Comments from Akronflicks

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Akronflicks
Akronflicks commented about Akron Civic Theatre on Oct 29, 2015 at 6:20 pm

Not only tasty, but more fizzy than what you would get at the concession stand. I was always about the fizz. That’s why I drink slightly flavored sparkling water nowadays instead of pop/soda.

It was in one of those red machines that dispensed cups. And you had to be ready to right the cup if it came down crooked.

It had a stainless steel dial that was shaped round except for the triangular shape on the right that pointed to your selection. You dialed the pop you wanted by pointing the dial at the name of three pop/soda selections. I was always ticked when it was out of burgundy and had to select something else, but you had to or risk not getting your dime, later fifteen cents, back.

Akron’s Lowes was the only place I ever saw it.

I tried to Google the machine and looked at a lot of machines, but never one that matched the one at Lowes.

Akronflicks
Akronflicks commented about Akron Civic Theatre on Oct 28, 2015 at 7:04 am

Lowes was the best theater in Akron, plush carpet, very clean, classy architecture, the moving clouds…and that burgundy pop in the machine was great. I always thought the popcorn machine made better popcorn than the concession stand sold too.

We’d hit Walgreens or Mr. Peanut and stock up on reasonably priced snacks. You can’t get away with that today.

We walked there, or to other downtown theaters, from Oak Park Drive near Glendale Cemetery, every weekend.

I saw a lot of great movies at Lowes. All the “big” movies seemed to play there.

I have to take the wife there some day.

Akron’s movie theaters were a big part of my childhood up till seventh grade when we moved away.

Akronflicks
Akronflicks commented about Palace Theatre on Oct 28, 2015 at 6:47 am

House On Haunted Hill…They had a plastic skeleton that was in a box and on a wire that came out when the movie turned scary.

It scared no one and the kids in the balcony almost ripped it off the wire. The manager or owner, who I remember as a not so nice guy, was furious and tossed a lot of kids out of the theater that day.

Akronflicks
Akronflicks commented about Colonial Theatre on Oct 28, 2015 at 6:42 am

The Peanut gallery was extremely steep. I’d slide down the steps to my seat afraid I would trip and go over the edge if I walked down the steps.

I think I saw Old Yeller there in that balcony. I remember seeing the Disney shorts, Vanishing Prairie or something similar there too. The last movie I saw there
was The Young Lions with Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, and Dean Martin.

Akronflicks
Akronflicks commented about Cascade Cinema on Oct 28, 2015 at 6:34 am

My brother, a friend, and I were at the “The Strand” as it was known back then to see Vincent Price in “The Tingler.”

The Tingler was a lobster-like creature we all supposedly had in our spine that was kept in check by screaming when scared. In the movie a woman who was mute is scared to death by her husband so he could get the lucrative old movie theater his wife owned. It’s when the Tingler shows up and Price removes it from her body.

It gets out of the box and goes into the silent theater movie house through a floorboard. Price asks where the floorboard leads to and the husband says, “It goes down into the theater.”

With that my brother who is somewhere around 5 to 7 years old lets out a whoop and sprints down the row, up the aisle, past an amazed usher, and out into the street with me in pursuit. He thought the Tingler was in our theater, The Strand. The usher let us back into the movie. We laughed about that into our fifties.