My Dad was a projectionist. He had two 16mm projectors and a huge movie screen that took up a whole wall of the living room. Sound was pumped through two Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater Speakers which were the size of DISHWASHERS. We had “Movie Club” every Friday night. All the neighbors would contribute to the cost of the 16mm print, Mom would make popcorn, and we would watch the Classics, long before the invention of VHS or Cable TV. Here are a few of our favorites:
Laurel and Hardy
All the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald Flicks
Rebecca
The Russians are Coming
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
2001 A Space Odyssy
Balalaika
Phantom of the Opera (Nelson Eddy version)
Casablanca
The African Queen
Lawrence of Arabia
Dr. Zhivago
How The West Was Won
Gone With The Wind
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
To Have and Have Not
(There were a lot more.)
((((He was unable to obtain any Disney movies, because they were under strict control. But maybe that was for the best)))
The entire gathering of neighbors to watch movies is a great idea. Fun on a Friday? night, bonding with the neighborhood.
In the small Texas town we lived, they would gather each month
on a Saturday night and watch movies being projeced on the blank brick wall of a building. Bring your own seating, quilt
or whatever. Then, for some reason shortly after we moved into town, these gatherings ceased.
As to the many movies you listed. Some are now on the list or
soon will be. Doubtful we’ll ever be given the opportunity for Gone With The Wind and several others. The fists hold tight onto those and the copyrights. Personal favorites here are the musicals with Grable, Horne, Miranda. The same
fist holding holds true for these as well. Certainly a ‘good thing’ the industry was so productive during that era. Still LOTS of others to choose from.