1933 Riverside, Ohio

Walter Galvin

1929

Riverside, OH

Interviewed on 1/28/2019

by Colin McCloskey

The first movie that I remember seeing has got to be King Kong. I don’t remember the title exactly, but I remember King Kong. He was standing on top of the Empire State Building, roaring, catching airplanes out of the sky, it was so exciting. I was so young, I don’t remember anything else about the actors or the plot or what happened in the movie, but I distinctly recall the image of King Kong, on top of the world and grabbing planes out of the sky.

I must have been about 6 when I saw the movie. We would head over to the theater, a couple of the neighborhood boys, childhood friends, and I. We’d walk over to the theater and watch the matinees every Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. There were so many stories, I’m trying to think if I can remember the names of any of the big ones. I always loved the cowboy ones, the Westerns with Tom Mix. He had a radio show too!

There was the Charge of the Light Brigade and stories about the Middle East, filled with camels and placed in the desert. Ben-Hur racing around with horses and chariots, though I saw that one in school, not in a theater. They played it in class one day.

I don’t remember exactly if I had any favorite actors, but I remember Errol Flynn and [Lionel] Barrymore. There were lots of old Irish guys, guys like Gary Cooper. There was one that moved like a dancer. Of course there were the Three Musketeers, oh, and of course Jim Corbett, he was a boxer. And the newsreels: news, and a cartoon, and, of course, the coming attractions. They would be played before the film.

We always went to West Park Theater, it was the first one in Riverside. Then it was taken over when there was a new theater in the late 30s, around 36 or 39. They were within 150 yards of each other, Riverside theater came in about 39. Riverside was a big, fancy theater with everything – West Park was just about an empty building where they projected reels.

Concessions were a big thing, and popcorn was a favorite. Candy was also there but I never had any: the movies were the dime that I had. The popcorn, their popcorn was so good one place opened up their own place. Euclid Beach, their popcorn was so good. It was like an amusement park, before Cedar point, well before I ever went to Cedar point, before Disneyland and Disney world. Euclid Park was famous for their popcorn, popcorn balls, ginger ale.

But for me it was the serials: they would go for fifteen weeks, and the villain would be caught on the fifteenth. We boo’d the villain, we cheered the heros, there was always a young damsel tied to the railroad tracks.