Mike Cline's THEN PLAYING

Sunday, April 13, 2014

BUTCH AND THE KID

"Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?"

Yep, they dynamited trains and were dynamite at the box office.

Twentieth Century Fox released this western on October 1, 1969, and Salisbury was among the cities to get it on opening day.

Take the genius of pairing Paul Newman with Robert Redford, throw in the smash B. J. Thomas song hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," and it was off to the bank. Fortunately, Butch and the Kid weren't around to stick it up.

During its initial release period, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID had eleven different bookings in Salisbury.

Twentieth Century Fox pulled the movie from release at the end of 1971, and put it in the can until the spring of 1974.

They re-released it after Newman and Redford struck gold again in THE STING, and history repeated itself. From April through December, 1974, Salisbury played "The Hole-in-the-Wall" guys five more times, with each engagement being a full week.

October 1 - 11, 1969 - TERRACE THEATRE

December 25, 1969 - January 7, 1970 - CAPITOL THEATRE

March 18 - 26, 1970 - TERRACE THEATRE

May 15 - 21, 1970 - CAPITOL THEATRE

June 12 - 18, 1970 - CAPITOL THEATRE

August 5 - 11, 1970 - SALISBURY DRIVE-IN THEATRE

December 2 - 8, 1970 - CAPITOL THEATRE

March 19 - 25, 1971 - CAPITOL THEATRE

May 21 - 27, 1971 - TERRACE THEATRE

August 27 - September 2, 1971 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE

November 19 - 23, 1971 - CAPITOL THEATRE

April 26 - May 2, 1974 - TERRACE THEATRE

May 3 - 9, 1974 - CAPITOL THEATRE

July 26 - August 1, 1974 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE

September 27 - October 3, 1974 - TERRACE THEATRE

October 11 - 17, 1974 - THUNDERBIRD DRIVE-IN THEATRE

"What's the matter with you?"

"I can't swim."

"Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill ya!"

Monday, April 7, 2014

FIFTIES FUN AT THE MOVIES

CAPITOL THEATRE
August 8, 1950

CAPITOL THEATRE
November 19, 1950

HITCHING POST DRIVE-IN THEATRE
November 19, 1950

VICTORY THEATRE
November 19, 1950

CAPITOL THEATRE
February 18, 1951

CAPITOL THEATRE
February 25, 1951

STATE THEATRE
May 23, 1951

STATE THEATRE
July 6, 1951

VICTORY THEATRE
January 27, 1952

CAPITOL THEATRE
May 17, 1953

CAPITOL THEATRE
November 15, 1953

VICTORY THEATRE
January 9, 1955

CENTER THEATRE
February 13, 1955

CENTER THEATRE
September 18, 1955

CENTER THEATRE
December 4, 1955

CAPITOL THEATRE
July 2, 1958

Note ANDY GRIFFITH
personal appearance

CENTER THEATRE
February 8, 1959

CAPITOL THEATRE
November 20, 1959

Sunday, April 6, 2014

WEISSMULLER'S JUNGLE JIM YEARS

JOHNNY WEISSMULLER

1904 - 1984

Discarding his Tarzan loincloth in 1948 after twelve appearances due to age and a salary dispute, Olympian Johnny Weissmuller wasted no time in obtaining another jungle gig. Columbia Pictures signed the Olympic medal winner to a series of B-budgeted Jungle Jim features, based on the popular King Features comic strip character.

The first in the series, aptly titled JUNGLE JIM was on theatre screens the same year as Johnny's final Tarzan adventure.

He would portray Jungle Jim in a total of thirteen kiddie fare films until 1954 when Columbia lost the rights to the character. Not content to stop production of the popular Saturday matinee fillers, Johnny stayed on with Columbia for three more features. No longer able to use the Jungle Jim name, Johnny Weissmuller played a character named...Johnny Weissmuller. King Features couldn't stop him from using that moniker.

Ironically, after stoppage of the Johnny features, Columbia re-acquired the rights to the Jungle Jim character, and Weissmuller moved to the small screen as JUNGLE JIM in 26 half-hour TV episodes.

"Baby Boomers" in the Charlotte area may remember watching the TV show on WSOC weekday afternoons as part of their Jungle Theatre program.

And, the Weissmuller features, both TARZAN and JUNGLE JIM, initially played on WSOC in the Charlotte market during the early-to-mid-sixties. In the Triad market, the TARZANs could be seen on WGHP-High Point, and the JUNGLE JIMs on WFMY-Greensboro.

JUNGLE JIM
1948

THE LOST TRIBE
1949

MARK OF THE GORILLA
1950

CAPTIVE GIRL
1950

PYGMY ISLAND
1950

FURY OF THE CONGO
1951

JUNGLE MANHUNT
1951

JUNGLE JIM IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND
1952

VOODOO TIGER
1952

SAVAGE MUTINY
1953

VALLEY OF HEAD HUNTERS
1953

KILLER APE
1953

JUNGLE MAN-EATERS
1954

CANNIBAL ATTACK
1954

JUNGLE MOON MEN
1954

DEVIL GODDESS
1954

Sunday, March 30, 2014

FROM "BOY" TO "BOMBA"

JOHN MATTHEW SHEFFIELD CASSAN

(1931 - 2010)

In late 1938, British actor Reginald Sheffield read a story headline in the Hollywood Reporter (one of the movie industry's best-known trades) which asked...

"Have you a Tarzan Jr. in your backyard?"

Sheffield's second child John had show biz experience, having performed in ON BORROWED TIME on both Broadway and the West Coast. So an audition was set up at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the 8-year-old to audition for the newly-established role as a son to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan and Maureen O'Sullivan's Jane.

When the "kiddie cattle call" was over, star Weissmuller had personally selected the Sheffield moppet over roughly 300 other tykes to play the role of "Boy" in the next Tarzan film about to begin shooting. MGM went along with the Olympian's request.

So, beginning with the 1939 release of TARZAN FINDS A SON, Johnny Sheffield was a member of the Edgar Rice Burroughs / MGM jungle family.

"Big" Johnny and "Little" Johnny made eight Tarzan features together before size and age had Sheffield written out of the series. Weissmuller himself would make only one more ape man movie after "Boy" excited the jungle.

Monogram Pictures, a Poverty Row B-studio had purchased the rights to the Roy Rockwood Bomba the Jungle Boy books and figured that the available Sheffield would be perfect for the role of the Tarzan knock-off character.

He was.

So, in 1949, Sheffield made the first of twelve Bomba movies, designed for the small-fry / Saturday matinee / drive-in crowds.

The films made money for both Monogram and the theatres which played the films.

Here in Rowan County, they were mainstays for Salisbury's downtown Victory Theatre, as well as the outlying movie houses in Spencer, Rockwell, China Grove and Landis. The Rowan Drive-In theatres played the Bombas as well.

In 1955, the jungle series was halted and Sheffield, then 24, left show biz for good to enroll in college.