Tuesday, August 6, 2013

On Stage and Screen - Summer 1965




One is first struck by how much there was to do, how vibrant the local entertainment scene in western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.  This is a section of one page in the Springfield Daily News, from August 1965.  Major Hollywood and stage stars at the local summer theaters:  the Mt. Tom Playhouse in Holyoke, and the Storrowton Music Fair in West Springfield.

Drive-in theaters that no longer exist here.  Several neighborhood movie theaters offering air conditioning and the latest films, including The Elms in Hartford, which the exclusive rights to that year's blockbuster The Sound of Music until October, seats reserved, $2.75 for an evening performance, $1.50 for a matinee.

The Everly Brothers appearing at Mountain Park in Holyoke, along with Jerry Lee Lewis at the "Over 18 Discotheque", and a kids' show featuring that superstar Bozo, and our local Swabby in the days when local TV stations produced their own programming.

These were the days before the boxy cinemas, when people still wore dresses, coats and ties to even a neighborhood theater.

The Springfield Giants were playing minor league ball at Pynchon Park in Springfield against the visiting Pittsfield team.  Or you could see Lee Remick in Annie Get Your Gun or Dana Andrews or Mary Poppins at the drive-in, or "the over 21 dance in the Go-Go Room at Mountain Park.  Why would anyone stay home?

Old newspapers are time machines.  It's all gone now.

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