Polytechnic Heights in 1969

[Teresa]

My favorite memory of Fort Worth's Poly Theater is a fall evening in 1969, me staggering ahead of my parents pretending to be drunk.  My family had just seen Paint Your Wagon so I took the liberty of singing the "bad" words in A Wanderin' Star, "Hell is in Hell-o..."

 

Boyd and Imogene Millican owned the theater built in the early '50s, a red and green wonderland with one screen, bright candy packages displayed beneath a clean glass counter, and a teller's change machine in the box office which was exotic technology at the time. 

 

I remember walking two blocks to the theater when I was seven, a worn $1 in hand and a mission to watch The Legend of Boggy Creek alone; I almost wet the red velvet seat during a window breaking scene.  

 

Imogene often strolled the aisle with her white poodle and a flashlight, searching for talkers so she could toss them out which she seemed to enjoy; she and Boyd didn't seem to like children much, perhaps because so many were left at the theater unattended.  

 

In the early '70s the Millicans sold the theater which became a pet shop and later, the New Unity Missionary Baptist Church, then it was sadly abandoned..."I never seen a sight that didn't look better looking back..."      *Watercolor by David Tripp

[Jamie Hogan]

I don't know what impresses me more - the writing or the fact that you watched Boggy Creek alone. I love nostalgic looks back when they're not just for nostagia's sake.

[Stephen Torelli]

The 1960s and the passing of innocence or at least that's what many say. Nice account.

[Joey Delgado]

I'm a sucker for Americana and good writing, and this is both. I enjoyed the image of Imogene wandering the aisles with her poodle and packages of candy under glass. I remember being a kid and not being able to pick from all the options. Always ended up with Junior Mints.

 

The quote at the end, is that you?

 

Great piece. :)

[Jeanette Cheezum]

 

This reminds me of those wonderful days when my friends and I went every Saturday. We played a game on the stage, for a prize. Then we saw a serial, three cartoons, the news and the the movie. The theater always smelled of fresh popcorn. Lovely 6.

[Bob Clay]

I'm kind of a sucker for nostalgia, but it inevitably saddens me.  I visited my home town a few weeks ago and as I walked about examining the immense changes that have occurred in just 30 years I kept thinking about the title of that story by Robert Heinlein, 'Stranger in a Strange Land.'

[Mike Handley]

You made me think of men in tight white shirts, tucked of course, with the long sleeves rolled up to their biceps, and of women with big hair. Excellent, and so is the watercolor.

[Brittany]

we have one in New Orleans that they've thankfully rescued and restored. how nice if that could happen to your Poly. It still has potential it seems. Have to go look up Boggy Creek after G's comment. :-)

[Gita]

Oh this is making me nostalgic. Theater ushers in Montreal prowled the aisles for couples making out and noisy kids (who often were watching the couples make out). The quote you selected really does nail the tricks of memory. But why on earth would you want to go watch Boggy Creek alone??? You were made of sterner stuff than I was.

Would have liked to know you and go with you to the Poly and share a bag of Twizzlers.

[Zane Riley Douthit]

Sounds like a theater back home