Mid-Century Movies

Dear Diary,

With the US landing of the Mars Rover last week, and the fact I'm still in the grip of nostalgia, here is a photo of the movie theater in my town.  Admission was 50 cents and you could get popcorn and candy all for under a dollar. It was 1963, The Day Mars Invaded the Earth.  I don't think I spent my hard earned mill dollars on it.  I've never been a big fan of sci-fi but I do remember a film I saw there a couple of years before, 13 Ghosts.  It was filmed in "illusion-O" and you got a special card with blue and red cellophane.  The red intensified the ghosts in the film and the blue eliminated them if you got too scared.  Around the same time, the movie The Tingler came out.  The Tingler remains most well known for a gimmick called "Percepto!", a vibrating device in some theater chairs which activated with the onscreen action.  We all thought these special effects movies were just the cat's whiskers at the time.  I've added the movie poster and "glasses" for the 13 Ghosts in the extras.