Packing House Question
I could not find a rackets or slang definition from that time period for a "Packing House". They keep referring to Lonnigan's racket as "he runs a Packing House".
shareI took it to mean he was running his numbers enterprise out of a legit business-- a meat-packing house-- that served as a front for what was happening behind the scenes there.
shareI think you have it. Thanks for the reply!
No prob. Did you enjoy the movie? The Sting is the first movie I ever watched in a theater, and one of my favorite films of all time.
shareWhat kind of childhood did you have?
They never took you to see a single Disney movie before this?
Or any other kid movie?
We didn't have a lot of money, so movies weren't a common thing for us, and my parents weren't big movie-goers to begin with.
My father saw The Paper Chase when it came out, only because my brother was a grad student at Harvard at the time and he wanted to see what Harvard looked like, and never went to another movie after that, despite living another 30 or so years.
My mom had seen The Sting when it was new, and it became her favorite movie, so when it was re-released in 1977 she went to see it again and took me with her. I was about to turn 7, and hadn't gone to the movies before that. The second movie I saw in a theater, a couple months after seeing The Sting, was Star Wars.
And yes, after that, I did get to go to the movies now and then, though probably not as often as other kids.
Well, ok, thanks for the reply.
You must have shitted your pants when you saw Star Wars as your second movie going experience then. Must have been awesome!
(not that The Sting is not a great movie, but for a kid in 77 an event like Star Wars in a cinema must have been the experience of a lifetime)
I have no distinct memory of watching Star Wars, but I do recall how big of an impact it had on me and my friends. I know I saw it two more times at birthday parties, where the party was all the kids dropped off at the cinema to see Star Wars, and that we played Star Wars at recess daily, and all collected Star Wars cards and action figures. Star Wars was huge in a way that films no longer are.
shareYes, it was.
I wonder what went wrong since then.
Even watching the Sting on a big theater 4 years later, that was cool.
As a kid I watched I don't know how many old Disney classic in a theatre with my mom and brother. To me they were all new.
VHS ruined that magic of cinema, and now streaming has cheapened it even more.
In that era, everyone did the same things at the same time. If you watched a certain TV show, as a nation we were all in front of the TV at the same time watching, and talked about it the next day. When a movie came out, as a nation we all went to see it, knowing that once it left the theater, we may never see it again. Best case, for more popular movies, it might come on TV 5 to 10 years later, or be re-released. There was no binge-watching, no avoiding talking because of spoilers, and no disconnect with one another over who had watched what, and when. Film and TV provided a shared cultural history, and gave us common ground for conversing with one another.
It was also something special to see a movie. You went out, nearly always with friends and/or family, and had a shared experience with an audience. Theaters were nearly always full at the busy showtimes, and seldom ever empty. Now, more often than not, when I see a film I'm one of only a few people in the theater, and many times I've had the theater to myself. Theaters were larger then, too, and many (most?) of the grand movie palaces were still around.
There was more money being made, so more films were being made. You could go to the movies twice a day and never see the same film twice. Most large cities had multiple grindhouse theaters running 24 hours a day. In New York's Times Square you had literally a dozen or more options for what movie to see even at 3am.
I could go on, but I agree that a massive boon to society has been lost in the realm of film since the advent of the digital era.
Yes, and it was so not just in USA, but all over the world.
I think there is still the idea of a shared cultural experience, but it's so fragmented now that it is rare to have a movie that everyone has watched at the same time (like Avatar or Titanic).
But like you I think that the experience has shifted away from theatres. It's weird because as a kid I don't know how many times I dreamt of "owning" this or that movie asap and be able to watch it a million times any time I wanted, but it was just a fantasy.
Now that fantasy is true, and the movies have lost all their magic, probably because of this availability. Be careful of what you wish for!
And, as you eloquently put it,a massive boon to society has been lost in the realm of film since the advent of the digital era.
Sad.
Nice chatting with you, btw. Brought me back to a better age of cinema.
It's one of the first I saw, as well. Mom covered my eyes during the striptease part. Great film.
shareThat how I remember it as well
share