Topic: The First Time You Went to the Cinema

[Dr. Hasslein]

When was the first time you went to the cinema?
How old were you?
What movie did you see?

My cousin took me to the cinema for the first time when I was five years to see Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; the year was 1989.

I consider it to be one of the most significant moments of my life.

[Kathy]

My grandma loved the movies. She went at least 2 or 3 times a week for 40 or more years.

I saw Mary Poppins with her and it is one of my fondest memories. I think I was 6 or 7 at the time.

I also remember seeing Doctor Zhivago with her and we both loved this movie. We went back and saw this film several more times over the next week or so.

I can't be sure which one I saw first but these two stand out as being the beginning of my love affair with cinema.

[Critter]

Do you know what, I actually don't remember. I wish my Mum had been one of those people who kept their child's first cinema ticket etc, but it just didn't happen. I have vague memories of it perhaps being Free Willy, or something other movie about a seal (I don't remember the name) or maybe even The Fox and the Hound. But yeah, I wish I knew but I just don't.

[Dragonfire]

The very first..I don't know.  I'm thinking it was The Aristacats or Lady and the Tramp with my grandma.  I think I was around 5.

I saw Cinderella with my mom and my aunt around them too..but I don't think that was the first movie I saw in the theater.

[Dr. Hasslein]

I think the second movie I saw at the cinema was Back to the Future Part 2. To this day I'm still amazed at the fact the I saw a Back to the Future movie at the cinema. It was awesome!

[Antares]

I saw Mary Poppins with her and it is one of my fondest memories. I think I was 6 or 7 at the time.

I was 4, and I think it was the first film that I remember seeing in a theater.

I also remember a lot of films at a drive-in, with me and my sisters wearing pajamas and playing on the swing sets they had.

I miss drive-ins, they were so much fun.

[Kathy]

Going to the drive-in was a big deal when I was growing up. It was a family event that everyone looked forward to. I loved watching the one movie and looking over and seeing what was on the other two screens.

Although the city of Buffalo closed its last drive-in recently. we still have a few in the suburbs less than 25 miles away.

[Dr. Hasslein]

You're so old Kathy, why is that? 

The 60's must have been so cool!

[Antares]

I had a friend in high school who lived next door to a dying drive-in back in the 70's. We used to take lawn chairs, cases of beer and bags of weed and sit in the back row of the lot. We'd turn on about 30 speakers on full blast in a big circle and sit in the middle and get blitzed.

[Antares]

The 60's must have been so cool!

Yes...it was.

[Dragonfire]

When I was around 6 there was a drive in near where my mom and I were living in Columbus that would show double features.  I did see a few movies there...Bambi..Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn - those 2 were fairly close together I think..and both devastated me. 
Umm...Six Pack...9 to 5.  There were a few others, but I can't remember what now.

[Achim]

First recorded memory of cinema is seeing some German fairy tale movie with my mom and a neighbor's kid. I must have been around 6, maybe.

[Rogmeister]

I'm not sure when I went to the movies for the first time...but I do know I also saw Mary Poppins in the theater.  My family went...we got there after it had started so we stayed for the next viewing until we got to the part it was at when we came in.  I think that movie came out in 1964, right?  So I would've been 12 at that point.

You didn't ask but I'll also add the first movie I paid my own way into...that was Big Jake with John Wayne...I saw that in 1972 at either the Capitol or the Paramount theater in Steubenville, Ohio.  At that point, they had 3 theaters...the Capitol and Paramount both closed within 5 years of that date, I think.  The third, the Grand, was the last downtown theater to close...it shut down sometime in the late 70s.  There's been talk of renovating it and reopening it but I doubt that will happen.  Both the Capitol and Paramount were torn down so they're gone forever.

[Blair]

My cousin took me to the cinema for the first time when I was five years to see Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; the year was 1989.

You're a lot younger than I suspected, probably because of the "Dr." in your username which makes me think how, as I get older, my doctors are getting older too!


I have no idea what my first movie was. The first movie that I remember seeing was Lady and the Tramp, but since it was part of a reshowing of all Disney movies up to the current year, I have no idea when it happened. I remember where we went to see it, who was there, and even approximately where we sat in the left row of seats.

[Dr. Hasslein]

I'm 26 years old and Dr. Hasslein is that name of a character from the movie Escape From the Planet of the Apes.

Here is a little tribute video I made recently.