movie food
Tonight I took a break from Ancient Rome and the Middle Ages and food of the early nineteenth century to do some gentle research for a novel. By ‘gentle research’ I mean developing an understanding of the background of my characters, which is probably going to take the rest of the year because it’s going very slowly and because it’s very engrossing. I’m developing four major characters and their age range is quite extraordinary and I need to understand, from underneath their skin, how they see the world.
What I was doing today and tonight, and what will carry me into the next few days is the type of work that doesn’t feel like work at all. I saw Superman The Movie (both versions), plus a George Reeves Superman, plus eight 1941 Superman movie shorts. Since my youngest character is fifteen, I need to go from the earliest Superman I can (the shorts - which are a lot of fun) right through to the recent release. My eye is getting attuned to the different looks and my ear is getting attuned to the different dialogue, but my brain keeps going ‘dum-dee-dum, dum-dee-dum, dum-dee-dum-dum-dum-dumdeedum”, which is the 1941 theme music sung on one note by yours truly.
Naturally my mind casts round for what people would have eaten at the first showing of each.
George Reeve’s Superman was on in the 1960s in Australia, so that’s easy: biscuits. Or rather “Mum, can I have a biscuit?” “No. Dinner is after Dr Who, You can wait.” So the absence of biscuits.
The 1941 Superman was a movie short ( I keep saying this because those ten minutes for each went by so very quickly), so food is a bit different. In Australia in the 1940s and 1950s, there was an intermission between the shorts and the feature and kids went to the local milkbar and bought snack food. I have it on good authority that the snack food normally cost 2d and that jaffas were popular in the 50s because they could be rolled down the wooden floor of the aisle. I need to do more work to find out 1940s intermission food.
The modern Superman movies (everything from the late 1970s is modern to me for the purposes of this novel, the second youngest major character being sixty) require popcorn and fizzy drinks and choc-topped icecreams.
I’d love to know what other people have as movie food, and if it has changed over time. Or TV food, since TV series have a different set of snack requirements. If any of you have favourite movie food or snack food for TV, or fond memories of foods past, please let me know!
food history, movie food, Superman, Australia
May 10th, 2007 at 9:31 am
[...] Original post by Gillian Polack [...]
May 10th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I’ve made a pact with myself to start commenting more on blogs I like, so you get to be one of my early victims Gillian!
When I was a kid, the movies were the only place that I could get a package of Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups that had 3 cups instead of the usual 2, so that was my food of choice. When I was in my teens, it was nachos. They are far too stingy with the cheese now compared to the 1980s. It was quite common for me to come out of the dark movie theater with cheese blobbed somewhere on my shorts or shirt.
Now, one of the favorite places to go is the Alamo Drafthouse, where you can drink beer and order burgers, pizza, etc. during a movie. Definitely the way to go for food during a movie.
http://www.alamodrafthouse.com/
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:20 pm
The longer I know you the more I associate Texas with big food. Pizza during a movie!