1940 Walton-on-Thames, England
Elizabeth Howard
1934
Walton-on-Thames, England
Interviewed on September 21, 2019
by Peter Neugebauer
The first movie that I actually… Ahh my god. You mean as a really small child? The first movie I actually remember, I think, is Pinocchio and being scared shitless by the whale. There’s a scene in the movie where he and his father are swallowed by a whale and it comes out of the screen right at you with its mouth open. I can remember just being absolutely terrified by that. The Disney films are the earliest ones I remember seeing: Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi. I have no recollection of anything about Pinocchio except that I was very scared by it. Well, all of Disney is a little bit scary, really. Bambi, for instance, is absolutely tragic. It’s really a huge trauma to put small children through. Just devastating.
See, when I talk about Pinocchio for instance, I remember it, because I got such a fright and for that reason it’s certainly the first movie I remember. But it may not have been the first movie I watched. I think memories are usually imprinted, because they are absolutely special in some way. The experience has to be emotionally charged with fear or excitement, for example. I imagine that a lot of memories are implanted like that. You don’t normally take notice of the first time you do something which is quite ordinary.
I’m guessing from the fact that it was an early memory that I would have been about six or so. I guess it would have been around 1940 when I was living in a town called Walton-on-Thames, a small suburb outside of London. The war started in ’39 so we wouldn’t have gone to the movies very much then. I don’t recall how I would have gotten there. It was probably by car.
Then in Australia, I was a boarding school student, which restricted my activities. After school, I went straight to university and I never had any money. It was then that I went to the movies with my father. Because this is what everyone did, the theaters were always full and sold out. But I suppose they kept a few seats aside for last minute celebrities, you know. And when we’d go, my father would get special privileges on account of his being a doctor. I was outraged and embarrassed by this. I suppose that was when I was becoming egalitarian and not liking that sense of entitlement. I went, of course. It wasn’t enough to stop me from going to the movies.
Going to the movies was very much a Saturday night family outing for me. It was a big deal. I don’t recall their names, but I remember those movie theaters very well. They were dark and musty and carpeted and plush. I remember movie theaters being much more decorated and glamorous in those days. You know, the architecture was much more elaborate. They weren’t just plain boxes like they are now. They had moldings and sculptures and gold trimming everywhere.
I would eat a lot of lollies during the movies. Yeah, that was a big thing. I would always buy a packet of lollies before the show or during intermission. My favorites were Minties. Today, they still sell them and they actually have little quotes and references from movies on the wrapper. They are very much a movie-going product. And the other popular lollies were Malteses. Do you know Malteses? They’re these balls with chocolate around them. And those were funny. Because the aisles were sloped, people would roll them down all the way to the front of the theatre. I think it happened by accident mostly but sometimes they would do it just for the joy of it.
One movie I remember seeing in the theaters in the late sixties was Easy Rider. Yeah, that’s right—Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. It made a huge impression on me. I remember the ending more than anything. Leaving the theatre afterwards, I recall almost collapsing on the sidewalk. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t tell you the ending. I don’t want to ruin it for you.
I’ve remembered things that I had forgotten through talking to you. Things like standing up for ‘God Save the Queen’ for instance. I’d forgotten that. Every movie started with the bloody national anthem and everyone stood up to sing it. It was so bizarre. It does sound American, doesn’t it? We haven’t done that for decades now, of course.
