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I was born in 1943, became 21 in 1964, so the classics from my youth really were classics that I saw in theaters for the first time or in re-release.
Like the rereleases of the original Stagecoach, Casablanca, the Marx Brothers, Disney's Cinderella and Snow White. I was in elementary school when our teachers one day took several of our classes from our segreated school to a segregated theater downtown to see for the first time (for us) a rerelease of Gone With the Wind (I think I can safely say that gave us a perspective on that film that can't be matched by theater audiences today). Took a train trip once with my Cub Scout Pack from Gladewater in East Texas to a Dallas theater to see the first Cinerama film, a mix of roller coaster rides, white rapids, and flights through the Grand Canyon that was a super thrill on that wide, wide, wide screen. I also saw my first 3-D film, House of Wax, in a theater full of spectacled people trying to dodge that paddle-ball bouncing in our faces. Saw Steve McQueen in his first starring role in a theater full of teens at a mid-night showing of the original The Blob; at the time McQueen was the hot star of a TV Western series, Wanted: Dead or Alive. The moment he appeared on the screen, everyone shouted, "Hey, it's Josh Randall!" (his TV character.) I was working at that theater at another midnight show when I met Gabe, one of the Dead End Kids, who at the time was no longer a kid and had a traveling MC act in which he hired local teens to dress up as the mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula and come from behind the screen to "attack" the audience. That may have been the forerunner of audience participation ala The Rocky Horror Show. There also was an impromtu audience participation when a bunch of us in a primarily teenage audience started dancing in the aisles to Bill Haley and the Comets doing "Rock Arund the Clock" during the opening credits of Blackboard Jungle. Saw The Greatest Show on Earth when it first came out--the concession stand sold cotton candy and pink limonade (some of the Big City theaters even had circus acts in the lobby for that movie). Ogled Marilyn Monroe in Niagra and River of No Return, but comic Tom Ewell was the best thing in The Seven Year Itch. Saw all of Judy Holiday's films (she being smart and pretty and as funny as Ewell with whom she appeared in Adam's Rib). Caught Jack Lemmon in his first starring role opposite Holiday, then saw him in the role that made him a star in Mr. Roberts. Had the hots for Kim Novak all through my teens, especially her performance in Bell, Book, and Candle. Was totally floored with the "discoveries" of Brando in The Wild One, and Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. I'd never heard of these guys before, didn't know a thing about them--I was just going to the movies and bam! Saw Paul Newman in his first movie role in The Silver Chalice, where Jack Palance chewed up the scenery as the heavy. Caught Gary Cooper in High Noon and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Saw Sinatra become a real actor, not just a movie star, in From Here to Eternity, Suddenly!, and Man With the Golden Arm. Went to all of Randolph Scott's westerns to get an occational glimpse of Lee Marvin. Went to all of Audey Murphy's movies because to us then pre-teens, he was just the coolest thing ever. Was there to appreciate the superiority of the original 3:10 to Yuma and Moulin Rouge and The Thing. Saw the original The Haunting, which is still the scariest movie ever filmed. But then the Sci-Fi classics like Them!, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and It Came From Another World were fun, as was the series of films starting with The Creature from the Black Lagoon, who I thought of for years everytime I swam in a river, a lake, or just the deep end of the pool.
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but hey, you asked 
