Darren -- I recall being at my grandparents' in Atlanta and seeing the original TV spot for HoDS during DS one afternoon; I got so excited by the prospect that I started running around the house and got soundly chastised for waking my grandmother from her nap.
I was supposed to go on a boy scout campout the weekend HoDS opened where I lived in Virginia. It was coming to the local drive-in, so I begged my folks to let me skip the camping trip and go see Barnabas. It took some doing, but they finally relented, and my mom drove my best friend and me to the drive-in -- after taking us to Hardee's, which in those days was a rare treat. (Now it's rare, but not quite the same treat.)
I don't think I'd ever been so excited to go to a movie since the double feature of
WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS and
MONSTER ZERO. After the movie, my friend came over and spent the night, and he couldn't go to sleep for being scared. So consequently, I was up most of the night with him.
HoDS came around again on a double-feature with
MUNSTER GO HOME, also at a drive-in; this time my dad took me. The excitement had not waned. And it came again in '73 on a double-bill with NoDS at the local moviehouse. However, the matinee I went to was jam-packed with kids, and it was so noisy you couldn't hear a word of dialogue in either film. Finally, about halfway through NoDS, the theater manager put on a "warning" reel that some of you might have seen in those days:
A stern-looking gentleman in a suite and tie, sitting in a chair with his arms crossed, looks at you and says gravely, "What if your parents brought you to the theater and, instead of the great picture you came to see, you got this.... <Insert sounds of children screaming and hollering.> This is what
you sound like. If you are caught being disruptive, the manager will expell you from the theater. Furthermore, those asked to leave today will be refused admission to this theater in the future."
And on that grave note, NoDS continued... as did the noise, unabated.