The Horse Corral in the old Rialto Theater
About Friday morning
we started to think
about the Saturday movies.
That was our day for
the old Rialto Theater.
With our dime allowance
we could see a great cowboy
double feature
and serial.
Every Saturday each battered seat
was filled with
an anticipating young boy.
The theater had a memorial smell.
It was not as bad as the Isis
that was there before the Rialto.
There they put two boys
in each seat.
There were lots of theories
about the source
of the Saturday scent;
most were wrong.
It was true that Depression diet
made lots of garlic necessary.
But the smell was more than seasoning.
It was Saturday afternoon and
bath night was just hours away.
The bib overalls were
due for a Monday wash.
Boy and overalls were ripe and ready.
The Strand was cleaner and a dime also
but there the features
were gangster movies
and the detectives had
girl friends instead of horses.
Myrna Loy came later in my life.
But then it was Trigger and Roy,
Hopalong and Topper,
Tom and Tony,
Gene and Champion,
Tex and White Flash,
Gabby Hayes and Calico
and even old Smiley Burnett
and that old swayback Ringeye.
And when Ken Maynard said goodbye
and rode old Tarzan
into the sunset,
that’s the way it was supposed to be.
We were barely able to take
Buttermilk because of Dale
but Trigger liked the pretty filly.
Then came the serial,
week after week
we got to see Silver and Scout
somehow rescue
the masked man and his sidekick.
Stay for the teasers
and more if you felt
rather risky about
getting home late.
I have not seen a movie for ages.
And if I did I would forget it
before I got out the door.
I suspect there are only
so many movies in each of us
and I used my quota
in the old Rialto Theater.
Doug Minnis
January 29,2010