1956 Phoenix, Arizona
Loren Thompson
Born 1946
First Movie Memory in Phoenix, AZ
Interviewed on January 18, 2019
By Christina Huang
The first movie I ever saw was called Forbidden Planet. It was science fiction, sort of an era movie made for people in that era. I watched it in 1956 when I was ten years old.
It scared the hell out of me; it scared me terribly much. I saw it at a drive in theater, Northern Drive In on Northern Ave, just 6 blocks from my house, and it had some really truly scary themes. I remember a lot about that movie. There was a space ship sent out to a colony on another planet that was trying to figure out why the colonists had stopped responding. The ship members found a doctor left alone on this planet and I felt very eerie about his doctor. There was some sort of monster that had attacked all the other members but left the doctor alive because he and his wife were the only colonists who actually enjoyed staying on this planet. Oh, and he had a beautiful daughter on this planet. See, this daughter had never seen any humans besides her father when the crew landed, and of course the crew members went wild over her cause she was so beautiful. We later find out that there used to be an ancient civilization, the Krell, that used to live on this planet. They were way more advanced than humans, but one day they were just wiped out. At the end, the planet just self-destructs and all their knowledge is lost.
I remember the coolest robot. Robbie the Robot. See the special effects of the era were really, incredibly well done. Really pretty damn good. The scale of the entire production is massive – I think it was one of the best science fiction movies of the time. I was really impressed, but I also couldn’t sleep for months after watching it. I had to sleep with my head under the sheets; it still gives me chills.
There were corny and romantic parts to the movie. But it really on the whole was a really interesting movie.
I saw the movie with my parents, and I don’t quite remember if there was a concession stand. In any case, we always brought in food to the drive in theater because we were too poor to afford anything. We did go to the theaters a lot though. It was some quality time that we spent together.
There weren’t ushers at the theater – it was a drive in theater, so you just pay at the gate and go in.
