I went to the Rochester Central Library this evening to hear Jack Garner talk about 1001 movies you have just got to see before you die! He had 150 must see films. I was amazed that I had seen about 70-80% of them already. That’s scary!

Here are a few the of the all time greats that are must see.

1. The Reader
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Into the Wild
4. Brokeback Mountain
5. There Will Be Blood
6. A Beautiful Mind
7. Pulp Fiction
8. Alien
9. Blade Runner
10. LA Confidential
11. A River Runs Through It
12. A Year of Living Dangerously
13. The Departed
14. Jaws
15. Raiders of the Lost Ark
16. Taxi Driver
17. Saving Private Ryan
18. Godfather I and II
19. In the Heat of the Night
20. The Pawnbroker
21. A Streetcar Named Desire
22. The King and I
23. To Kill A Mockingbird
24. Casablanca
25. It’s A Wonderful Life

And of course there were a lot more but these were a few of my favorites.

     I have always been a big movie fan, even as a kid. Saturday afternoons were double feature days. My friends and I would walk down to the Bailey Show to see whatever was playing.  I’d stop at the bar to see my dad and get a few coins for the ticket and penny candy at Leader’s Drug Store. 

     Our family’s bar was located on the corner of Bailey and Genesee. I’d go into the side door, pass the tables and chairs, to the bar where my dad was working. I would wait as patiently as a kid can, until my dad could break away from customer and say “hi” and ask me what I wanted. I would tell him I was going to the show and he would give me 25 cents for the movie and a dime for candy.  Ten cents usually went pretty far back then. 

     After leaving the bar, we would cross

     The foyer was big and lush with marble floors that shined like a new dime. Against the wall on the left were three booths built into the wall with telephones. The seats were wood and highly polished.  A folding wooden door with glass inserts could be closed for privacy. The diamond-shaped pattern extended all the way to the double doors that were covered in a dark red velvet curtain and opened to a massive auditorium lined with rows of seats.

     The carpet was dark red, thick, and plush, so if anyone walked in during the film you didn’t hear them.  On the wall to the right was posted the times of the movies. A tiny light extended over the small plague so you could read the times even in the darken theater.

More tomorrow…