Monday, October 29, 2012

SampasScoopies Remembers The Spotlight

This is one of the only contemporary mentions of what The Spotlight actually was, as printed and distributed by Leo Kerouac and remembered by Lowell's eminent historian of the time, Charles Sampas of Sampas Scoopies fame.

Lowell Sun (November 7, 1974)

I remember Friday nights at the Royal as especially important in my Lowelllifetime [sic], because after the movies, a weekly newspaper called The Spotlight was distributed. It was printed around the corner in the Spotlight Press, which was owned by Leo Kerouac and associates ... and it contained studio writeups about forthcoming  movies in the various local cinema citadels (Strand, Merrimack Square, Rialto, Crown, Jewel, etc.)  . . . as well as a humorous column by Campbell and Mulholland, who also wrote a column  in The Lowell High School Review

It was a cornucopia of information  about the show world for youngsters like me . . . and the local column with its puns and witty sayings was fabulously interesting . . . The movies were silent in that era . . . and th emusic was provided by a pianist who followed the music instructions provided with each movie . . . You could close your eyes and could visualize the scenes on the screen from the "tone" of the music . . . There was always a "chase" . . . the exciting scene which provided the finale.

Here below is the present state of the Royal Theatre, see more pics from this great site.



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