A version of this was originally posted May 25, 2020 on Facebook.
DAY 1: "The first film you remember watching."
My first film memory was ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.
I had to check the release year because it was a toss-up between ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966) or PLANET OF THE APES (1968). I remember seeing both of them at the now defunct Sheridan Drive-in (two screens!) and my parents and I arrived late to both of those movies. In fact, I think we usually arrived late to the drive-in. I'm imagining that any time we went to the drive-in it was a very impulsive, spur-of the-moment decision just as the sun was setting. Whatever. As far as I can tell, images of these two films are my earliest memories.
For ONE MILLION YEARS B.C., we came in as authentic specimens of early man were fighting a giant sea tortoise. Fortunately, after the drive-in played the double feature, they repeated the first feature, so we'd stay around and see what we missed. I don't think they repeat the first feature at the drive-ins anymore, do they?
I would've been 6 years old when I saw it.
So, I'm thinking Raquel Welch was probably the first film (and female) celebrity whose name I remembered and where I began my fondness for attractive actresses and making a point of learning their names. Elke Sommer was probably the next actress, first seeing her in A SHOT IN THE DARK, although I also remember Peter Sellers. I don't know how old I was when I was aware of director Blake Edwards but I'm pretty sure my first association of his name with a film was this first Pink Panther sequel. Although, I'm surprised to see A SHOT IN THE DARK came out in 1964. I saw it on TV while we still lived in Buffalo on E. Oakwood Pl. (ca. 1964(?)-1969). Maybe a later rerun? And as I try to dredge all these memories up, it just occurred to me that non-film female celebrities also made an impression on me, such as Petula Clark, because we had her Greatest Hits album.
Oh! How can I forget Diana Rigg as the often cat-suited Mrs. Peel on THE AVENGERS TV show!? Jeez! I can't believe I DID forget her, especially since I watched her weekly! [NOTE: This blog's author clearly has a defective brain.] But getting back to the subject of remembering names associated with films, I don't know when I first made note of Ray Harryhausen's name. I remember seeing JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS on TV in Buffalo, too, and I want to say I knew his name by the time I was nine (i.e. in 1969). Of course, Harryhausen was responsible for creating and animating a number of the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures in ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (although, there is at least one giant lizard and an enormous tarantula which were both created through trick photography). Name-wise, I knew Alfred Hitchcock directed THE BIRDS by the time I was nine, because I first saw it on the TV back then, too, and I want to say I knew who Hitch was when I watched it, and that may have been because of his TV show, too? Although, no, that only ran until 1962. I don't think we watched it when it was first on, at least I don't recollect it. And if I did, that would've been when we were living on Humboldt Pkwy at the time, and I would've been 2 at the oldest (if Alfred Hitchcock Presents ended in 1962). I do remember watching the show later with my mom when it was in syndication on channel 29, but this was after 1969.
Arghhhh! Man, it's stuff like this when I wish I kept a diary back then to see when I kept track of certain details, etc.!
Anyway, I find it interesting that when I think back on ONE MILLION YEARS B.C., my initial embrace of that movie is prehistoric hottie, Raquel Welch. As a 6 year-old boy, one would think that the film's biggest impact on me would be the dinosaurs, etc. So, my emphasis on Ms. Welch now is probably because I'm a juvenile sexagenarian. Although, Harryhausen's humanely animated creatures did make its mark on me and I loved the other movies he worked on: the aforementioned JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, MEN IN THE MOON, 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER, THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, and CLASH OF THE TITANS. But, still, there was that irresistible combination of fantasy, horror and lovely ladies, even in PLANET OF THE APES. She didn't say anything, but I remember Linda Harrison as Nova.
[NOTE: And speaking of PLANET OF THE APES, we came in as the astronauts were escaping their space ship as it was sinking in the water.]
LONG-WINDED NOSTALGIA NOTE: Our house on Humboldt Pkwy was set in the back of a sort of apartment complex, I think. We lived in an upstairs apartment in a building that had car garages for the other apartments, or maybe not. I'm vaguely remembering this, and I remember garages, and also the notion that my dad was employed or partly employed as a caretaker for this complex? I'm not sure. I think the apartments were in other buildings, one or two of them, and all these buildings framed a parking lot probably for the other tenants' cars? Ah, I was too young to recollect all this clearly now. Although, before we moved to E. Oakwood Pl., I do remember knocking down our Christmas tree because I "chopped it down" with a plastic toy axe. I can see it in my head (decorated, too?) as I knelt down in front of it and saying "Timberrr....!" and pushing the tree over. Hahaha! Am I making this shit up??? Anyway, sadly, that apartment and all the apartments around it on Humboldt Pkwy (near Delaware Park and the NY 198/Scajaquada Expressway) no longer exist. Within a year after we moved, the whole complex somehow caught fire and it all burned down. It was during the winter, less than a year after we moved to E. Oakwood Pl. And equally unfortunate, the E. Oakwood house (a duplex and we lived upstairs) is gone, too. About ten years ago (longer?) I happened to be in the neighborhood with a friend and I thought I'd drive by just to check out the old place. I made the turn off Main St., less than a block away from P.S. 54 (in the 60s, although I think it became a Childhood Learning Center at one point, but according to my Google map, it's P.S. 54 again?). I drove down E. Oakwood, which is only one block long, but it doesn't dead-end, it stops at a low wall and an open alley (Canton Alley) that ran along that wall connecting to Leroy and Dewey, the streets parallel to E. Oakwood, although at some point in the last two decades half of the alley got closed off, so you can only get to Dewey now. If you looked over the wall, you saw railroad tracks, but it was, like, one story down, not level with our street. Anyway, while driving down the street I saw that the house of one of my childhood friends, who I haven't seen since the 60s, was being worked on, a Habitat for Humanity home, and then when I got to our house... it was gone! Just an empty space with a grass lot! That was a shock. The last time I was there was in 1997. Even though my parents and I left in '69, my dad was actually the landlord and he owned the duplex until, well, at least 2000, I think, maybe a little later? Anyway, I actually moved into the lower apartment in the 80s when I moved out of my parents' house after college and eventually I moved to Lockport in '97. My dad finally sold the duplex to our remaining tenant who lived upstairs, an elderly gentleman and his wife, and I never really kept contact with him. I think I heard of his death sometime later and then... well, it was all gone.
As if it happened a million years ago...
#30DayFilmChallenge
