by Guest » Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:52 pm
Kiddie Kinema was at Shields and Cedar behind Cedar Lanes. My parents owned it in the 60's and 70's. At one time there were three "Kiddie" theaters. The one at first and Barstow was called "Kiddie Cinema" and I dont recall the loxation or name of the 3rd. My parents owned Kiddie Kinema, and a friend of my dad owned Kiddie Cinema. Both men were managers of drive-ins at the time. My dad managed Star-Lite drive in and the friend managed, I believe the Motor-In drive in. In the 70's the bigger theaters (Country Squire, etc) started showing movies aimed at kids on weekends, which was when the "Kiddie" theaters operated. They pretty much put the smaller kiddie theaters out of business because they could get the Disney movies. The Kiddie theaters did not have the seating capacity Disney required for it's movies.
A funny story, back in the day we used to pick up the movies from the bus station downtown. They would come in three reels and we would have to splice them together. My mom had watched my dad do that but had never done it before. One weekday, Kiddie Kinema hosted Kiddie Campus and Kiddie College pre-schools for a showing of the HR Puffnstuff movie. The movie arrived late and my mom picked it up the morning of the showing. My dad was not there to splice it together so my mom did the job. My sister, mom and myself were the workers that day. My mom loaded the movie on the projector and started the movie. All was great during the first reel then came the splice and all of the sudden all the kids started yelling and laughing. Having not seen the film, my mom and sister, in the lobby didnt pay any attention until I came running out yelling, "Everyone is upside down!" Yup, my mom had spliced the second reel wrong! We played the movie anyway and reel three was correct! The pre-schools came back later and got to see another movie later.
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- Click to Enlarge / Fresno Bee - Oct. 9, 1970
Kiddie Kinema was at Shields and Cedar behind Cedar Lanes. My parents owned it in the 60's and 70's. At one time there were three "Kiddie" theaters. The one at first and Barstow was called "Kiddie Cinema" and I dont recall the loxation or name of the 3rd. My parents owned Kiddie Kinema, and a friend of my dad owned Kiddie Cinema. Both men were managers of drive-ins at the time. My dad managed Star-Lite drive in and the friend managed, I believe the Motor-In drive in. In the 70's the bigger theaters (Country Squire, etc) started showing movies aimed at kids on weekends, which was when the "Kiddie" theaters operated. They pretty much put the smaller kiddie theaters out of business because they could get the Disney movies. The Kiddie theaters did not have the seating capacity Disney required for it's movies.
A funny story, back in the day we used to pick up the movies from the bus station downtown. They would come in three reels and we would have to splice them together. My mom had watched my dad do that but had never done it before. One weekday, Kiddie Kinema hosted Kiddie Campus and Kiddie College pre-schools for a showing of the HR Puffnstuff movie. The movie arrived late and my mom picked it up the morning of the showing. My dad was not there to splice it together so my mom did the job. My sister, mom and myself were the workers that day. My mom loaded the movie on the projector and started the movie. All was great during the first reel then came the splice and all of the sudden all the kids started yelling and laughing. Having not seen the film, my mom and sister, in the lobby didnt pay any attention until I came running out yelling, "Everyone is upside down!" Yup, my mom had spliced the second reel wrong! We played the movie anyway and reel three was correct! The pre-schools came back later and got to see another movie later.