1939 Yonkers, New York

Mary Allen

1930

Yonkers, New York

Interviewed September 8th, 2019

By Talia Morison-Allen

It was a little bit scary for me, it was the Wizard of Oz. I was maybe six, maybe eight. I had never seen anything like it before; I remember being terrified.

No, I guess my very first feeling would have been before I started watching the film. I guess my very first feeling was curiosity. I had never seen it [a film] before, so I was very curious, but then I didn’t like it. You see, I was never read to as a child, my parents never told me stories, so I didn’t know much about them. I didn’t hear stories on the radio, so I didn’t know what to expect. The movie looked so real, it was hard to imagine it was just a story.

I don’t remember much, but I remember the lion and the little girl really well. I didn’t trust the lion, I thought that he was going to eat the little girl. He’s a lion, so I couldn’t believe that he was nice. I guess I’d seen lions before in the zoo. It’s funny to think of now because it wasn’t even a real lion; it was a man in a lion’s costume.

I guess the story just confused me. It didn’t seem believable. I couldn’t understand it because I knew it couldn’t be real, so I didn’t understand why it was being shown to me like it was real. As a kid, I went outside; I biked around the neighborhood with other kids. My parents sent me out of the house, so I was never reading or anything.

I remember that my mother took us. She took all of the kids, so it was my three brothers, my sister, and me. Actually, I suppose Bill (the oldest) probably wouldn’t have gone because he was too old. I don’t know why she took us because she never really did those type of things with us. It was supposed to be a big treat, but it turned out rather badly for me.

I do remember the trip there because we had to go by car which we never did. We were living in Yonkers, New York at the time. We lived in the outskirts, so we needed the car to go downtown to where the theater was. It was a big deal for us. I remember we all piled in for the trip. I don’t remember if it was downtown New York or a commercial area of Yonkers, though. I don’t really remember the theater or much about it. It was an awful long time ago.

I must’ve been interested in the story. At least, I think I remember being interested by it. It was so long ago now though, so the only thing that sticks in my mind today is how scary it was. I hated the movies after that; I don’t think I went again for another couple of years. People didn’t really go to the movies then, or at least my family didn’t. I was always busy with my friends and my new bicycle and things happening in my little world in the suburbs.

I suppose I really started going to the films as a teenager. Oh yes, I would go on dates to dinner and a movie. I remember my favorite movie. I even still remember the title, So Proudly We Hail! It was a war movie, so I guess I must’ve been younger when I saw it, maybe 13 or 14. There were a lot of war movies then, and most of them were really jolly and pro-war. There was a lot of propaganda. I remember this one because it seemed real. It was about nurses in the war who get stuck, I think they were trapped by enemies or something, and they had to keep taking care of the wounded men with them. I thought they were awfully brave, but they also seemed realistic. They had real fears and worries.

After that film, Claudette Colbert (who starred in it) was my favorite actress. She was so beautiful and fashionable. I loved the way she did her hair. Oh, but I never kidded myself that I could pull it off, so I just admired her without trying to imitate her. I must’ve also had a favorite actor. One of those handsome men from the romance movies, but I can’t remember his name now.

Movies are so different today. Now I can just watch them on my TV from my bed. I think it’s much nicer now, and the pictures are much clearer and better. It’s a completely different experience now, even if you go to the theater. You can’t really compare them.