The Council Room

[Jim Culleton]

I had to bring this up as most of us spent 8-9 Tuesday evenings during summers in the Boyden Chapel watching movies and what I recall as mostly "Westerns" with Jimmy Stewart in them? Charlie Thomas in his '68 log, as posted by Mike, mentioned "The Last Frontier". I remember "Two Rode By" or "Two Rode Together" as a favorite back in the late 50's. Didn't we also see "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers"?

Can anyone else add to the list of their favorite Tuesday nite Boyden Chapel movies? Geez, I wished I had the popcorn concession during those nites!

Always felt sorry for the projectionist when the film broke . . . . . . . which happened almost every Tuesday nite!

Without Blockbuster, NetFlix nor a local video store I wonder where Brad or Irving obtained the reel-reel movies we saw?? Dave would know.

Also remember the hard wooden chairs we sat on for 2 hours! Times were good back then and few complained even when gas was 25 cents a gallon or even less.
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'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[David Bentley]

I really do not know the logistics of how Camp attained the movies we watched on Tuesday nights. I have two guesses: 1) Bob Vaughan may know, or, 2) Camp may have had some arrangement with the local movie house (at that time up the steps in the Town Hall).
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C-1 49 J-7 52 S-3 55 J-10 58
C-7 50 J-7 53 S-2 56 J-8 59
C-8 51 J-4 54 S-7 57 (JA) J-8 60 - 64
1965 - 1968 Military service
Pine Cone 68 - 75 (with wife,Sherry,
and daughter Tracey)
Wolfeboro - full-time since 1997

[Mike Freeland]

My recollection is that there were a number of companies back then who rented 16mm prints of movies (which were natively in a 4:3, 35mm format) to schools, churches and camps etc. Those places were where most of the films you saw in classes taught by the gym teacher came from. I found out one year that all the movies were scheduled in advance for the summer, and I asked somebody where they came from and who picked the movies. There was a catalogue, and I think Bob Fox picked them for a while there.

One of the biggest disciplinary hassles for Bob, who served as projectionist for most of my tenure there, was trying to keep the kids from counting down along with the film as the leader went by. "FIVE, FOUR..." then Bob would shut off the projector until it was pin-drop quiet. "THREE", and he'd get ready to turn it off again, but there were no more on-screen numbers after 3 so the countdown deteriorated to a mumble and the opening credits rolled.

The second biggest hassle was the reel change. That got the crowd impatient, because Bob would rewind the first reel before starting the second, a 2- or 3-minute operation. When Pat and I brought our own 16mm sound projector to camp, Pat took over the projection duties and elected to rewind both reels after the house cleared. He also let 'em count down. It was just chaotic.

My favorite was "Jason and the Argonauts", one of those great Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animation monster flicks. There was the occasional Disney movie too, as I recall.

Good topic Jim.

Oh, I forgot to mention that candy line was after dinner only on Tuesday nights -- it was the camp equivalent of the concession in the lobby (and of course Bob Vaughan and Dave Ayars jacked up the price of a box of Ju-Ju-Bes to about 4 bucks, just to maintain the movie-house tradition).
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'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[Chris Gill]

I can't remember my favorite movie but I recall the worst. "80 Steps to Jonah" starring Wayne Newton. It's the only one I remember seeing.

In reference to the chairs in the chapel, I wish I had a few for my front porch. In the evening we sit outside and listen to the Red Sox on the radio, they'd be perfect.
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1965-1975
C7,C8,J8,S4,S3

[DavidAyars]

[Alan Neagle]

So it was Tuesday Night. I was thinking Saturday Night. But that was campfire night of course. Favorite Movies I seem to remember were Bridge on the River Kwai and Devil at 4 o'clock. There may of been one or more WWII movies. Yes you reminded me of the film reel change and the chaos it caused. Also if you brought a canteen you were very popular
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Alan Carter Neagle