One of the benefits of being the age that I am ( I just turned 45 in Oct. ), is that I got to experience the tail end of the "grindhouse era" here in Buffalo when I was in my teens. Which was a lot of fun.
I actually live outside the city, but would take a bus downtown to the Leow's Tech Theater on Main st. begining when I was about 16.
The Leow's Tech was your typical big, single screen movie palace that had seen MUCH better days by this point in the late '70s & was just hanging on to it's survival against the boom of mall-based multiplexes in the suburbs. Which it did with a steady stream of exploitation double & sometimes TRIPLE features.
"The Tech" as it was refered to by all it's regulars, actually did a real nice job of mixing it up & providing an eclectic mix of films & genres from week to week, so the formula never got tired. Horror films, Kung Fu films, Blaxploitation ... "The Tech" played 'em all to enthusiastic half filled houses.
The only exploitation films that the management didn't really bother with were the sexploitation films of the time because it's only competetion downtown back then were two sceens further down Main st., both of which exclusively showed XXX rated fare. So, "The Tech" smartly figured, that if people wanted to see nothing but T & A ( & everything else imaginable ) they wouldn't bother spending their $$$ on R rated stuff like THE VAN, they'd go up the street to the two porno theaters for their kicks.
Not that there was a real lack of bare bossoms & bottoms on the Leow's Tech screen, it just came served up with heavy doses of blood & guts & on screen mayhem.
And, in one memorable instance some OFFSCREEN mayhem as well ...
This incident occured during the summer of '78 when I made the trip downtown for a special midnight triple feature of THREE THE HARD WAY, DRUM & THE KLANSMAN.
I have no idea what started it, but think it had something to do with having to wait until that week's "regular" showing ended before they'd begin selling tickets to the "all night show". Well, someone in line wasn't patient enough & a small scale riot broke out that resulted in a lot of broken glass & the arrival of the police who subsequently shut the theater down for the rest of the night. Sending this skinny white boy home awfully disappointed. LOL
One thing I have to say though about how different the racial climate was then as opposed to now, though I was often the only patron NOT of color in that theater time & time again, not ONCE was I ever bothered by a single individual. Infact, I made friends with more than a few of the other regular patrons who were always cool with me.
Sad to say, I'm not sure I'd make it out of that same area of downtown alive were I to go there tonight ...
Anyhow, let me end this longwinded post by naming off just a handful of the memorable double bills I saw there at the Leow's Tech circa 1977 to 1979:
SLITHIS & LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, HORROR HOSPITAL & ABBEY, PHANTASM & THE BROOD, DAY OF THE ANIMALS & NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, ALICE SWEET ALICE & SUSPIRIA, BEYOND THE DOOR II & THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW.
And so many more ...
I actually live outside the city, but would take a bus downtown to the Leow's Tech Theater on Main st. begining when I was about 16.
The Leow's Tech was your typical big, single screen movie palace that had seen MUCH better days by this point in the late '70s & was just hanging on to it's survival against the boom of mall-based multiplexes in the suburbs. Which it did with a steady stream of exploitation double & sometimes TRIPLE features.
"The Tech" as it was refered to by all it's regulars, actually did a real nice job of mixing it up & providing an eclectic mix of films & genres from week to week, so the formula never got tired. Horror films, Kung Fu films, Blaxploitation ... "The Tech" played 'em all to enthusiastic half filled houses.
The only exploitation films that the management didn't really bother with were the sexploitation films of the time because it's only competetion downtown back then were two sceens further down Main st., both of which exclusively showed XXX rated fare. So, "The Tech" smartly figured, that if people wanted to see nothing but T & A ( & everything else imaginable ) they wouldn't bother spending their $$$ on R rated stuff like THE VAN, they'd go up the street to the two porno theaters for their kicks.
Not that there was a real lack of bare bossoms & bottoms on the Leow's Tech screen, it just came served up with heavy doses of blood & guts & on screen mayhem.
And, in one memorable instance some OFFSCREEN mayhem as well ...
This incident occured during the summer of '78 when I made the trip downtown for a special midnight triple feature of THREE THE HARD WAY, DRUM & THE KLANSMAN.
I have no idea what started it, but think it had something to do with having to wait until that week's "regular" showing ended before they'd begin selling tickets to the "all night show". Well, someone in line wasn't patient enough & a small scale riot broke out that resulted in a lot of broken glass & the arrival of the police who subsequently shut the theater down for the rest of the night. Sending this skinny white boy home awfully disappointed. LOL
One thing I have to say though about how different the racial climate was then as opposed to now, though I was often the only patron NOT of color in that theater time & time again, not ONCE was I ever bothered by a single individual. Infact, I made friends with more than a few of the other regular patrons who were always cool with me.
Sad to say, I'm not sure I'd make it out of that same area of downtown alive were I to go there tonight ...
Anyhow, let me end this longwinded post by naming off just a handful of the memorable double bills I saw there at the Leow's Tech circa 1977 to 1979:
SLITHIS & LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, HORROR HOSPITAL & ABBEY, PHANTASM & THE BROOD, DAY OF THE ANIMALS & NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, ALICE SWEET ALICE & SUSPIRIA, BEYOND THE DOOR II & THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW.
And so many more ...
