Memory Triggered

Funny how things trigger a memory.

Back in December, the James Bond 007 Facebook page posted the following on December 19:

On this day in 1974, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN premiered at Odeon Leicester Square, London. What are your favourite moments?

The memory it triggered was my maternal grandmother's passing on Friday, December 27, 1974. The last time I saw her alive was on Christmas Day, two days prior. We were visiting her and watching Laurel & Hardy's Flying Deuces. 

That Saturday, December 28, after my parents completed my grandmother's funeral arrangements (they didn't have too much to do as my grandmother had everything already pre-planned), we finished dinner and were still in a somber mood. Since The Man With The Golden Gun just opened, I suggested we go see it as a diversion.

So we headed to the Rolling Hills Theater (now closed) on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance. 

I didn't care much for the movie during that screening (it was probably my mood that night), but it has since grown on me over the years. Probably also, it was Roger Moore and not Sean Connery as 007.

Seeing that post on Facebook triggered that memory of 47 years ago.

The Rolling Hills Theater also had some sad history to it. The following took place the year before. 

From the South Bay Daily Breeze:

Sometime after the theater closed on the night of Sunday, Feb. 11, 1973 at 11:45 p.m., a robber bound four theater employees, ushers George Cernik, 19, and Guy Brown, 29, projectionist Clyde Felts, 49, and assistant manager Lynda Rose Freeman, 31.

The robber stole $2,000 from the theater’s safe, then systematically cut the throats of the four employees, and also shot Felts in the shoulder.

Torrance police officers Gil Kranke and Tom Jarvis were let in by a custodian who arrived after the killings had taken place, and discovered the bodies in the manager’s office at about 6:30 a.m. Monday morning, February 12, 1973. A veteran officer described the murder scene as the most gruesome he had ever seen.

An immediate search for those responsible began, with a reward that rose to $45,000 offered for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.

To read more, go here.