Although I’m quite old, I remember the day
when families would gather and happily say

“Let’s go to the movies and have some fun!”
And off to get dressed up they all would run

Kids in neat jackets or shirts and things like that,
Mom’s pumps and nice frock, Dad ‘s fedora dress hat

They’d jump in the DeSoto and drive to town
park real close to me, anywhere around,

buy tickets at the booth, not much to pay,
a uniformed usher would light the way

They’d comfortably sit in my plush loge seats
perhaps snack on Walnettos or other treats

The smell of real buttered popcorn would be in the air
and a live emcee would take my stage there

He’d introduce the movie and joke, play the piano a bit
while more people would go to the balcony to sit

Then I’d dim my lights, show the Movietone News
bringing current world events and exotic views

I’d show humorous movies like Abbott and Costello’s
Marx brothers, Crosby and Hope, all real funny fellows

Or drama with Cooper and Cagney, Bogart and Gable,
and starlets like Hayward, Fleming, Darnell and Grable.

Great films with great actors, no graphic sex or swearing,
still exciting and sensuous no matter what they were wearing

Saturday matinees were favorites of mine
Kids could watch serials for just one thin dime

They loved my cartoons from Disney and Lantz
I held raffles and drawings, everyone had a chance


I showed Hoppy and Roy, Tom Mix and Sky King
Rocket Man, Superman, I didn’t miss a thing

But all those days are gone, now far in the past
and I too will soon be gone at last

My proud name, Pinney Theatre will be lost for good
A new Starbucks or something where I long have stood

My sweeping staircase at this moment still stands
with mahogany railings polished by thousands of hands

Yes, the wreckers will get it, the large balcony too
Rip up my red Persian carpets like they always do

Down will come my booth and layered velvet drapes
wall sconces and columns just broken shapes

The demo crew will attack me with hammer and saw
my polished hardwood stage will be broken and raw

But that’s progress I guess, yet it seems such a shame
Just once you’d think they leave something the same

How many strip malls and big chain stores
do humans really need to open their doors?

Do you really like the new mega-plex theaters so small?
Six tiny, noisy rooms with no style, no class at all?

Isn’t the past important, a heritage of sorts?
But I hear preservationists have a hard time in courts

The money machine must eternally be fed
gorging on “progress” until we’re all dead

The old theaters, I mean, the few left like me
who gave so much pleasure for all to see

I hope some will remember the Egyptian, the Rialto, the Grand
and when you pass by the old Pinney, well, just wave me a hand.

We had all a certain style, an ambience you might say
but I guess that was just then, you know, back in the day.