1948 Sumter, South Carolina

There were two theaters in Sumter, where I lived when I was younger. I would go to the Rex theater downtown with my brother on Saturdays, which were the only day of the week films were shown. We called them “movie pictures.” My father would take us and drop us off on Saturday morning at 10 and come back to pick us up at 2. Back in those days, we had a lot more freedom than children do now.

The first movie I remember seeing was the Lone Ranger, around 1948 or 1950. I was around 6 or 8 years old. I remember the protagonist of the film was a man wearing a black mask and white suit, and he had a white horse. The movie had sound and I thought it was so cool because the music was quite good. There was an Indian character in the movie which was a bit shocking. It showed that the Lone Ranger had a companion too, which I thought was a good change of pace for the cowboy scene. It was exciting to watch them riding over the hills together. Black and white westerns were really popular back then. I also remember watching Gone with the Wind and The 10 Commandments, which were also very popular and in color. Some of these older films had better dialogue and presentation than movies today. Early producers really knew how to put films together.

For 25 cents you could see a movie and buy some popcorn and a drink. The Rex Theater also sold candy bars, which were just a few cents. Eventually, the prices of snacks and tickets began to go up, from 9 cents to 29 cents to 69 cents. I remember the popcorn would always smell really good and fresh. Sometimes the films would break and the kids would go wild and throw popcorn. So the theater would be dirty from all the kids dropping and throwing popcorn. Not everyone was friendly and there was usually only one person who checks to make sure the kids were behaving. Eventually, it got a little better because they started hiring more employees. If you go inside, the seats were made from very hard wood and they flapped up, not like the ones from today which are cushioned. People would put their feet on the back of the chairs. I had mixed feelings about going to the movies. I liked the movies but did not really like the surroundings. Sometimes homeless people would go to the theater to get off the streets because they could afford it and they would just sit there. My father started hosting our own backyard movies because he became cautious as the crowds grew rowdier. He set up a screen and would order films for kids and the whole neighborhood would come on Saturday nights. People still remember how my mother would give out peanut bars.

When I got older, I started going to drive-in theaters as well. This was around the 1950s. The drive-ins spanned many acres of land and there was a big screen at one end and you just pull your car up and park in front of the screen. People went to drive-ins for dates. There were meters with speakers that could be hooked on your car window. There were concession stand there too. You just attached a flag to your car and people would come take your order and bring you food. It was very convenient for parents to bring their children. Sometimes they would let their kids sleep in the backseat and watch the movie from the front seats. I remember two of the drive-ins; they were called Sunset and Sky View. Then these drive-ins began to close in the 70s because malls came and they started building movie theaters in the malls.