Thread by @chowmowan

🧵stories from a cinema owner in the Philippines, circa 1970s-80s

so just a short background, my family used to manage a cinema during that time period, it was a stand-alone cinema that showed a lot of Filipino films and some Chinese ones in the province!! my mom and uncle love telling me stories about it, so I'll share some here

⭐ Noranians vs. Vilamanians ⭐

This war was very real. If we have Twitter now to deal with fandom wars, back then, they dealt with physically.

Fistfights and heated arguments always happened between these fans, it got so bad, my grandfather had giant portraits of-

-Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos made and set-up at different entrances to segregate the fans😭

⭐ Backstory of cinema management ⭐

I should have put this first, but anyway HAHAHA My grandfather started out as a projectionist in the 30s and was promoted to manager after saving and protecting the film equipment during WWII. He ended up managing the cinema until the 80s.

⭐ Action movies ⭐

Whenever action movies were shown, especially FPJ ones, the entire audience would be stomping the floor as if running on their seats during chasing scenes or when anything gets exciting

⭐ How films were distributed in our area ⭐

Producing film was very costly at the time, so often, distributors would hire 'lagaristas' (film bikers) to share film reels with other cinemas.

For example, a movie is 1-9 reels long. It will be showing at Cine A

-and will also be shown at Cine B later. Once Cine A is done with Reel1&2, a lagarista would bring them to Cine B. When reel3&4 is done at Cine A, the lagarista would bring back Reel1&2 back from Cine B. This entire process of going back at forth to both cinemas-

-repeats until the movie is finished^^

⭐ Double features ⭐

Sometimes, my grandfather would request random Chinese movies. However, the film would usually not be compatible with his cinema's equipment, so the entire movie at its stars would look squished😭 Well, that's why he instead includes it as a-

-free second feature when you buy a ticket to the movie you're seeing. It's weird ofc but hey, free movie lol

⭐ Snacks ⭐

Snacks in our cinema were sold by peddlers inside the cinema. They were literally saying "Mani! Mani!" (Nuts!) in there to catch people's attention w the whole movie going on😭-

-Someone also set up a small sari-sari store at the corner of the orchestra area of the theater too so people wouldn't need to go out at all. Chips, nuts, water and soda were often what's available

⭐ Horror movie experience ⭐

The one my mom remembers very well is when she watched Lovingly Yours, Helen (1984). When it got to a scary part of the movie, it would be extra creepy bc there are bats flying around in the theater because of how old it is nawr😭💀

My mom used to watch movies FOR FREE all the time. It isn't even limited to just our cinema, but even ones near our town!! All it took as a call from my grandfather, and she and her friends can watch movies anywhere for free😭 Living my dream

I'm also a bit sad there are no remnants from the time, like movie promotional material or something, because the managers had to return the reels and materials to the distributor😭

My grandma also took screen tests for a few studios before, and a star even ended up flirting with her when she was an extra on his movie haha She's so cool i think😭

- muted now but thank u guys for all the love! i'll add more stories here later when i hear more for sure, tamang bookmark nalang ig or something HAHAHA -

OMG I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING LMAOOO WAIT ILL add it here

⭐ Keeping contact ⭐

Back then, phones weren't widely used yet or there's no signal in the cinema. If someone watching a movie has to be reached, the caller calls the manager and they would write "Call for [Name]" on a clear slide and place it in front of the projector😭