1938 New York, New York
Ruth Montgomery
Born 1930
First movie memories in New York, New York
Interviewed on January 24, 2019
by James Post
I first remember seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I was about eight years old.
My parents were with me. I’m relatively sure that they took me from Brooklyn to New York to Radio City Music Hall. Seeing Snow White with them was very special. My sister was too young to go. She’s two and a half years younger.
I remember people being chased, rescued, and the happy feeling of singing nice music. The movie began with Snow White looking into a well, pulling up water from the well, and singing a song called “I’m Wishing” to the wishing well. And there were five or six songs with the dwarfs singing “Off to Work We Go” when they went to the mines. In the days that I could sing, I probably did sing those songs.
I thought they were delightful, the seven dwarfs. Many of my friends would try to remember all the names. They had names like Happy, and Happy looked very happy. And Sleepy and Sneezy. I remember admiring Snow White very much and feeling a little protective of her because of the way the queen was after her to kill her. I can remember people gasping, “Aah my goodness,” when certain things happened.
Movies were very popular. I had a favorite uncle, and he took us to see the Tarzan movies. Johnny Weissmuller was a top-rated swimmer, and he would dive from the trees into the pond, chase the alligators, and take care of Boy and Jane. It does seem that movies were more exciting then.
The color [of Snow White was] very different from the Tarzan movies, which are ones that I saw at other times. It was in beautiful color. Elegant, brilliant, wonderful color. Reds and whites and everything was very vivid. Through the years no matter how many different movies I’ve seen…. Well maybe except The Wizard of Oz…. But even that wasn’t as bright as Snow White.
I can remember thinking how glamorous most theaters were. The theaters had beautiful wood carving and red velvet drapes and very elegant surroundings. I went to see a movie while visiting my grandparents and uncle and aunt, and the theaters were not glamorous. This was in rural New Jersey up in the mountains.
At Radio City Music Hall there were ushers. There never were [any] in the country when I visited my relatives. Ushers in uniforms with cute looking hats and things. They always had flashlights in their hands to show people the seats if they had trouble finding seats.
If I did see the movie in New York we certainly would’ve taken the subway. If it had been in downtown Brooklyn I would’ve taken a trolley. I think I didn’t get candy; I got popcorn.
I can remember that often at birthday parties we would give people a copy of the book that showed all of the pictures or a doll perhaps that looked like Snow White or a doll that looked like a dwarf. A funny thing would be to give the dwarf doll, the one that was Grumpy, just to be silly with somebody. It was very much a part of the culture.
