The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
My roommate and I went to the Artcraft Theatre yesterday to see The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, which is a movie I don't think I would have been very fond of if I'd watched it on my own; but watching it in a theater, with everyone else to laugh with, was a lot of fun.
And the theater itself was quite an experience. They have door prizes and a prize wheel ("Don't look in the prize wheel as it turns," the announcer said, "or you might get - " "MESMERIZED!" the audience shouted in return), and always show old Warner Brothers cartoon before the movie, and when they point out the fire exits, the audience cheers for a favorite. (We were fans of exit three.)
They also still have the old steel door over the projection room, from back when films were made of highly flammable celluloid and theaters sometimes went up in flames. The door was a safety measure: if the film caught fire, it would slam shut, which would trap the doomed projectionist inside but give everyone else a chance to get out.
A safety measure that is designed to kill at least one person seems like a questionable safety measure to me, but I guess they had different standards for these things back in the 1910s.
And the theater itself was quite an experience. They have door prizes and a prize wheel ("Don't look in the prize wheel as it turns," the announcer said, "or you might get - " "MESMERIZED!" the audience shouted in return), and always show old Warner Brothers cartoon before the movie, and when they point out the fire exits, the audience cheers for a favorite. (We were fans of exit three.)
They also still have the old steel door over the projection room, from back when films were made of highly flammable celluloid and theaters sometimes went up in flames. The door was a safety measure: if the film caught fire, it would slam shut, which would trap the doomed projectionist inside but give everyone else a chance to get out.
A safety measure that is designed to kill at least one person seems like a questionable safety measure to me, but I guess they had different standards for these things back in the 1910s.