Sorry for the tardiness… Ready to break it down?
Act I
- This is the “History of Breakin'” text from How to Breakdance: Mr. Fresh and the Supreme Rockers Show You How to Do It!
- It seems that somebody at McSweeney’s appreciated Mr. Fresh’s wisdom, too.
- I was terrible at breakdancing, but here’s Turbo/Boogaloo Shrimp dancing on the ceiling in Breakin’ 2.
Act II
- It’s hard to find much about Magic Movies, but Flavorwire posted about the virtues of home video rental stores.
- I think my brother and I set the record for renting The Monster Squad at the Magic Movies in Choctaw. I challenge you to prove me wrong.
Act III
- The Apollo Twin shut down in the winter of 1989, not long after our trip to see Ghostbusters II. This site has a couple of really great remembrances of the theater, including this from user kpdennis:
…the two rooms were nearly identical and had around 600 seats each, with very large screens. My memory is faulty here, but I don’t believe it was a stereo sound setup; there were curtains (which we never utilized). The auditoriums had separate projection booths – offices were in between.
The Apollo was my first managerial assignment for Commonwealth Theaters in Oklahoma City. The Commonwealth city manager’s office was located upstairs along with the projection booths and the manager’s office – it was crowded! All the local advertising and marketing materials prep was handled there (loads of old movie pressbooks overflowed from file cabinets – how I wish I grabbed a few of those!). And the local theater managers made a weekly stop-in to deliver paperwork, pick up memos, etc (remember, this is pre-computer days (Commonwealth was cheap) – no internet, no faxes, all accounting at the theater level done with pencil and paper and a checkbook for each location.
I was there when we had really big hits (like Beverly Hills Cop), but mainly we played lots forgotten exploitation titles (like Hollywood Vice Squad, Night Patrol, Chuck Norris films from Cannon Studios, owners of Commonwealth at one point). During my tenure, the original 18×36 poster frames were replaced with snap-lock one-sheet cases. In turn, when those were replaced with lighted one-sheet holders, I managed to acquire the older one sheet frames, which now adorn my office at work. So a little of the Apollo continues with me to this day.
See you at the movies, guys.