Ran out of space again… One more memory I have is why we always arrived so early at 12 noon to be at the head of the line. The show didn’t start until 1:30 or 2:00, but as kids we always thought that the front row middle seats were the only good seats in the theater and if you weren’t at the front of the line, you didn’t get them. We would get our tickets and run altogether for the front and pick our seats. Then we’d leave one or two to guard our seats while we took turns to go back and get candy and popcorn. The theater tickets cost 25 cents, candy 5 cents and popcorn was 10 cents. Today I wouldn’t sit front row if they paid me!!!
Picking up where I left off above when I ran out of space, each feature movie was preceded by a Newsreel showing all the news of the War as well as other stories. Then there were what we called “Serials” where each episode was about 20 minutes long and at the end of each Chapter, the hero was about to be captured or to die and you had to wait a whole week to find out what happened. In the next Chapter, a miracle always saved the hero!!! Some of the names of serials I remember were “Don Winslow of the U.S. Navy”, Red Ryder & Little Beaver" and “Dick Tracy”. In school each week, everyone tried to guess how the hero would be saved!!!
I just stumbled onto this web site because I Googled the Lyric Theater, Riverside, RI because an old friend asked me where the old theater was when were kids. Reading all the comments was quite exciting so I thought I would add my own reflections of the Lyric Theater. When WWII started in 1941, I was 7 years old and attending the Saturday matinees every week arriving with my friends at about 12 noon so we would be at the head of the line described in one of the previous comments above. The shows were usually westerns or comedies with the leading stars of the day like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers in westerns or Abbott & Costello in comedies.
Ran out of space again… One more memory I have is why we always arrived so early at 12 noon to be at the head of the line. The show didn’t start until 1:30 or 2:00, but as kids we always thought that the front row middle seats were the only good seats in the theater and if you weren’t at the front of the line, you didn’t get them. We would get our tickets and run altogether for the front and pick our seats. Then we’d leave one or two to guard our seats while we took turns to go back and get candy and popcorn. The theater tickets cost 25 cents, candy 5 cents and popcorn was 10 cents. Today I wouldn’t sit front row if they paid me!!!
Picking up where I left off above when I ran out of space, each feature movie was preceded by a Newsreel showing all the news of the War as well as other stories. Then there were what we called “Serials” where each episode was about 20 minutes long and at the end of each Chapter, the hero was about to be captured or to die and you had to wait a whole week to find out what happened. In the next Chapter, a miracle always saved the hero!!! Some of the names of serials I remember were “Don Winslow of the U.S. Navy”, Red Ryder & Little Beaver" and “Dick Tracy”. In school each week, everyone tried to guess how the hero would be saved!!!
I just stumbled onto this web site because I Googled the Lyric Theater, Riverside, RI because an old friend asked me where the old theater was when were kids. Reading all the comments was quite exciting so I thought I would add my own reflections of the Lyric Theater. When WWII started in 1941, I was 7 years old and attending the Saturday matinees every week arriving with my friends at about 12 noon so we would be at the head of the line described in one of the previous comments above. The shows were usually westerns or comedies with the leading stars of the day like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers in westerns or Abbott & Costello in comedies.