I just read recently that the Kiggins movie theater is going to reopen, which opened up my memory banks.
My earliest recollections of the Kiggins are from the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was just up the street and across from Woolworth’s, as I recall. I’m sure I watched many a movie at the old Broadway, but it is the Kiggins I remember most.
For 25 cents you could see a cartoon, newsreel, weekly serial and a double feature. I just now realize how amazing that sounds, but a fact nonetheless. There was a time in my childhood when it seemed like I attended the matinee almost every week. It was kind of like you were roped into it — otherwise you would miss the next exciting episode of “Dick Granger and The Moon People,” or some other poorly produced, obscure, black-and-white, 15-part serial. These of course were made exclusively to drag 7- to 11-year-olds into the theater week after week. It worked like a charm.
Every so often my Dad would wake my older brother Bob and me from our pleasant dreams and take us to the midnight matinee. This meant horror movies! Dad would always stop and buy a huge paper sack full of candy on his way home from work for the occasion. This must have been his way of beating the high theater prices of the day. Mom would always give the same lecture: “I hope they don’t have nightmares.” “Don’t get them sick on a bunch of crap.” “Honey, are you listening to me?”
