The Letterbox
THE PRINT GRINDERS
I particularly enjoyed the GRINDHOUSE Round Table Dis- cussion in VW #136. I found the film to be tremendously enter- taining and was dismayed to see it sink out of sight so quickly. Your assertion that the term “grindhouse” originally described sleazy burlesque venues located “on the wrong side of town” is probably accurate. At least it’s in agreement with the position taken by Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris in their 1996 book, GRIND- HOUSE: THE FORBIDDEN WORLD OF “ADULTS ONLY” CINEMA (St. Martins Press). However, I always associated the “grindhouse expe- rience” with viewing exploitation
movies of various genres in older urban theaters—former ornate movie palaces that had fallen into disrepair and decay. Of course, being a fan of exploitation flicks and a horror movie “completist” of sorts, I spent a lot of time in old Richmond theaters like the Colonial, the State, the National/ Towne and Loew’s. All of them advertised continuous showings, sometimes starting as early as 11:00 am and often lasting until midnight. Once the house lights went down, they didn’t come back up until closing. Sit any- where in the theater and you could hear the “grinding” sound of the film projector (that sound was the reason I thought the term “grindhouse” came into general
usage). Bells would ring when it was time for a reel change (in addition to the white blotches in the upper right hand portion of the screen), often times followed by momentary out-of-frame, blurry images until the projection- ist fixed the problem. I’ve actu- ally seen three different films melt in the projector too, for real. Then, of course, there were the tattered seats, the sticky floors, the winos sleeping in the back all day, oblivious to what was on screen— all of this added to the “ambience” of downtown film attendance. While many of the same types of
Time Lord David Tennant consults a newspaper in an episode of DOCTOR WHO.
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