The All Night Movie Story

1962

A True Story

How I was almost arrested in Columbus Georgia

Written 06/2011* 1,537 Words*

By Howard Yasgar

It was summer of 1962, I was 23 years old, and that’s when I received my Army Reserve orders and my transportation vouchers to go to Fort Benning Army base located in Columbus Georgia.

I was in the Army Reserves, and the Army was reminding me that it was time for my annual two weeks summer training.

The travel orders directed me to take a bus from Miami and go to Fort Benning, where I was to be temporarily attached to the 374th Dump Truck Company.

I had never been to Georgia before, so I wondered if my being a Yankee from New Haven Connecticut, would cause me any problems there.

Everyone in the north watched television and we all read the newspapers, so we knew about the race problems going on in the South.

I had seen on television, how the Georgia cops were arresting people they considered to be agitators and troublemakers.

Having never been to Columbus Georgia, or Fort Benning before, I packed up all my army gear in my duffle bag, and I headed there a couple of days early. I did it so I could look around.

Once I arrived at Fort Benning, I found the 374th Dump Truck Company, it was in a wooded area called “Tent City”.

I went to Tent City as I was directed and, and I was given tent no. 14.

It was early Friday evening and Tent City was like a ghost town; there was hardly anyone around.

I asked the duty officer where everyone was, and he said they had all gone home for the weekend, or they were in downtown Columbus having a beer.

As I was wondering what there was for me to do, the duty officer said, “If you are looking for something to do, get a cab and head into Columbus.

I did what he said, and the next thing I knew I was standing on a busy street somewhere in downtown Columbus Georgia.

The street was all lit up with neon signs, and it looked like every other business was a bar, and they all had flashing neon signs and loud music.

With no idea of what to do, I walked into the first open doorway.

Right away, I became concerned, because besides the bartender I was the only customer, the place was a morgue.

I ordered a beer and sat there hoping some kind of entertainment would be happening, but nothing happened, so, I got up and left.

As I was standing there on the sidewalk, I looked way up the street to my right, and I saw what appeared to be a movie theater.

As I got closer to it, the marquee said in bright flashing lights “Columbus’s only All-night Movie”

I looked at the movie posters, and the all-night movies were films I had never seen before.

As I had nothing better to do, and it was already 11 PM, I decided to get a ticket for the all-

night Movie.

I went up to the girl in the brightly lit ticket booth and asked for a ticket to the all-night movie.

She charged me .75 cents and gave me a red ticket.

Inside the theater lobby, I gave my ticket to the usher and he tore it in half, giving me my stub.

The theater was practically empty, so I went right up to the balcony where I found only four other people were sitting.

At exactly midnight, all the theater lights went on, and everyone got up and left.

I remained seated, because I was waiting for the start of the all-night movie.

I sat there for quite a while, until an usher came over and asked me to leave.

Why leave, I told him I was there for the all-night movie.

He came back several times pestering me to leave, so I told him to get lost, I now suspected that something wrong was going on.

After a while when I saw that the theater lights didn’t go off, I got up and walked out of the balcony seating area, and I looked down into the lobby.

Standing there were two big very fat Georgia cops, as well as the theater manager, they were talking to the usher and the ticket girl.

The fat cops looked up, and they saw me watching them.

Then they came up the stairs to the balcony.

I calmly told them that I bought a ticket for the all-night movie and I showed them my ticket stub.

They both grabbed me by my arms and forcibly carried me down the stairs with my feet dragging and bouncing off the red carpeting.

I could hear both officers talking to me, but they had such heavy southern accents that I hardly understood a word they said.

Once we were in the lobby, they let me loose, but now I was listening extra carefully, as I was getting concerned as to what they might do to me.

I heard one say, “Let’s arrest him for vagrancy.

I took out my wallet and showed them I had three hundred dollars, and I was no vagrant.

All I could think of was all the bad stories I had heard about Georgia cops, and what they did to Northerners, that they didn’t like.

As we stood there, I knew they were going to arrest me or possibly worse.

A small crowd had gathered outside the theater to see what the ruckus was all about.

That’s when I saw one of the cops was taking out his handcuffs.

I said loudly, it’s easy to see why everyone looks down on you small town red neck cops.

As soon as I said that it got very quiet, and I knew I was in for big trouble.

So, I began bracing myself for the worst.

Just then, I saw a Military Police Jeep pull up in front of the theater.

There were two soldiers in the jeep, one, the driver was a real tall and lanky guy, but both had Military Police arm bands on.

They both came in the theater twirling their night sticks, and they asked, “What was going on?”

No one said anything, so they asked me if I was a soldier off the base, and I showed them my Military ID.

I didn’t realize it but someone from Fort Benning Tent City must have been walking by the theater, and recognized me as a soldier, and they had called the Fort Benning MP’s.

I could see the two fat Columbus cops were not happy with the pushy intervention by the MP’s.

That’s when I told the MP’s all about my buying the all-night movie ticket and I showed them my ticket stub.

I could immediately detect that the tall lanky MP had quickly sized up what was going on.

The movie theater probably didn’t have any other customers, just me, and they wanted to close and go home.

So, instead of saying something to me and giving me my 75 cents back, they called the police to kick me out.

Now, what made the situation even worse was that the tall lanky MP had a heavy New York Brooklyn accent.

I don’t know which was worse, the Brooklyn accent or the Georgia accent but then the New York MP said, “Because this guy is a soldier on Fort Benning, we will handle the situation”.

We can lock him up on the base for a few days, and that will teach him a good lesson”.

As he said that, he motioned to his partner, who forcefully grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away from the two Columbus cops.

The MP quickly ushered me out the theater glass doors and into the back seat of the Jeep.

The Columbus cops had absolutely no time to react, their mouths were just hanging open, but I could see they were not happy.

The tall, lanky New York MP then got in the Jeep, started it up and we headed to the Fort Benning front gate.

At that point, I thought they really were going to lock me up.

We were about 100 yards onto Fort Benning property when they drove towards Tent City.

Suddenly they stopped the Jeep and said, “Get Out”.

The New York MP said, “Don’t you ever go back to Columbus again, those two cops would like nothing better than get their hands on you”.

I got out, walked to Tent City, and I never went into Columbus again.

It’s been nearly sixty years since this all happened; do you think those two Columbus cops are still there and remember me?

I never did get to see the all-night movie.