1951 Brooklyn, New York

Gerald Iafrate
Born in 1941
Brooklyn, New York
Interviewed on 01/28/2018
by Jayne Green

The first movie I remember seeing was The Jolson Story. I was about ten years old, and it hit me like a lightening bolt. Jolson was a young Jewish boy, a talented cantor at synagogue, who becomes a famous singer. He entertained in vaudeville with his face made up as a “black circus clown,” he eventually rose to stardom with his unusual voice and entertainment style…

I saw the movie in Brooklyn, New York. I was about ten, so the year must have been around 1951. The film originally came out in years earlier, but I saw the film as a replay of it in the theater.

I saw The Jolson Story in the theater on a Saturday afternoon, with a couple of friends. And at that time at the movies, they played two attractions and then in between there were a couple of cartoons, so for one ticket you got two movies and a couple of cartoons, and it was a whole afternoon’s worth of the movies. So we used to do that quite a bit. Afternoons were for kids, and in the evenings (7 o’clock shows) you’d get teenagers and adults.

You know, the other picture in that particular twin was a cowboy picture. I can’t remember if it was Tom Mix or John Wayne. Really what was driving me to the movie that day was the cowboy picture, and then The Jolson Story was playing and I was really taken aback by it. It was like a lightening bolt because the music that was portrayed in that picture was magnetic. This guy was a terrific singer, I didn’t know who he was until I heard him singing and in fact I made my mother get the album, and on the front of the album for The Jolson Story is a picture of Jolson in blackface with white lips and a derby hat and white gloves. Of course all of the songs on the album were popular songs I guess in the thirties and forties. And I just played those to death and just tried to mimic those songs, and I would try to entertain my family during the holidays that way…

But in any event, that picture really stuck out to me, and years later I discovered that Larry Parks, the star of the movie and its sequel, was indicated as a communist during the McCarthy hearings, as were many actors, so I kind of turned off on him, but I still remember the picture with affection.

We walked to the theater, as it was only several blocks from our neighborhood. We went to the Avenue D Theater. Avenue D would hold maybe 300 people—a small theater—and it had a cozy concession stand and you’d have to go upstairs to use the restrooms and it had a rest parlor up there. It was kind of a cozy place, not far from our house—two or three blocks. It was across the street from our church, Little Flower, and right next door to an ice cream parlor that we used to go to all the time.

When I saw The Jolson Story, as usual, I got a box of Goobers. It was easy, they were inexpensive, I’d get two boxes and that would last me for each movie… Goobers are I guess a nice Spanish peanut with chocolate covering… pretty tasty. Sometimes I’d get Raisinets—chocolate-covered raisins—pretty good too. They had popcorn at the concession stand too, but it was butter-laden popcorn, and I didn’t care for it. It was too messy… I don’t get Goobers anymore because I try to stay away from sugar, but those are the old days.

…The usher was a well known neighborhood fellow, John Russell. The usher was kind of a friend who you saw all the time. And through the years as I used that theater all the time, the usher would change hands, but it would always be someone you knew. The O’Holleran twins would become the ushers, and I don’t think when I turned sixteen that I ever paid to go into a movie. The O’Holleran twins were friends, and I’d always get into the movies free of charge. This was a neighborhood theater, and your parents would go to these movies quite a bit too.

In fact, my aunts (Aunt Helen and Aunt Josie) on Wednesday nights, they’d have a “Dishes night.” You’d go in with a ticket and you would get a dish. And if you did that every Wednesday for a year, you’d get a collection of those dishes. And so Aunt Helen and Aunt Josie and my grandma would walk to the movies… The dishes had a simple, conservative pattern around the edges. I’d see those dishes for years. Then they’d go to the ice cream parlor for dessert and they’d go home. So that was kind of the traditional thing. But Saturday afternoon we kids headed to the movies for a good two movies and cartoons and some candy.

… My wife and I just went to the movies last week, and we saw The Commuter with Liam Neeson, and I was amazed, you know these seats are like Stratolounger seats, you can put your legs up, and in the concession area you can get dinner. You can get a salad, you can get French fries, sandwiches, you can get drinks, and they can order it and they’ll come and deliver it to you. It’s all pricey, but it just shows you that we’ve come a long was since Goobers. I mean it’s really amazing, everything now is “elegante.” But we just come in with a bag of salt-free popcorn hidden away in our bag, and sit in the luxury seats, and enjoy the picture we’ve chosen.