Thursday, November 29, 2007

Am I Old?

Am I old?

I watched a movie at the first-ever drive-in movie.  I don't remember what the film was.  The drive-in was in West Los Angeles. They didn't even have car speakers.  The sound came from a huge loudspeaker on top of the screen.  People who lacked the admission price could park on a hill behand the theater and watch for free.

I rode in the fourth-ever Goodyear Blimp.  It was the Volunteer and they used to sell rides to the public.  It was a treat for my eighth birthday.

I saw televsion demonstrated in my Junior High in 1938. They had to darken the auditorium so we could see it.  The television camera hadn't been invented yet, so they transmitted the picture from a "flying spot" transmitter.  Look that up on Google.

I have had a computer since 1979.

There were no cam-corders, so aome friends and I made a high-school newsreel on a Keystone 8mm movie camera. We showed it in the auditorium and charged a dime. We made back the cost of the film on editions one and two, but we lost money on the third and the manager of the student store cancelled our project. It was a great run while it lasted.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Today we would just put our newsreel on YouTube

Anonymous said...

not old but experienced

Anonymous said...

You have seen a lot of things come to pass in your lifetime. I didn't even know they had TV in 1938. The first ones I saw when I lived in the country were in the 50's. I was a young teenager then. I have seen a lot of things come to pass myself but not as many as you have. I think a lot about my parents coming from the days of the horse and buggy or wagon to the car stage. They went courting in a wagon with a horse or horses pulling it. Helen

Anonymous said...

I have got to know Chuck..What was it like to be able to ride in the blimp???? Wow!!! How lucky you were!!!
love ya,
carlene

Anonymous said...

You may be old...

Chuck, you may be old if the moviegoers were driving chariots, ox-carts or covered wagons to that first drive-in theater

You may be old if that blimp was made of papyrus and the name ("Volunteer") was printed on the side in hieroglyphics.

You just might be old, my friend, if the principal of your junior high was a guy named Flintstone or Urgh.

If your first computer was an abacus or a string with a lot of knots on it, you might be old.

You might be a little bit old if the projector used to show your newsreels ran on whale oil.

If the money you collected for admission had Julius Caesar's picture on one side, you could be a bit old, Chuck.

And if the manager of your student store was an economist named Adam Smith -- well, Chuck, you MIGHT be old.

Then again, if none of these things are true, I can only conclude that you are only as old as you act -- young fellow!


Anonymous said...

Just amazing and a wonder what will come next. I saw the world's first digital accordian demostrated Tuesday night. Paula

Anonymous said...

I wanted to comment to this post before it really gets too old.  I may be more than 20 yrs younger than you, but I remember the drive-in's before the car speakers.  There was one a couple of miles down the road from us and when the wind was blowing in our direction we could hear the movie dialoge as we laid in our beds.  (In my case, my crib...I think I was about 5 or 6.)  Yes, people watched from the road across from the entrance.  It didn't take long for them to stop the practice with the car speakers.  Annie