Happy Father’s Day – An UMR Contributors Page

Thirteen years ago, my father passed away.  That year, Father’s Day was still two days away.   Since his passing, we have shared, as our Daily Post, his Top Five Movies on June 17th.  We are once again doing that, but we also giving some other dad’s some Father’s Day attention.  The following comments, stories and recollections come from the very talented UMR contributors.

Original Cinema Quad Poster – Movie Film Posters

Natalie F.“Not sure why he loved this movie so much, but the first movie I think of one I think movies and my dad is The Fox and the Hound. He watched that movie all the time while growing up. He liked Westerns too but Fox and the Hound was his favorite. Maybe it was that he grew up on a farm.”

Mallory E. – “My dad was not a movie person. Movies were more of a mom thing in my childhood. But I do remember my dad making me watch countless hours of WWE.”

Emma G.  – “My dad loved and still loves the original Star Wars movies. He wants nothing to do with the prequels or the latest movies. He taught me numerous Star Wars songs on my violin. Good memories of Luke, Han, Leia me and my dad.”

Jessica E. –  “Lots of dad memories. On the television side we loved watching Mork and Mindy, Cheers, Little House on the Prairie and especially Taxi together. On the movie side he loved Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Swiss Family Robinson. He was also fascinated by the Vietnam War, so movies like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Good Morning Vietnam really interested him. He was a teenager when the Vietnam War was happening, which is probably why those movies fascinated him so much.”

Bob – “My own father was as big a movie buff as I but unfortunately for the most part we had very opposite tastes so that watching films together would lead to flaming rows at times. If I presented hard facts to support my own preferences he would [Trump like!] accuse me of manufacturing them and his dogmatism about the perceived defects in my own idols drove me to pretend that idols of his were also “rubbish” even though on a few occasions I idolised some of his favourites myself, such as The Duke. Still in hindsight I miss all those quarrels so children of Cogerson “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may!”

Natalie R. also known as GoC1 (Granddaughter of Cogerson) – One story I have with my father is we went to go see “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at around 8-9 in the morning the week it came out. Considering it was too early for snacks and drinks he only let us get popcorn and water (bummer I know). So we got all our stuff together and to our seats and started watching the movie. About 30 minutes in, this kid behind us THREW UP, but it wasn’t into something…it was on to me and my dad!! It was very gross. So we left, cleaned off, and went home.  After about a week or so we went back but he made sure it was right in the back where no one was behind us. The movie was really good once we finished.  Still to this day anytime my dad and I go to the theaters, he makes sure we sit as far back as we can.

Carl U.  – “Growing up in Germany, movies were not a huge part of our lives. My dad rarely went to movies, but he did not miss Bonanza when it came on tv. One of the few movies that made a huge impact on me and Germany was Jaws. I remember the audience jumping three feet in the air during certain scenes. Not related to my dad, but when I was in the service we used the movie Glory as a way to show how combat was…..even though that movie took place during the Civil War….the actions and things that happened on a battlefield were still relevant over 100 years later.”

Helakoski – “My mom and her mom loved Doris Day movies. Many weekend evenings was spent with the four us, them, me and Doris watching Day movies. Rock Hudson, James Garner and Rod Taylor movies were our favorites. For some reason they mainly had us watch her rom-com movies versus musicals. My dad was almost anti-Doris Day. I vividly remember him shaking his head in disapproval as another Day Movie was being watched. He was a huge Paul Newman fan. I think he watched Butch Cassidy, The Sting and Cool Hand Luke the most. Pretty sure he liked horror movies like a The Exorcist and The Omen, but he never watched those movies around me. Good memories for sure.”

SoC2 (Son of Cogerson #2) – “Obviously being a child of Cogerson, it is almost impossible to think of my dad without thinking about movies. I would say two of my more fond memories would be:

(1) Watching the most inappropriate movies on Christmas Day. This started when we got the zombie movie Shaun of the Dead as a Xmas present. After all the day’s activities were over, we started to watch the movie….after one particular gory scene, my dad said….”This is the wrong day to watch such a gruesome movie.” And thus a Cogerson family tradition was born as we try and pick the least likely movie to watch. After all, can’t think of a better Xmas movie than The Exorcist.

(2). My dad and I will reenact the Groundhog Day scene with Bill Murray and Ned Ryerson the insurance guy. One of us will walk up to the other give the other a big long lasting hug and say …”I have missed you so much…..I don’t know where you are headed….but can you call in sick?” The thing that makes it funny to us…we usually do it the most public of places…just like in the movie.”

Edward L.  – “My dad loved Frank Sinatra. Anything Frank did, my dad supported him. When he passed my brothers and I agreed on everything we were getting with the exception of dad’s Frank merchandise. From his vintage vinyl records to his autographed Frank photos to his VHS collection of his Frank movies. We eventually did a nice three way split. Particulary movies my dad loved would include From Here To Eternity, Oceans Eleven, Some Came Running, The Joker Is Wild and Tony Rome. My dad has been gone for almost a quarter of a century. But I miss him all the time, especially on this upcoming weekend.”

DoC1 (Daughter of Cogerson #1)  – “I am very fortunate to have two father figures in my life. My dad and Cogerson my step-dad. I remember my dad always enjoying the first 5 to 10 minutes of Top Gun, listening to the music and the sound effects and then rewatching the same thing over and over. He did the same thing with one of the Fast and the Furious movies.

      As for Cogerson, lots and lots of movie memories here. He introduced me to opening night midnight movies. I probably saw half of the Harry Potter movies at the midnight showings on a school night…but I never missed a day of school. He introduced me to Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The movie that got him in the most trouble with WoC, was when he got me to watch Signs. I was fine until the knife under the door scene. At which point I went crying to my mom, and she made him turn the movie off. To this day I have never seen the end of that movie. Another thing he introduced me too was DVD release parties. A video store near our house would start selling new release DVDs at midnight on Monday night/Tuesday morning. Once when one of the Twilight movies was being released on DVD, I won a Twilight movie poster in a nice frame, because I was able to answer a trivia question. That was a proud night. All these years later and I still have that poster.”

BryRog57 –  “So way back when. I cannot remember my age, but I was young…maybe 10, give or take a year or 2, my uncle, BoC…by the way my dad is the one and only great, best dad, #1 movie/sports buff I know, Cogerson himself! Anyway back to the story, my uncle, BoC, had recently purchased a brand new projector tv. Back then, in the mid-to-late 90’s, these things next to big screen TV’s were awesome. It was not like today where everyone has a 42″ minimum. Needless to say this projector was pretty cool. It had its own stand that was the seemed to be as big as the wall as I can remember. So one day my dad, Cogerson, decided we were going to go over and watch a movie on the new BIG screen.

As a child and not being able to decide what I was going to do, I got to go with him. Now for some of you who know Cogerson, you understand that movie ratings prove to be no barrier when it comes to the right of passage for a young man to watch a movie. Some examples, my first movie ever, from what I have been told…Colors…in the theater…as a baby. Die Hard was one of my first quotable movies…I knew what happened to make John Connor in the Terminator before I was 10 (maybe, not sure on the age). P.S. He didn’t let me watch the adult stuff between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese…but I knew.

Back to the story…so knowing what you know now, you will not be surprised to find out the movie we were going to watch on the new BIG screen was the one and only, John Carpenter’s “The Thing” starring Kurt Russell or as Cogerson put it, another Snake Plissken movie. As I recall I was told that the movie was funny…that was not an accurate description. The opening scene where they are trying to kill the dog led to a night of horror. I don’t remember much after that except for a few key moments.

Moment number 1…the dog is dead and Kurt Russell melts it with the flamethrower.
Moment number 2…the head comes off the dead guy and is crawling around the floor with legs (apparently this was the funny part because it looked cheesy).
Moment number 3…everyone tied to the chairs, testing the blood with heat, and then the thing comes out of the dude and it was bad.
Moment number 4…the last scene…the monster is massive and Dexter Riley has to fight it.
Moment number 5…they had to eat out of cans, not scary, but memorable I don’t know why.
Moment number 6…Macready lives! Little side note, there was really cool video game that came out called The Thing and at the end Macready shows up.

Now some of you may be thinking how could a man, a father, mentor, hard worker, comic, movie critic, sports guru, and friend put their first born son through so much trauma? Well you obviously don’t know Cogerson, but it was worth it. In the end I am grateful, I am fortunate, and I consider myself lucky to have been passed on so much knowledge of the cinema from someone who means the world to me. The Thing is a classic and I thank Cogerson for exposing me to such. Happy Father’s Day, Dad! Love you.”

Roger S.  – “My dad loved cowboy movies, with John Wayne easily being his favorite. His favorite movie and it is not even close is Wayne’s McLintock! He saw that movie so many times I had to replace his VHS tape with a DVD.”

Maggie J. – “I remember watching a double feature with my dad and the entire family when I was very small. The first movie was The Wizard of Oz. I had no issues watching that one. However, when the second movie ( 1957’s The Cyclops) started, I completely lost it and jumped into my dad’s arms when The Cyclop showed up in the movie. I just knew my dad would protect me.”

Steve L. –  “Bruce, I think my dad had similar tastes to your dad – The Great Escape was one of his favorite films. He loved westerns and war movies. He also loved swashbucklers, especially if they starred Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power or Burt Lancaster.

James Garner was a big favorite of his, Cary Grant too. He was also a Bond fan, especially Connery and Moore.

My dad was a big movie fan, watched a lot of old movies with my parents when I was a kid. I wish I was jotting the titles down on paper, my UMR tallys might have been more impressive. ?”

Bern1960 – “Bruce, your grandfather, Eddie, my father, in Montreal, did not see too many movies. He liked wrestling on TV and I went with him once to see a wresting match at the Forum, in downtown Montreal. He worked in the grocery business most of his life and he died in 1972 when you were five years old. My dad liked to play bridge and he and my mom went to lots of dances years ago. He told me the story about his sister at the movie theater many many years ago sitting in her seat.

In those days women wore hats just about everywhere. Well, a man sat beside her and put his hand on her knee. She took her hat pin out of her hat and stabbed him in the hand and he yelled. I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT WAS A FUNNY STORY AS THE MAN GOT WHAT HE DESERVED. (I guess it would be considered assault and sexual harassment today).  HAPPY FATHER’S DAY – ALSO HAPPY GRANDFATHER’S DAY TOO!!!”

Flora – “I never watched movies with my father, only my mother. But there is a funny anecdote about my father and the filming of Rocky II. Part of the movie was shot in southern British Columbia, Canada where I live under a bridge than spans the Fraser River. Dad was driving along and he saw a vehicle on the side of the road. My father was among many things, a mechanic. He was always helpful to motorists. Therefore, he went over and offered his assistance and started to fix the car. Suddenly he heard “Cut!” and some man started yelling at him. He had ruined a take of a scene of Rocky!”

PhilHOF17 – Hey Bruce.  It’s been a busy time and I have not commented for a while, but just to say this is a great idea to celebrate father’s day. In my home, my mom was the one who chose the movies actually, both on TV and in the cinema, and I probably inherited my taste for movies from her. My dad was fairly flexible and happy to watch whatever was on, though I recall some of actors and actresses he liked most included James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Charlie Chaplin and Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo.

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25 thoughts on “Happy Father’s Day – An UMR Contributors Page

  1. One story I have with my father is we went to go see “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at around 8-9 in the morning the week it came out. Considering it was too early for snacks and drinks he only let us get popcorn and water (bummer I know). So we got all our stuff together and to our seats and started watching the movie. About 30 minutes in, this kid behind us THREW UP, but it wasn’t into something…it was on to me and my dad!! It was very gross. So we left, cleaned off, and went home.

    After about a week or so we went back but he made sure it was right in the back where no one was behind us. The movie was really good once we finished.

    Still to this day anytime my dad and I go to the theaters, he makes sure we sit as far back as we can.

  2. Hi Mr. Cogerson,

    Happy Fathers day.
    My Dad passed away is 2000. Went into the Navy at young age.
    He would send his paychecks back home to his family when he was younger, during the Depression..
    A veteran of 3 Wars. World War 2, Korea and Vietnam.
    He struggled to be a Father to our family, but I think he suffered from deep depression and PTSD.
    I had him buried at a veteran memorial grave yard.
    I respect him more than anyone I will ever know, for his sacrifice.
    I miss him.
    Thx
    Mike

    1. Thanks for sharing this information Mike. I sadly know all about the missing part. Thanks to your dad for his service. Happy Father’s Day to your dad.

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