Odd And Funny Things That Happened To Me In Movie Theaters
By: Terry Mansfield
Tags: Movies, Humor, Life Lessons, Cinema, Weird

Odd And Funny Things That Happened To Me In Movie Theaters

Usually, watching a film in a movie theater is uneventful. But not always, as I found out on several occasions.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I love going to see movies in movie theaters. I always have. I’ve watched hundreds of films in many, many theaters in lots of different locations over the years. That means I’ve devoured tons of popcorn. Eating movie theater popcorn is one of my favorite things to do. It’s nearly impossible for me to watch a movie in a theater without eating popcorn to go along with it. It’s just a magical combination.

So with the COVID-19 lockdown in effect the past several months, I haven’t been able to go to movie theaters because they’re all shut down right now, and for a good reason. I can’t imagine wearing a mask throughout a movie so that I could try to keep some stranger nearby from possibly infecting me with the virus. Besides, the protective mask fogs up my glasses, hindering my ability to see the movie without gazing through a haze.

Since I can’t go to a movie theater and watch a film, I thought now might be a good time to do a little reminiscing and think back to some odd and funny things that happened to me inside movie theaters and share those experiences with you. So here goes.

While serving in the U.S. Army and stationed overseas in Japan in the mid-1990s, I would usually go with my family to a theater located on the base. Normally, everything was fine. But on one particular Sunday, we sat down to watch a movie with great anticipation.

Much to our surprise and chagrin, when the film began, it was showing upside down! Although I’m a great fan of movies, I certainly wasn’t going to watch a two-hour film while standing on my head. The movie operator tried hard to fix the problem, but, alas, he failed. So we all got ticket refunds and went back home, disappointed.

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Another time, while I was serving as an Assistant Professor of Military Science with the Army and assigned to West Virginia University in the late 1980s, my family and I lived seven miles from the university, across the border in a little Pennsylvania town called Point Marion. Point Marion didn’t have a movie theater, and the nearest one was in a much larger town called Uniontown, which was about a 45-minute drive from our house.

One beautiful Saturday afternoon, my son Tim and I drove up to Uniontown to see a popular movie. We grabbed our popcorn and settled in ready to watch the flick. The movie started and ran for about ten minutes and then stopped suddenly on one frame. We had experienced a stoppage like this before, but what happened next was something we had never seen — the frame suddenly started melting, and a big hole burned right through it!

Well, so much for that movie. We got refunds for our tickets and went back home. There was no Netflix in those days, of course, so a night out at the movies was pretty special. My son was not a happy camper that day.

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While I was stationed overseas with the Army in Japan in the mid-1980s, my father became ill, so I took some leave time to visit him in rural Missouri. I enjoyed spending time with my dad, of course, but his house was out in the middle of nowhere, and there was nothing to do. I was incredibly bored and got a craving to see a movie. So I asked around (no Internet in those days to look up anything) to find out where was the nearest movie theater.

It turned out the nearest one was only about 15 miles down the road in a town called Houston. I was able to get my hands on a newspaper and learned that a movie was playing in Houston’s only movie theater that weeknight at 7 p.m. I borrowed my dad’s car and drove down to Houston, excited about seeing a movie. I remember what movie was playing. It was Postcards From The Edge, starring Merryl Streep. I wasn’t particularly keen on seeing that movie, but beggars can’t be choosy, you know.

I got to the theater and quickly found out that they weren’t going to show the film because no one had shown up to see it — at least, not until I arrived. A nice lady who worked there took pity on me after I told her how far I had come to see the movie. She said they would show the film just for me. She even made me a fresh batch of popcorn.

With some delicious, hot popcorn in hand, I sat down and watched Merryl Streep doing her usual excellent acting job — all by myself. But I was happy because I accomplished my mission of seeing a movie.

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Several years ago, my wife Kayoko and I went to see an afternoon showing of the movie Jersey Boys, which tells the story of the rise of the famous singer Frankie Valli, who was first a member of The Four Seasons before eventually going solo. The movie theater was in Virginia Beach, Virginia, about 15 miles from our home in Chesapeake. Because that theater had a matinee discount, we often went there on a weekday afternoon.

We arrived a bit late, as the previews were finishing and the lights were all turned down. We got to our seats and then watched the very entertaining Jersey Boys for an hour and a half. After the movie concluded, the lights came back on, and Kayoko and I watched in amusement as every single person in attendance was a senior citizen, and much older than we were!

I guess there were a lot of old-time Frankie Valli fans there, many of whom were “bobby soxer” teenagers during the late 1950s when Frankie rose to fame. Kayoko and I are not exactly “spring chickens” ourselves, so seeing that every single one of the people in that theater was older than us was quite a surprise, and had us laughing at the situation.

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I’ll conclude with a story that took place in Japan in the early 1970s when I was stationed with the U.S. Marine Corps. While there, I met Kayoko, who would become my wife within a few years after that. I was doing some serious courting of Kayoko because I intended to ask her to marry me. But courting in Japan, especially in those days, is nothing like courting in America. Remember, this was only 25 or so years after the end of World War II, so traditional Japanese customs were still very evident wherever you went.

Nonetheless, I wanted to date Kayoko, so I had to accept the fact that she would always have a chaperone with her whenever we went somewhere together in Japan, even if we were just walking down the street. We decided to go to a local movie theater in her hometown of Hofu City and watch Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman; Kayoko’s chaperone that day was one of her best friends.

About halfway through the movie, there was a scene of Dustin Hoffman’s character, the Soda Pop Kid, sitting at an Old West saloon bar. After observing a famous gunfighter stretch out his long legs and place them on top of the bar, the Soda Pop Kid decided to do the same thing. However, the Soda Pop Kid’s legs were extremely short, so he got nowhere near the bar, causing him to wobble wildly back and forth on his barstool like a drunken madman.

This hilarious scene in Little Big Man was so funny that Kayoko started laughing out loud, which by itself wasn’t unusual. But then she kept laughing and laughing and laughing uncontrollably for a long time, with everyone in the theater looking at her.

As you know, laughter can be quite contagious, so the chaperone friend and I started laughing at Kayoko’s laughing, which only made the others in the theater direct more evil eyes our way. I’ve been married to Kayoko for 47 years now, and I’ve never seen her laugh so hard and so long as she did while watching that scene in Little Big Man.

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So there you have it — some quite unusual things that happened to me while inside a movie theater, other than watching the occasional memorable film, of course.

See you at the movies!

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Thanks for reading.

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