'Psycho' started trend of summer blockbusters

OK, ALL YOU movie buffs out there, name the picture that began the trend of blockbusters opening "wide" — in theaters all over the country on the same day — during the summer.

If you said "Jaws," you get fallback points. That movie really did start the trend that continues today. But there was a forerunner 15 years earlier.

Would you believe "Psycho"?

That's right, Alfred Hitchcock's chiller was the first movie to have an early premiere in New York (debuting on June 16, 1960), then in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles — followed by simultaneous openings across the country.

Of course, it didn't open in all that many theaters by today's standards but definitely pointed the way for what was to come. (Actually, "Jaws" only opened "wide" in 464 theaters in 1975, which is nothing compared to, say, "Shrek Forever After," which opened on 4,468 screens!)

I discovered this tidbit while exploring David Thomson's book "The Moment of Psycho," an engrossing 184-page quick-read on the subject, written in Thomson's chatty style as if he were engaging you in a conversation in your living room.

Knowing that "Psycho's" 50th anniversary was at hand, I read it through — and then found myself researching the film further, just because it's so fascinating on so many levels, and its impact on the culture of cinema cannot be overstated.

Not that many films have had such an impact on me that I remember when I saw them for the first time. But "Psycho" is one.

It was summer 1960 in Southern California, where I grew up — and at the time one of the major attractions of going to the movies was the air-conditioned auditorium in a single-screen, stand-alone movie house. I can still remember the banner dangling below the marquee: "Cool Air-Conditioning," with blue letters that looked like icicles. On the marquee: "Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho — see it from the beginning."

I was 12 when my parents took me with them to see Hitchcock's latest, a black-and-white fright film. And why not? I had seen Hitchcock's previous film with them — "North By Northwest" — and loved it. And we had all seen Janet Leigh's two previous movies together, the fluffy comedies "Who Was That Lady?" and "The Perfect Furlough."

So we went in with certain expectations. It was Hitchcock! It was Janet Leigh! How bad could it be?