How Exactly Did The Movies Work?, Cartoon, Comedy Short, Newsie?

I was watching the Captain Marvel serial today and suddenly found myself wondering how exactly it worked that a person went to the movies and watched the assortment that us latter-generationers have heard nostalgia buffs reminesce about.

A cartoon, a comedy short, a newsie, then a movie? Yes, I'm sure there was something else in there, wasn't there?

Now there used to be a program that aired on PBS Sunday afternoons that we used to just love called 'Matinee At The Bijou' and they would essentinally re-assemble, to some extent, the old matinee programs, I guess.

A cartoon, a newsie, a comedy short (showed Buster Keaton once), showed serial episodes (I would learn that Captain Marvel did air during one of these viewings, but I didn't pay attention, obviously).

Don't recall the main attraction or final film airing on these things, whatever that would be.

Now my understanding of what exactly aired and what was liked was enlightened by this old program, as well as by Laurel and Hardy's "Sons of the Desert" (in which their wives believe them to be lost at sea, then go to the theatre and see their husbands in the news program, marching in the shriners' parade).

Likewise, there was insight in Laurel and Hardy programs noting that the duo's comedy shorts were often more popular than the main attraction, whoever that may have unfortunately been.

I also gain a bit of insight from my mother's revelation about when my parents were dating. My father, from whom I get my love of cartoons, would always want to leave after the cartoon. He never wanted to see the movie.

But it is the serials that bother me the most.

If you missed an episode, you were stuck, weren't you? You either had to wait for the things to be rerun or you just did without?

Cap Marvel has 12 episodes. Did a serial start rerunning after the final episode, or did a new one begin?

How often did the serials rerun?

At best you could watch four serials a year. Was it four serials, or two rerun twice?

And the cartoons. WB is an endless assortment of cartoons. How likely was it that anyone managed to see all of these cartoons?

Bugs Bunny cartoons obviously aired along with WB movies. MGM obviously aired Tom and Jerry.

So what cartoons did Paramount show? Or Columbia?

Walter Lantz has no movies, so Woody Woodpecker must have aired with another company's movies.

I suppose Hal Roach's Our Gang shorts likewise had to air with one of the major studios, as did Laurel and Hardy.

I guess like people vegetate in front of the tv today, you must have all but had to LIVE in the theatres back then.

Richard - I attended Saturday morning picture shows in the 1960's and early 70's, and we had pretty much the same thing here in the UK.

It usually started off with a cartoon - Mighty Mouse springs to mind - and then a short comedy - usually Laurel and Hardy or The Three Stooges - and then an episode of a serial before the interval.

In all the years I went to our flea-pit, no serial was ever repeated.

Then came the main feature, which I have to say was more often than not a total let-down to what had gone before.

I was a member of the Saturday morning club - I've still got my badge - and every year on your birthday you got a card and free admission for you and a friend at the next show.

If you were brave enough to go up on the stage during the interval along with the other birthmates that week, and let the audience sing a rude version of " Happy birthday to you...." you got free sweets and ice-cream.

Those were definatly the days!

PS - I sussed who the Scorpion in the Captain Marvel serial was long before the end!

I think I have sung the praises of the Captain Marvel serial elsewhere, but I can do it again here.

I quite honestly learned of this serial, for whatever reason, like a murder mystery.

I was watching the old 1970s Shazam! rerun on TVland (copyright issues resulted in the show having to be called Shazam instead of CM, which I think we thought his name was Shazam anyway).

In one episode, the adventure ended up in a zoo. I mentioned the show online in a discussion, and someone told me a zookeeper at the zoo was the original Billy Batson from the 1940s serial.

The 70s Saturday morning show learned he was working at the zoo, so they steered the story in his direction to include him in the episode. All he did was drive the two castmembers in a small cart to the vulture's pen.

I guess I was enjoying the 70s show so much, I went looking for the 40s serial and ordered it and was completely stunned by what I saw.

I heard another serial, Atom Smasher?, was supposed to be good as well.

I ordered The Phantom, also with Tom Tyler, and tracked down a Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serial from the late 30s, and neither measured up.

when I enjoy a show like that so much and then find others that don't begin to compare, I get spooked. I've never even searched for this other serial.

As for guessing who the Scorpion was, I found this to be completely irrelevant by the end of the series.

How on Earth did you guess? I paid a bit more attention this time, but still saw no clue, plus we had a moment where the Scorpion was injured in his hand and all the suspects had to write their names. How did the Scorpion get around that with an injured hand?

Richard - The Scorpion , or at least the actor that played him, never spoke a single word in the whole series. Even The Scorpion's voice, I later found out, was dubbed.

I gathered it was, but the Scorpion was unmasked by the end to be one of the suspects.

Richard - I saw this a long time ago, circa 1971 - but the friends that I saw it with, like me, couldn't understand why one of the suspects never spoke and, indeed, kept a very low profile compared to the others.

Even in the scene where his lens was robbed it didn't ring true.

We all came to the conclusion that he had to be the Scorpion. By this stage we had seen so many of these serials that things like this were a dead giveaway.

It was different with different theaters. Also, it depended on which major studio owned which theater chain, plus there were independent theaters that rented movies from the major studios but they tended to be older movies, since the studios ran their newest movies at the theaters they owned.

In 1952 I lived in a small town that had only one theater. On Fri., Sat., and Sun. nights, they showed newer major films, and often with a less important double feature.

On Sat. at about 1 or 2 pm in the afternoon, they had their kiddie matinee. I went to every one of those. I think the whole program lasted about 3 hours. They would show western double features the most. Sometimes a western and a gangster movie. Very simple plots for kids. I later found out that the films I saw there in 1952 were actually as much as 5 to 10 years old. A very few of them (mainly the westerns, such as with Hopalong Cassidy) were from the 1930s. They charged only .15¢ for the matinee.

They also showed one or two cartoons. Or one cartoon and a serial.

At night on the weekends, they showed a major feature for the adults. It was usually just one or so years old, but one we had not seen before. They almost always showed a second feature that was a B movie and maybe a couple of years old. They charged .35¢ for adults and .15¢ for kids. They often would show a cartoon or a short.

On some Saturdays, I would go to the matinee in the afternoon, and then I would go back to the theater at night with the parents, so I’d wind up spending about 5 or 6 hours that day in the theater!

In bigger towns, bigger theaters owned by the Studios got the new first-run films, which would include a main A feature and a B feature, and a cartoon or short and a newsreel. But not all studios offered a newsreel. These contained news events that were just a week or two old.

Later in the ‘50s the studio-owned theaters began showing only one “big” film at night on the weekends. These were longer, up to 2 or 2-1/2 hours, and they cost more to see. They also cost more to make, such as with Technicolor and Cinemascope. So that began the end of the double feature.