UPTOWN Movie Theater
Dateline: Washington, D.C., May 26, 1977
The Place: Uptown Theater
That was the day it all changed.
At the age of nine, the mere prospect of seeing any movie or any media (TV, music, concerts, plays) was enough to send my spirits soaring. Remember in 1977, there were only maybe 6 stations to watch and there were no home video stores let alone video games. But what I saw that day expanded the possibilities and made the man you’ll meet in this blog. It was my “Apollo,” my learners permit, my moment…OK! OK! so seeing STAR WARS (1977) was a lot of people’s moment. But hey I saw it in only one of roughly 50 theaters to play it on the second day of release and the most press it had had was a glowing article in TIME magazine (May 30, 1977 edition). My cousin Jim, God Bless him, took me and my cousin Eric. We complained about the line around the block. Yes, a line around the block…hard to believe. I fear we’ll never see anything like that again. We sat in the balcony first row. I’ll never forget how COOL it felt when the star destroyer came on screen!
On Monday, when I got back to school no one knew what I was raving about (no box-office reports in 1977), but they politely listened again and again. Note this was akin to what would be today my “virtual BLOG” or “social networking experience.” Probably sounded something like this: “it is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen! You have to see it! Take me back!”
Seriously because of STAR WARS and George Lucas how many people have went on to work in Media for almost 20 years? How many people have degrees in film? How many people have met there heroes? And how many still embrace their inner child as a result? ANSWER: A lot I imagine…but the only one I really know is myself.
In this BLOG I hope to convey my continued enthusiasm for all the media that thrilled me then, thrills me now and will thrill me in the future. I love FILM and TV and anything that goes along with it, like this wonderful historic landmark. Let’s all go UPTOWN to share and explore what makes us film fans.
I hope you’ll enjoy!
Hey what film made you a movie lover?
