Give it Away Now

To everybody watching it appeared to be an amazingly selfless and generous gesture for an eleven year-old to make. I had given away the bike I won only moments before to my poor wheel-less friend Karen Kenworth. In actuality I didn’t want that bike. It was a baby bike. I already had a ten- speed. But did I take my moment of glory up there on the Garden Theater stage? Oh you can bet I did! And do I usually tell this story as if I’m the Mother Teresa of the two-wheeler? Yes I do! When I was growing up in Willow Glen, everybody went to the Garden Theater on Lincoln Ave. Lincoln was and is the main street of Willow Glen, a neighborhood of San Jose, CA. While it didn’t have a post office or an all-night diner, it did have a beauty shop, a bakery, a pharmacy and a health food store. Willow Glen was our small town in our rapidly growing big city.
The focal point on Lincoln Ave. was the Garden Theater. It opened its doors in 1948 complete with 1100 rocking seats, a smoking section and one large screen. Outside the building huge neon letters spelled out the name “ Garden “ vertically for all passerbys to see.
It wasn’t exactly a movie palace more like a movie time-share especially as it got on in years but for a time it was loved. People had their family movie nights there, their first dates there and their” drop the kids off and get a few hours of peace” there. Everybody seemed to go often to the Garden Theater.
San Jose has always had a lot of movie theaters. In fact it used to be the premier place for movies to have their sneak screenings. I guess the San Jose audience is a good gauge of whether a film is going to be a hit or a flop, either that or there really isn’t that much to do at night besides going to a movie.
I don’t remember if the Garden had any premieres or preview screenings, I’m not even sure they showed first run movies very much. What I do remember is the Saturday movie marathons. I was enjoying a “Planet of the Apes” marathon the day they pulled my number out of a fishbowl and I became a winner.
The entire collection of” Planet of the Apes” movies hadn’t been created yet but still there was enough for a marathon. On the bill that day was “ Planet of the Apes,” “Beneath the Planet of the Apes,” “ Escape from the Planet of the Apes,” and “ Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.” So many apes and escapes and I couldn’t tell you the plot lines of any of them.
Since it was a marathon, I was equipped with everything I’d need: an icy soda, popcorn, Raisinettes and most probably some extra candy for emergency. You need a bunch of sugar to get through all those ape hijinx.
I’d say it was a pretty good marathon as movie marathons go. The Beatles movie marathon was better and the Billy Jack movie marathon worse. But you never felt cheated with these all day movie feasts. Even if the movies stunk, you still got your money’s worth.
The big bike giveaway must have been later in the day. The marathon was over for me but would continue into the night. There was some other not nearly as exciting prizes like a gift certificate to the pizza place on Willow St. and a cartoon of cigarettes. Obviously the bike was the prize that everybody coveted.
There was a host on stage, perhaps from a local radio station. I heard my name called, jumped out of my seat and made the long walk down the aisle onto the stage. Who knows if I was supposed to go onto the stage but I wasn’t going to miss that opportunity.
The bike was barely a bike; it was whatever is between a tricycle and a ten-speed. It practically had training wheels on it. I had been riding a bike for years and in fact I had ridden my bike to the theater. I knew this wasn’t about the prize but about me getting some good publicity. As the audience was applauding my big win, I beamed. Then the host asked me how I felt about winning such a major prize? I told him I was happy but that I was going to give the bike away. Everyone was stunned. It was as if I was turning down an Academy Award.
The audience clapped harder and everyone was impressed by my gesture. I made Karen come up on stage with me and I dramatically presented her with the bike. Suddenly it was my show. We both walked off the stage with the bike between us and down the aisle to thunderous applause and cheering. No one had ever given away his or her prize before at the Garden Theater. Unfortunately it wasn’t the media blitz that I had hoped for. No one interviewed me for the San Jose Mercury News, I wasn’t a special interest story on the local TV news and the incident was pretty much forgotten by the end credits of the final movie. In fact since my good deed had happened during the summer, I couldn’t even dine off it in the cafeteria back at school. I did not become famous as the self –sacrificing girl who gave her prize away to her needy friend and would continue being someone under the popularity radar. As Dr. Zaius said in the original Planet of the Apes “ Don’t look for it Taylor. You may not like what you find.”
But honestly I didn’t want that bike. I wouldn’t have been caught dead riding it. A month later when Karen moved to Texas and took it with her, I couldn't have cared less. But I spun the story in my mind so often; I almost believed my motives had been pure. Everybody likes to be thought of as magnanimous sometimes. I still gave it to her. I could have sold it.
The Garden Theater is no longer a theater, closing its doors in 1988. The shell of the building and the sign still remain. The neon of the sign continues to shines with its empty promise not unlike the gesture of my bike give-away.
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