Apr. 29, 2007 - 00:16 MDT

LAMP

When I was old enough to take a tram across town, probably 1931, in the summer time Mom would give me carfare to come see her where she worked in the Western Union office about Colfax and York Street. I loved to go see her there, and would get to practice on her typewriter and watch her put telegrams together.

On those days she would usually have a sandwich and a treat for me she carried from home. It was a special treat to eat lunch with my Mom as she wasn't home for lunch in work days.

Once in a while she would give me coins to go see a movie at the Aladdin Theater on Colfax Avenue west of York.

This was a treat for me, beyond compare. Checking I see that it opened in 1926, brand spanking new. Moorish architecture. It had one of those oriental onion shaped domes pointed in the center and was enticingly Moorish ? in decor on the exterior.

I always tried to make it earlier than show time and spend time just looking around, my imagination running wild.

The decor in the auditorium was great, a sky blue ceiling with hundreds of little electric lights showing like stars.

Those were the days that a person could walk in while the movie was showing and sit down to watch. Made it real neat for me, 'cause I could watch a movie a couple of times on one ticket. But that extra time before the show started was a treasure, the carpet was thick and clean - pretty green, there was a fountain burbling away and out in the center was a treasure chest, lit from inside with a glass top. On display were gems, bracelets and bangles and in my mind I could hear the jangle of jewelry worn by Oriental women. The archways and niches in the theater had that shape at the top curved toward center, coming together at a point.

In those days it was truly a posh movie theater, well kept up. Colfax back then in that area was considered definitely to be "Uptown" and had many fancy places of business.

So it was that I could come from the sticks out south and enjoy being a bloated plutocrat by attending the Aladdin Theater. Of course "plutocrat" was a rather snooty term for a kid that only had the admission price to the show, but it didn't stop me from enjoying it to the max.

After Heather and I got married, for awhile we lived in the 1600 block on Williams Street, we would attend shows at the Aladdin when we could afford it, go skating at Mammoth Garden practise sessions, (the nightly ones were a bit crowded) where she would do her best to teach me skate dancing, then when we went at night I could pretty well follow her lead.

The place we went to when I first met her after the skating party was the Oasis at Colfax and Williams -- but it was some time before we moved to Williams Street.

Catty cornered from the Oasis was Dever's Tropical Inn where my uncle was a cook and I bussed tables and ran the fountain part time.

The Aladdin remained a fond spot in our memories and when our kids approached teen age we took them there to see a movie, "Fiddler On The Roof" with Topol being the male lead. The kids were suitably impressed as the place had been well kept up over the years. And I ? Totally entranced with the movie, with the acting, the music seen and listened to in the Palace of my young dreams.

Things went downhill for the Aladdin in later years and it was finally demolished in 1984 and a Walgreen's built there.

When we took our kids there I remember parking space was at a premium. In the beginning I think most folks rode the tramway there.

For me, Colfax was the longest street in the world - - - it went from past Fitzsimons Army Hospital way out in Aurora, down through Denver and all the way out to Golden, Colorado. One time or another I think I walked every inch of it too.

I searched for a photo of the theater on Google, unsuccessfully of course, in an effort to show just how gorgeous it was.

One thing I do remember, but not its exact placement, in a place though, that it couldn't be handled was Aladdin's LAMP . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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