My first Jim Hill Media column appeared on October 8, 2002 and this column celebrated that anniversary on October 7th, 2003. In this installment, I related how some things are best done in the dark. Relax... It's only a look at movies and the places that I used to watch them.

"The proprieties must be observed at all times."
-- Michael Flynn (as played by Barry Fitzgerald), "The Quiet Man"

As far as your humble writer is concerned, motion pictures were made to be shown to audiences in real honest to goodness movie theaters. Not cracker box, shoe horned, cinder block multiplexes.

A pox on the house of whomever decided that this was an acceptable alternative.

Mercifully, up here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there still exist a few places where this can be said to be true. And even though the number of proper movie theaters seems to shrink all the time, some of the better gems still earn their keep as intended.

Once upon a time, I practically lived in the local movie theaters. In my area (a.k.a. the Diablo Valley -- Danville, Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Martinez, Concord and Pleasant Hill), we had the following all during a 10 year period from 1975 to 1985:

The El Rey (a small town place with a great Main Street corner location)

The Festival Cinemas (a first generation cinderblock multiplex with 5 screens)

The Century Theaters (multiplex anchored by the big dome -- part of the Syufy chain also with five screens)

The Park Theater

The Orinda Theater (great art deco murals)

The Village Theater

The Rheem Theater

The Enea (became the Showcase and switched to "adult" films; ironically later owned by a Baptist church around the corner where we got married -- now their community center.)

The Capri Theater (another big screen cut up into four smaller houses)

The Regency Theaters (a Festival cinderblock clone and one of the chain with 5 screens)

The Sun Valley Cinema (a big screen in the local mall, cut into 2 houses)

The Contra Costa Cinemas (another Festival operation with 5 screens)

The Crow Canyon Cinemas (one more for Festival and five more screens!)

Throw in three drive in theaters to the mix -- the Pleasant Hill Motor Movies, the Concord Drive In and the Solano Drive In and that was a bunch of places to watch movies! Oh and not to forget that there were always free films being shown at the local junior college -- Diablo Valley College (as immortalized on a Mark Harmon t-shirt in the film, "Summer School") -- everything from "Citizen Kane" to "Forbidden Planet".

Was it any wonder that it seemed like I lived at the movies? It didn't hurt that a good friend ended up working in a number of those places. When he was on duty, I could go visit him and sneak a peak or two at what was playing that week. There were many nights when I was there as he closed the doors after the last guests left the building.

And if that wasn't going on, my bride to be and I managed to make a date for a movie most Saturday nights before we got married and every now and then afterwards.

I'll admit to having seen my share of dogs amongst the good films. Guilty pleasures abound, such as "1941" or "The Blues Brothers." Guilty as charged also for seeing such things as "Battlestar Galactica" or "Xanadu" or the animated "Lord of the Rings." My wife still says I didn't take her to watch "The Beastmaster," but I know I wouldn't have gone to see the ferrets in action unless she had wanted to!

Out of that list above, of the 38 screens, a fair number are still around, some have gone on to greater glory and have been replaced by new stadium style theaters. Almost for what was lost, new screens have come along to take their places. Many of them are as busy as ever, but I'm just not falling in like I used to.

That's not to say I'm still not a movie junkie. Cable TV does it's bit and DVD sales as well. And the titles get better all the time, cursed marketing blitzes... And I bought a laser disc player a few years before DVD's hit, so I have a fair number of titles to watch on disc.

Thank your favorite deity for DVD's!

Yes, I am a child of the mass media age, okay?

Where is all this leading? Well, in the words of Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard," "It's the pictures that got small."

When it comes to the new crop of pictures, I'm just not interested in watching something I've seen done better before. Call that shallow, but why should I fork out nine bucks for another round of the same old nonsense?

I'd rather sit at home watching John Wayne and Ward Bond in "They Were Expendable" in glorious black and white than see something from today's color and THX era that isn't written, directed or acted a quarter as well.

It took me a while to go see "Saving Private Ryan." I had heard all about it and seen previews. As much as I appreciate the past, I was not in a rush to go see it for various reasons. Maybe it was just a bit too close to the modern day. I won't explain in detail (no, I didn't serve in the military, but have great respect for those who have) however I've seen my share of blood and gore, and I really don't need to fantasy to understand it, or explain it.

Yet in another era, I took an afternoon off work to go see "Gettysburg" when it first came out in theaters. The moments with Richard Jordan as the dying General Lewis Armistead always seem to strike a serious emotional chord with me. (And yet, I laughed out loud when Ted Turner dropped dead crossing the Emmitsburg Road -- much to the annoyance of the few others in the theater with me that day.)

Part of the lure of movies for me always has been special moments. It's the kind of thing that's personal but can be shared. We all have them.

Maybe it was that first movie I went to see by without my parents. John Wayne in "The Alamo."

Or the moment from "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy opens the door of the Kansas farmhouse and the world changes from sepia tone to Technicolor.

"2010" (yes, I know it wasn't much of a film) when the HAL 9000 comes back to life. Made the hairs on the back up my neck stand up.

Or Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois, from "Streetcar Named Desire": "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

And I'll never forget watching the opening scenes of "Star Wars" with Michele, sitting in the front row of the theater when the ships fly overhead.

When the "Titanic" set sail for it's maiden voyage, all I could say was "Wow!" Even though I knew the story and the realized the fact that I was watching a movie, there was just something about that moment that I got caught up in.

Even something as simple as watching "Gone With the Wind" on a big screen for that first time... It is a different experience than on a small screen at home or in a cinderblock.

For the most part, I don't think times like that are gone. Maybe as I'm getting older, I don't expect them as often as I used to. And truth be told, when they do happen, it's all the more powerful.

Like when they are showing great features at Oakland's Paramount Theater with the Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ capably operated by the talented Jim Riggs. That's entertainment and for only five bucks! Complete evening with short subjects and the ever popular Deco-Win. Regrettably, Movie Classics are on hiatus right now, but I’m certain that I’m not alone in hoping they come back soon.

All in all, you can see why I’m such a fan of classic movies and classic movie theaters.