MOVIE TIME

The star boy with Jane on his shoulder, holding onto a vine and swinging through the trees, was indelibly imprinted on my mind. When he breathed in and his chest filled the entire screen, I was amazed. Tarzan’s ear-splitting scream shattered the jungle silence and scared me to death.

Everything was so real. When the movie ended, I wanted to enter the jungle and see Tarzan and the apes. My father and grandfather went through great pains to explain that we were simply looking at a series of pictures taken by a camera and shown on
the screen from the projection room at the back. The actors were not really there and what we saw did not really happen. Hollywood was the land of make-believe.

Needless to say that from then on, our games were about Tarzan. The problem was that both of us wanted the starring role, so we had to fight each other and the winner would be
Tarzan. Victor was elder, bigger and stronger than I and won most of the battles which meant that I ended up playing the chimpanzee “Cheetah” — an anthropoid ape.

During World War II, when the Americans were in Trinidad, they often presented free openair film shows near Wrightson Road for the public. It was not a drive-in but a
walk-in/stand-up cinema. My father took us to many of these movies. Most of them were war films such as The Sullivan Brothers, “Back to Bataan” and This is the Army. One of
the actors in the swashbuckling tradition was Errol Flynn who starred in Captain Blood. At the climax of the movie, he clashed with the villain in a fight to the death with swords. Of
course, Captain Blood won — the star boy cannot die. That movie led to many a sword fight with whatever we could use as weapons — sticks, branches, pieces of wood and even cocoyea.

The nearest cinema to where we lived in Jackson Place, was Royal at the corner of Observatory and Charlotte Streets. If we did not have enough money to pay for house, my
mother did not allow us to go to pit because fist fights often erupted there. Once or twice we did go to pit in Olympic Theatre in Erthig Road, Belmont but when my brother
Cleaver, started to work at MGM, we were given complimentary tickets for house.

We used to enter the Dry River — just opposite Simpson’s Funeral Agency Home, head north and exit near the cinema. Those were the days of cowboy movies like Stage Coach
with John Wayne and Dodge City with Errol Flynn. Years later, classic westerns like Shane with Alan Ladd and High Noon with Gary Cooper made those early films look like child’s play.

Lots of fanfare heralded the opening of Deluxe Cinema on Keate Street which has now been converted to the Zen Night Club.

What a big joke it was when my brothers were refused admission to the cinema because they were not properly attired in jackets.

Travelling on the French ship Colombie from Port-of-Spain to Southhampton in England, every night for the 13-day trip, there were movies in the cinema on board. All films were in French but when Elvis Presley sang, it was his actual voice in English. The return trip on another French ship — the Antilles, also had film shows every night.

When I was about nine, I saw Freddie Bartholomew, a child star in Captain Courageous. I decided there and then to start spelling my first name, exactly the same way he did. All through my life, I had no problem until my retirement. The Ministry of Education sent me a letter stating that since the name on the birth certificate was spelt “Freddy”, I must have an affidavit to prove that “Freddy” and “Freddie” is one and the same person. No affidavit — no gratuity. My eldest brother Tommy aka Francis, did the needful.

The real names of some film stars are unknown to most of their fans. For instance Betty Joan Perske is known as Lauren Bacall, Frank James Cooper is Gray Cooper, Marion
Michael Morrison became famous as John Wayne and Norma Jean Baker or Mortenson is known to the world as Marilyn Monroe.

It is said that a star is a person who pays his publicity agent a fabulous fee to make him famous then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognised.