Fremantle were, I believe, owned by the same people. At intermission the first feature from each theatre was exchanged with someone racing between the theatres by car. Both theatres had an ‘outdoors’ with deck chairs to sink into. Saturday night pictures often meant a bus into Fremantle to either Hoyts or The Princess. The Hoyts theatre had a crying room…not for sad movies, but so that mums could attend movies with their babes without upsetting the mob. Sometime in the early 70s movies were on the decline and the introduction of video tape started to bite. Big theatres like Hoyts eventually closed along with drive-in theatres. At about the same time motorcycles went out of fashion as well. Movie theatres and motorcycles are now back in fashion and flourishing. There are even a couple of drive-ins still operating in W.A.


The theatre complex we went to yesterday had 8 small theatres each showing different features. Comfortable and air conditioned and not too many patrons to annoy Kev.