My father was in the Army when I was born; therefore, I lived on Army bases most of my childhood. One of the things I remember about that life is that on Saturday mornings the base theater showed children’s movies. While I remember seeing cartoons, westerns and other types of films, the ones I remember the best were the science fiction thrillers.

I doubt that those movies were shown during the Saturday morning time slots. My friend Vince, who also grew up in the Army, said he thought Friday night at the base theater was known as “Fright Night” and that the scary movies were shown then.

I decided to look for the trailers of my favorite science fiction movies from that time. As I watched the trailers, I marveled at how times have changed. I wonder how many children would be allowed to see this type of movie today since I doubt any of them would receive a G rating! But in those days the theater was full of children and teenagers. And we loved being scared. (During this time frame I would have been 8-15 years of age.)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFnSxeDfENk

 

 

 

 

 

There were two movies I couldn’t find.  One was about a person who grew bigger and bigger and bigger.  As I recall the man (or was it a woman) was eventually housed in a gigantic circus tent but outgrew even that. The only snippet I remember from the other movie was that objects of some kind were found scattered on a beach.  I think they were shaped like round rocks. Whenever someone picked up one of the objects and held it near their face, it marked them.  I think it was a circular mark of some kind; could have even been a burn.  Do any of you remember either of those films?

I have enjoyed this trip down memory lane. If you lived during that time, did you see these movies?  Did you enjoy them? If you are from a different generation, did you ever watch them?