Comments from Moody

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Moody
Moody commented about UA Cinema 150 on Feb 23, 2008 at 6:06 am

As people talked of the last film that played at Cinema 150, I remember the first. I believe it was Gone with the Wind. This was a re-release either in 1969, maybe 1970. The movie that followed or the one in my memory was American Graffiti. Then so many others.

My strongest memories were the Disaster films, Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno. I think my final count of seeing Poseidon was almost 40 times. As a young teenager, I felt people were coming to see my films. It was always a full house. The huge hallways leading to the lobby. The photos of the films in the glass case ( or was it just a wall?) as you walk up to the Auditorium. I even remember the bathrooms and people smoking in the lobby. And if it was a huge flick, as most were, the line formed around the outside dome. Barbra Streisand’s A Star is Born – the line snaked around outside every night.

Leaving Arkansas many years ago I never saw the last film there. I’m glad to read the send out it had. I did see “The Last Picture Show” that was The Height’s last film in the 80s. Unfortunately these theatres are gone. Just the memories left. Like coming out of 150 one night after a movie and seeing wet Ash on our cars, discovering it was Ash from Mount St. Helens explosion which was only a day or two earlier. Watching ALIEN and when the creature exploded from John Hurt’s stomach to a silent audience watching in shock, that is, until some guy way down in the lower section says, “My God it’s a Dick with teeth,” where then the entire house exploded with laughter. Me and my Buddies from Hall High all going to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind and having my arm touch the arm of another guy next to me which was taboo causing for a quick yank. Yet I left it there. It was my friend Donald Gordon who was dying of cancer. He died the next year.

I always dreamed maybe one of my films could play there. I guess I’ll have to keep enjoying just the dream.