Dudleys Diary

I went to when I was a kid. They just don't make them like they used to. Now you go to a giant Cinema Plex with ten or twenty screens. It is just not the same. When I lived in Wichita Falls, I often went to an old theatre that was built back in the days of Vaudeville, before movies came on the scene, first "silent" versions and then "talkies." This was of course before my time. I remember one time when very small, my parents while on vacation, took us to a theatre somewhere in Texas, I don't remember the name of the theatre or even what town it was in. But I remember the ceiling of the theatre was painted like the sky and when the lights were turned down, you looked up to see hundreds of lights twinkling over head like stars in the night time sky. How cool is that? I remember going to the old T.C.U. theatre as a kid. It has not shown movies in years. I drove by there the other day and was sad to see it is gone. Apparently the bulldozers took it last summer, in the name of "progress." One of the neatest theatres was the 7 th Street Theatre. It had an honest to god second story balcony which was the preferred place to sit and watch a movie. I remember one Saturday my friends and I were "asked" to move down stairs. It seems some kids were throwing milk duds down on the movie goers below. I plead the fifth on that charge. Several years ago, some idiot down at city hall issued a permit to demolish the theatre (supposedly) by mistake. It was protected as a historic landmark, but they tore it down anyway. What a shame. Other theatres I went to were the Worth, Bowie, Ridglea, and Hollywood. One of my favorite movies is "The Last Picture Show." I wish I could see it just one time, in all of the old theatres from the past.