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Your Age, Serially Speaking
Topic Started: Jun 3 2014, 06:19 AM (909 Views)
The Batman
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Yes, I am quite impressed. The polls around here rarely get anywhere near this response.

It's too bad someone checked off that 0-5 years, instead of their real age.

Agreed, also wish more of these people would post (besides in the Arcade Annex).


Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Sgt Saturn
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JazzGuyy
Jun 5 2014, 04:41 AM
I am old enough to remember serials in movie theaters though I only saw chapters here and there in theaters since I didn't go to the same theaters every week.
One of the advantages to growing up in a small town. We had only two theaters to choose from; so, my family went to the same theater most Friday nights. A saw most (but not all) of several serials on the big screen. I don't think a saw every episode of anything until a few years later when a local TV station started broadcasting a serial episode every weekday afternoon.
The Ol' Sarge
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mort bakaprevski
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Sgt Saturn
Jun 5 2014, 10:33 AM
One of the advantages to growing up in a small town. We had only two theaters to choose from; so, my family went to the same theater most Friday nights.
When I was a kid, I had relatives living in both Bellflower & Taft. Both towns had two theatres: one which played only first-run A pictures & the other which would always play at least one B western (& sometimes two).

The latter theatre would also play a serial starting Friday nite, continuing on the Saturday matinee & thru the evening. Evidently this kind of theatre was common to a lot of small towns.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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panzer the great & terrible
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There do seem to be fewer people posting.

I saw my first few serial episodes at some theater in Delray, FL in 1949. CODY OF THE PONY EXPRESS it was, and I immediately caught the bug. When we got home I found the one theater in town that ran serials, The Lafayette, a real flea pit, and I was there as many Saturdays as I could manage for years (family stuff and sometimes money got in the way). The first one I saw at The Lafayette was RADAR PATROL VS. SPY KING, which I still kind of like, then it was BATMAN AND ROBIN, which I still love despite its obvious shortcomings. About then, serials started popping up on TV, starting with the three FLASH GORDONs. A reissue of UNDERSEA KINGDOM dovetailed into this nicely, and then...dunno for sure what came next, but when MYSTERIOUS ISLAND appeared I was obsessed with it. You'll never know how compelling it was on the big screen when I was seven. Then there was a reissue of LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE that impressed me for some reason.

The funny thing is, when I saw these again decades later, I remembered large chunks of them, and for me they are the classics, though there were many serials just as good and in some cases better.

But we're not likely to see many 35mm serial prints projected today, so I guess we need to be casting our wallet votes for Blu-Rays as and if they appear.
Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Jun 8 2014, 07:19 PM.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Todd 3D
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I voted in the 41-45 year old range. Being born in 1970, I didn't get to see a serial on the big screen until SerialFest 2001 in Toronto. First serial I saw that way was The Crimson Ghost. There is something magic about seeing them that way, even in a marathon style. The first actual serial I saw was a rental of Nyoka and the Tiger Men in 1988. I followed it with Mysterious Doctor Satan and Daredevils of the Red Circle. By chapter two of Daredevils, I was hooked.

Sometimes I envy the people who grew up in the 30s and 40s as they got to see so much neat stuff like serials and the 50s 3D movies. On the other hand, the advantage of being born in the video age is that I've gotten to see much of this stuff either on video or in revival showings. I suppose I've been lucky in the fact that I've seen nearly every existing sound serial and 42 of the 50 1950s 3D movies in 3D (40 of them in the movies).
"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home"--Edward R. Murrow
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Don Diego
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The first serial I saw on the big screen was Superman - coincidently at the Recue Theatre - the same one you saw the Crimson Ghost. The first one I saw on TV was Flash Gordon. CHCH TV in Hamilton had regular kids shows with serials and Popeye cartoons.
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Pa Stark
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The only chapter I saw of a serial on the big screen as a child was the final episode of ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION. I saw it when Disney's TV series was being aired, and my friends and I didn't accept Zorro taking off his mask and showing the heroine who he was. My reaction was, "Zorro would never do that." It was years later that I again was able to see serials on the big screen, and in a short space of time was able to see CAPTAIN VIDEO, THE GREAT ALASKAN MYSTERY, ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION, THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES, and BATMAN. Life was good.
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williejg
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How do you put your vote in the poll?

willie
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williejg
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Can't find directions on how to add my vote to the poll.

willie
Edited by williejg, Jul 9 2014, 06:59 AM.
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JazzGuyy
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As long as you are logged in and go to the top of the first page of this thread, you just have to click on one of the little circles and then submit.
Edited by JazzGuyy, Jul 9 2014, 07:21 AM.
TANSTAAFL!
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panzer the great & terrible
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If you don't have the little circles, that means you've already voted.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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williejg
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Thanks guys~ NO circles, so I must have voted and forgot about it. Sorry to trouble you.

willie
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