May 25, 1983, Sam Eric Theatre, Philadelphia. (Photo: AP)
The Sam Eric (or SamEric), previously the Boyd Theatre, “was the last operating movie palace in downtown Philadelphia until it closed in 2002.” The Friends of the Boyd are currently trying to restore the city landmark.
The photo is from Friends of the Boyd’s Facebook. Michael Coat identified the source (one of them, anyway) as the May 26, 1983 edition of the Bedford Gazette. Return of the Jedi premiered nationwide on the 25th.
2 Warps to Neptune 
I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it was a time where movies were actually worth lining up for. We were in one of those lines on the first day during the middle of a school day for our “dentist appointment” (along with many others from our school). On the other hand, jamming into a 1000 seat theater in those uncomfortable seats now sounds like the definition of torture. I’m glad going to the movies is no longer like that. The last movie we stood in a line for was Episode 1 the evening of the first day in some sort of ostolgic (and we regretted that decision 10 minutes into the movie).
Effing iPhone screwed me up. It was supposed to say:
In some sort of nostalgic recapturing of our youth (and we regretted that decision 10 minutes into the movie). Between that and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, movies were changed for me forever, and not in a good way.
It sounds like torture now because you’re an adult. If Raiders of the Lost Ark came out today, I’d just wait a few weeks and go see it during a weekday (“dentist appointment”). However, as we both know, the equivalent of Raiders will never come out today.
Wow. It was a huge deal for us when RoTJ opened up in our neighborhood (Westchester). An older friend of mine (who was a huge SW fan) totally camped out for tickets at the UA in Marina Del Rey and stayed there the whole day since the crack of dawn. Totally worth it though as he held our place in line, and we were amongst the first 10 people in!
We could totally feel the air inside the theater electric with everyone’s excitement and anticipation. I’ve never felt that level of rush or thrill in a movie theater since. These days, I’m happy to go see movies, but I keep muttering to myself, “Man, I hope it’s good. I hope it’s good.”
Empire Strikes Back was probably my biggest thrill in the theater. I saw Star Wars in the theater too, but I was too young to pick up on everything.
Weird. As hard as I try to, I just can’t access the memory of my ESB viewing in my data banks. Crazy. 1980, too…one of my favorite years ever. Geez…