The O'Fallon and the Tower (formerly the Florissant)were my childhood places of escape. That was in the late 1940s. I got a munificent weekly allowance of 20 cents. Half of that paid for admission to the O'Fallon. With the other half I had to make a painful choice between Chuckles (my favorite candy – in the darkened theater, I would mix up the five pieces and then try to identify them by taste alone) or a comic book. It was my first experience angst.
I also remember the New Year’s Eve programming of the big Grand Avenue theaters which, typically, consisted of five first run movies. The movies alone had to account for 7 or 8 hours of time. Then you could count on at least an hour-and-a-half of cartoons, newsreels, short subjects and coming attractions. This was followed by a streetcar ride to the White Water Tower where the motorman would intone, “End of the world. Everybody off.”
The O'Fallon and the Tower (formerly the Florissant)were my childhood places of escape. That was in the late 1940s. I got a munificent weekly allowance of 20 cents. Half of that paid for admission to the O'Fallon. With the other half I had to make a painful choice between Chuckles (my favorite candy – in the darkened theater, I would mix up the five pieces and then try to identify them by taste alone) or a comic book. It was my first experience angst.
I also remember the New Year’s Eve programming of the big Grand Avenue theaters which, typically, consisted of five first run movies. The movies alone had to account for 7 or 8 hours of time. Then you could count on at least an hour-and-a-half of cartoons, newsreels, short subjects and coming attractions. This was followed by a streetcar ride to the White Water Tower where the motorman would intone, “End of the world. Everybody off.”