1938 Bronx, New York

Morton & Doris Weiser
Born 1930 & 1932
Bronx, New York
Interviewed on January 26th, 2022
by Griffin Strout

My earliest memory is when I was seven or eight years old, I lived in the Bronx…and that was my first memory of movies. In those days, they always had serials on, where people would come back one week later. It was something like Perils of Pauline, which they made into a funny movie years later….I don’t remember seeing that, though. The first one I saw was… probably Superman or Dick Tracy or something. I can give you the first radio show I listened to…Don Winslow of the Navy. I used to come home every afternoon from the movies or from school or what have you, the first thing I would turn on was Don Winslow of the Navy….I’ve never met anyone who remembers that show…mainly because I’m too old to know anyone who remembers. 

My first movie? The first movie, I didn’t remember. The second movie, I don’t think I could remember too intelligently. I do remember the one with Clarke Gable and Claudette Colbert…

I remember It Happened One Night. It’s quite possible that it’s the first movie that I remember seeing now… [in] 1938. That movie has been shown repeatedly on Turner Classic Movies. I’ve watched it in the last year. I liked it. I’ve seen it so many times that I can give a summary of it. There’s a famous line—I’m trying to remember it. In the movie, [Colbert is] a rich girl who has run away from her father who has, you know, has a lot of money. And Clark Gable is a newspaper reporter…he tries to take her with him and tries to run a story about her because he’s trying to please his editor…he’s the only one who knows where this rich girl is. I don’t remember quite what Clark Gable’s motive was for the story was…There’s one scene when he’s on a bus, where someone comes down and they think they know who this person is, and Clark Gable intimidates him…He takes her to a motel, and in those days, men didn’t sleep with women until they were married. Ok, so he’s in a hotel room with her [and] so her chastity would not be endangered, he put up a clothesline between his bed and her bed and he called it the “Walls of Jericho”. And in the last scene, Clark Gable ends up running a certain expense account [?]. She’s gotten away from him, I’m not sure why, it’s obvious to the audience that they both love each other…and Clarke Gable goes to the father asking for the reward, and it turns out that Clark Gable just wants his expenses paid, and the father immediately likes him, and ends up talking Claudette Colbert…is it Claudette Colbert? Anyway, the father ends up saying to Claudette Colbert “this is the guy you should marry… it’s obvious you love him and he loves you and you don’t love this rich guy who is flying this plane to your wedding”. And sure enough they’re walking down the aisle…even before then she’s running after this car [after Gable]. And in the last scene, Claudette Colbert and Clarke Gable are checking into a Motel and he puts up the sheet and then he takes it down and says “the Walls of Jericho have fallen”, indicating that he’s gonna sleep with her. 

I lived on a street called Woody Crest Avenue, and the theater not far from there was the Ogden theater on Ogden Avenue…And that’s the first movie house I remember going to. I think I was able, seven, eight years old, and I think I would go to the matinees, where they very often gave away prizes at the end of the think. 

I don’t remember [if there were ushers], I suspect not, but I don’t really know. I have no memory if there were concession stands. I don’t suspect there are, or not like they are now, but I don’t think so. At the end of the films they would give out prizes. They would call out a number at the end. They gave you a ticket with the number. 

—Mort Weiser 

[The first movie I remember seeing] was a Shirley Temple movie, but I can’t remember the name. I think it was something with “Daddy something”, but I don’t remember the name. I was probably about seven or eight, maybe older. I can’t remember that….I don’t remember when I went first to the movies. I was probably closer to ten. I remember that she always tap danced, and I remember a black guy in it, tapping with her. I don’t remember his name….I don’t remember if it was Bo Jangles [Robinson] but he was around at that time. 

[Shirley Temple] was my favorite. I made my grandmother buy me a Shirley Temple doll. Shirley Temple was loved by pretty much everybody. She was about ten…anywhere between eight or ten. Up to 11. But then she started fading in her teens. I mean, she was still good, but she was never the same…

[The theater would have been] in the Bronx, East Bronx, but I wouldn’t remember the name of the theater. It was in the East Bronx. I know that. We walked [to the theater]. I probably went with my mother or father.

[We would go to] matinees. In those days, we would go early and bring our lunch and spend our whole day in the movies. Everyone would bring their lunch and we would watch shorts, news reels [as well as the movie]. Everybody did it. It was nice being out of the house. It was a day to look forward to…we were kept there for hours. I don’t think we paid more than 15 cents. I think it was under a quarter. We brought our own [food] because I was poor, but there may have been concessions…I would eat in my seat. I would be [there] from 10 or 11 o’clock till probably four or five. I know I was stuck with my brother at one point. He was probably five and I was ten. It was a very cheap baby sitter.

[In the theater,] I remember leather chairs: not that comfortable. You know, plastic leather. My theater, it was a small theater. It was crowded together. It was always crowded. There were no seats. Everybody went to the movies. I think there was a balcony but I’m not sure. I don’t know if this one had it. This one was a very small theater. 

I know exactly where it was. It was on Tremont Ave. It was a big avenue, you know, like Fordham Road. There was a little theater. And if you went a few blocks down, there were bigger theaters, but they were more expensive. Belmont [was the cross street]. It was on Tremont. It was called the Belmont. 

GS: I googled a picture of it. I found it. Could it have been called the Deluxe theater? 

DW: It was not a Deluxe theater. Oh wait, the name? Yes it could have been Deluxe. That sounds very familiar. 

[GS and DW go back and forth. After determining that the Deluxe used to be in the exact location that DW recalled in that time period, it must have been that one]

—Doris Weiser