The Gem Theater: June 2018

Introduction

Downtown Wichita Falls, Texas, in the mid 1940’s was a bustling metropolis for a boy of 7 just away from the farm and ranch community where he was born. My father, a cook and cowboy by trade, had just started as one of the first cooks for the Casa Manana restaurant in 1947. He moved us to an apartment on Ohio Street, right across from the Gem Theater, between 7^th and 8^th Streets. It’s here that we would stay for the next three years. The Gem Theater became a magic palace for a young mind. But it had to share that distinction with the rest of the magic that was Wichita Falls. I attended San Jacinto and Carrigan elementary schools, as well as Reagan Junior High, and belonged to the Boys Club on 6th Street. Please join, and share your stories and pictures through a Guest Blog, of early Wichita Falls - or your home town. Contact me at fadingshadows40@gmail.com or leave a comment. We could use old pictures of movie houses, drive-in theaters, and other nostalgic pictures related to our youths.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Lost Planet

The Lost Planet, a 15-chapter serial from Columbia in 1953, starring Judd Holdren and Vivian Mason. Flying saucers are reported over the city, then one supposedly crashed in the mountains nearby. Reporter Rex Barrow (Holdren) and his photographer, Ted Thorpe (Tim Johnson) locate the crash site, but meet a girl there, too. She claims to be Ella Dorn (Mason) the daughter of professor Dorn (Forest Taylor) who has been missing. The three are captured and sent to the planet Ergro as workers in mining a special mineral. The first half of the serial is jumping back and forth between Earth and Ergro in a space rocket or jet plane. With the serial going nowhere, at midway gangsters are brought to spice up the plot. Unfortunately, this is 1953, and serials are about finished. I was told that Lost Planet was supposed to be a sequel to Captain Video, but I don’t know that for a fact. In any case, as serials go, this one didn’t. This may have been Columbia’s final serial, if not it should have been. Not one of the best.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

The Skyview Drive-In

The Skyview Drive-In: Here are some shots of the Skyview Drive-in, located in Lancaster, Ohio. This is one of the few remaining drive-in theaters still operating in the US. Thanks to Juliana Gowens and her sister for the photographs.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Brick Bradford

Brick Bradford, the newspaper comic strip, is a 15-chapter serial from Columbia in 1947. Starring Kane Richmond and Linda Leighton. This is a really wild serial with a teleportation machine to go to the moon (with atmosphere, no less), plus a machine to turn invisible. There are plenty of fights in each chapter, but the cliffhangers aren’t the best. Strangely, the moon’s landscape and California’s landscape looked very similar (LOL) What was a treat was seeing Noel Neill (Superman’s Lois Lane) in Chapter 8, as an island native, but without credits on the film. My Disc says three hours, but it was four and a half hours long.

The Gem Theater