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Living Like A Gremlin In a 1950s Movie Theater

The old Park Show looked different in the 50s. This picture was taken a few years ago.

 The Park Show

Around 1956, everyone used to go to the old Park Show, right across from the Park Chili in Cincinnati's Northside. It cost 25 cents to get in, and they always had cartoons or serials between the shows. They even sold dried fish in the movies back then (strange days), and they had ushers who were older teenagers and usually real dicks. On Saturday they would sometimes advertise a free box of candy if you came to the Park Show for the matinee. When you got there, it would cost 30 cents to get in instead of 25 cents, and they would give you a nickel box of candy for your free candy. They pulled that scam forever and no one ever said anything. No one really cared, and it was the only place around.
There were no adults at the Park Show on Saturday because it was like kid psycho paradise. The place would be packed. The bathroom was full of kids smoking and sometimes fighting. All the theater seats had been slashed and the screen was full of holes from knives or thrown objects. There was no fire code the owners followed. When there was a popular movie, people sat in the aisles. In the old movie Gremlins, watch the movie theater scene where the gremlins are all watching a movie. I swear to God, it was just like the Park Show on Saturday.

 There was more stuff flying through the air than an ancient Roman battle. Our favorite thing was Ju-Ju beads, hard little candies in a variety of colors. When the usher would come down the row yelling at everyone, he would get hit with about a thousand Ju-Ju beads all over his head and he would run back out.

 We used to watch the older teens make out with their girlfriends, sometimes behind us. There was an older girl (maybe 16) named Sheila Stewart, I believe, who was hot as a firecracker and her boyfriend was all over her in the seats in the back of the show. We would sit looking backwards watching them. Every once in awhile he would threaten us, but we just laughed at him and continued watching him feel her up. Once they even had sex in the back row corner and everyone in the movie was sitting looking backwards to watch them.

 Popcorn was tossed through the air, along with everything else you could imagine, and no one ever stayed quiet for too long. It was a different time and place and parents today would have a stroke if they had a place like the old Park Show. No one hardly ever got thrown out because it was too dangerous for the ushers to walk down the aisles without getting struck by flying objects.

 It was some of the best times I've ever had at the movies.

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