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April 20, 1999
By Christopher R. Negelein
The same movie, "Dodge City," was showing that day as well as last weekend. The reshowing is in honor of the 60th anniversary of the movie's premiere at the Dodge Theatre, said Joe White, event coordinator for the Dodge Theatre. The theater celebrated the event by inviting those who attended the show the first time, White said. The theater also had Warner Bros. memorabilia on display. Among some of the items were props used by Charlie Chaplin and a film reel containing a western short with Gene Autry. While the theater carries the atmosphere of its 60 years, the interior had a renovation last year and looks closer to what it did back then, said Frank Sanchez, a premiere attendee. He was 17 years old at the time. "I saw some of the stars there at the time," he said. "I was a bell boy for the Fred Harvey at the time. "I delivered telegram messages to them, but to me, they were just customers. Other people in town were trying to get autographs from me." Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, who was relatively unknown at the time, were in Dodge City for the premiere. Before Sunday's show, those attendees like Sanchez, were given a standing ovation from the 140 people in the audience. Then a slide show of historic pictures from the premiere was shown. As the movie began, one could notice the colors were different than what viewers are used to now. While the show was still enjoyable, the colors looked a little fainter. The first few scenes had a train full of rich men traveling the Wild West of Kansas in a steam train that chugged down the track. In a few moments, the train raced a stagecoach headed to the "infamous" Dodge City and rendezvoused with Errol Flynn's character. It might of been a little difficult for a modern audience to believe that Kansas was the dangerous frontier portrayed in the film. For some, it may have seemed such a past was completely gone from Dodge City. Until a person left the theatre and heard the train as it click-clacked down the track. |
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Movie House History - Classic
Theaters Of Kansas © 2007
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As
the lights went down in the Dodge Theatre and the Warner
Bros. Co. logo came onto the screen, one could believe that
it was 60 years ago Sunday.