Comments from lawdawg51

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lawdawg51
lawdawg51 commented about Park Drive-In on Feb 25, 2013 at 5:19 am

I saw movies here when my father was stationed at Ft. Lee (1964 – 1967). I remember all the kids playing on the playground (in front of the big screen) as dark approached. This drive-in was responsible for my life-long love of Orange Crush.

lawdawg51
lawdawg51 commented about Walnut Mall Theatre on Feb 25, 2013 at 4:53 am

We updated the Google view to the correct view of the theater! Someone also responded to another post on the Century Theater and said that after this, the Walnut Mall Theater closed, it became a church, which it is to this day.

lawdawg51
lawdawg51 commented about Skyway Drive-In on Feb 24, 2013 at 6:59 pm

Roger’s name was misspelled as I can’t type and my wife was typing while I spoke…it was Roger Stultz.

lawdawg51
lawdawg51 commented about Skyway Drive-In on Feb 24, 2013 at 6:57 pm

In the late 1960’s, the fellows from Maplewood High School worked at the Skyway. We were about 15 yrs. old in 1966-1967 and would take tickets and work in the concession stand. Toward the end of the movie, on appropriate days, we would also change the marquee.

John Cullman managed the Skyway in the late 60s and his wife, LeeAnn, would sometimes help in the concession. Ms. Allie was the manager of the concession and we kids would help her.

The manger’s office was always sort of dank and dark feeling. John Cullman had a relatively new Corvair Corsa with a turbo-charged engine and spring-loaded 4-speed. What a car! Sometimes, he would toss us the keys and we would go out in the gravel drive-in, spinning donuts and acting ‘afool’ :) The individual that worked there the longest was Roger Shulz, who has for years now been a Senior Pilot for United Airlines. Roger would often ask us to help on particular nights. One of the other fellows that worked up there was Chad Smith, who later served 2 terms as Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

After we took the tickets, we would help in the concession stand. Popcorn leftover from the night before would be dumped in a CLEAN metal garbage can and served up in the red-striped boxes the next evening haha! I vividly remember when they started having us prepare pizzas, on one occasion being in a real rush…the pizza was made up, thrown in a box and was never close to an oven! I remember how angry the man was, coming back with the pizza, and told us that we forgot to cut it. We took the raw pizza in the back, cut it in quarters, threw it back in the box, and apparently, he was satisfied!

The ice-cooler below the fountain drinks was a special place. The manager would ask why we were constantly having to bend over into the ice-cooler and there was always some excuse. The fact is…there would frequently be a can of beer with a soda straw which we nursed throughout the evening.

There are probably other things that happened but after nursing the beer in the cooler, I can’t remember them! Working at the Skyway was a real joy. One evening, we had to change the marquee and the movie that had just ended was “The Ten Commandments”. Chad Smith became overwhelmed, standing on the catwalk, as we took the letters off the marquee. He suddenly became Moses! Those of us below that were getting the letters for the new marquee were almost hit by Chad with the letters he was casting down, as though he were Moses breaking the tablets after his return from Mt. Sinai…it was a hoot!

Working at the Skyway meant that you could always slip in the back way and just park your car. If we knew our friends' cars, we would leave them alone, no matter how steamed up the windows got! Of course, in the winter, they would give you a separate heater box to hang in your car with the speaker. If you parked backwards, with the rear facing the screen, this was simply a signal that you wanted to be left alone.

What times!

lawdawg51
lawdawg51 commented about Walnut Mall Theatre on Feb 24, 2013 at 6:03 pm

My wife remembers this theater being built at approximately 57 Walnut Blvd at an earlier date, 1965-1966, as she lived behind the shopping center across the street. Maybe it was remodeled in 1969? This theater is showing a wrong address of S. Crater Rd; it is on Walnut Blvd. It appears empty on Google Maps. She can remember sitting through multiple showings of Sat afternoon matinees on one ticket. She also remembers the movie “Alfie” playing here in 1966 and being told that she could not see it as it was for adults only! The name “Alfie” was on the marquee and she thought it sounded like something for kids and it was also the first time her mother explained the difference in “movies for adults” and “movies for children”. This was the first “modern” theater she remembers attending as a child (newly built and not an art deco type from the 20s/30s). She lived on Ft. Lee Army Post from 1964 – 1965, then Woodmere Apts on Woodmere Blvd (1965 – 1966), then back to Ft. Lee from 1966-1967.

lawdawg51
lawdawg51 commented about Century Theatre on Feb 24, 2013 at 5:54 pm

My wife wanted to comment that this is where she saw The Sound of Music in 1965. Her father was stationed at Ft. Lee. Her grandmother came from Tennessee to visit and they took her to see the movie. She remembers choking on a Milk Dud and afraid to make a sound (little ones were taught to be quiet in the theater in those days)! She was 8 years old and attending Bollingbrook Day School. While her father was in VietNam for his first tour, she moved to Woodmere Apartments. The Walnut Hill Shopping Center was under construction and a movie theater was built across the road. She says she spent some Sat afternoons in the matinee and they would stay all afternoon; no one told them to leave. On Google Maps, it looks as if the building that housed the theater is still there but the shopping center is pretty dead. She remembers the movie playing at the “new” theater was “Alfie”…her mother told her that she couldn’t see it as it was for adults only.