at Internet Archive
As a member of that age group known as the Front Row Kids, who recall Saturday matinees which ran all day for .15 cents, I get a kick out of these armchair critics who want to look at the cliffhanger serials as something that the movie going public saw and accepted as real in the Thirties, Forties and Fifties. You people are looking at an art form that was directed at children from a more innocent, more naive and certainly less street smart than today's youngsters. These serials were meant only to entertain, not instruct. We kids realize that it was only a movie, but nevertheless it was fun to speculate how the hero was going to going to get out of a certain situation. They were not shown before the main feature, as is commonly stated, but were the last item on the matinée bill. They were the dessert after the meal. Theaters usually ran them to bring the youngsters back particularly if they were in competition with the theater down the street. They were entertainment pure and simple, with plenty of action to hold the kids attention. After all, the kids had had a full week of education shoved down their throats. How many kids would have come to see a movie about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or the Pilgrims or some other historical event. Saturday afternoons were made for fun. Even now, this old Front Row Kid gets a boot out of seeing a film that he saw as a youngster and gets a kick out of being young again. Why don't you armchair critics get off your pedestal and enjoy the film for what it is, not what you want it to be.
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