Cliffhangers

[seymoure]

One of my great joys is to watch old movie serials. I am old enough that I saw some of the last ones in actual theatres (The Fox in Pamona, where your parents could drop you off at 10 in the morning Saturday and pick you up after dark) We'd get a short (maybe a "Sing-A-Long," or Pete Smith comedy, or Stooges) previews (I still feel gyped if I miss the previews) a cartoon (Warners if you were lucky) a serial chapter, and then the "B" feature (These were usually Westerns or lower grade adventure yarns, just right for us kids) then another short (This time it might be a newsreel about Korea or something historical from MGM) previews (usually about what was going to start next at the theatre) another cartoon (Magoo or a lesser Columbia, if nothing came with the "A" picture) and then the Main Feature (This was the one that the adults paid for, but if we were lucky it was a cheap SF movie) Now, that was a program you could sit through twice. And I did, every Saturday. But, most, I remember the serials. Superheros battling Spys for World wrecking weapons that they mustn't get their hands on. But there were the westerns too, homesteaders being run off their land by someone mysterious, with only the iron jawed cowboy hero to stand between them and the Masked Riders (Unless, of course, the hero was The Masked Rider and that changes nothing except the names.) "24" on TV is the only thing that comes close to the cliffhanger power that those old crates held. They weren't great art, but they kept us coming back, and they kept us dreaming. Maybe we need some today. DVDs of serials are pretty cheap, by the way, and you can jump right to each chapter beginning. But, don't try to watch them all at once. They don't work that way. Set up a feature and lead into it with a cartoon and the next serial episode. You'll be amazed how entertained you feel at the end of it. It was better when the cliffhangers in our lives only happened on Saturday morning.