1940s-60s New York City and Long Island, New York
Patricia Bates Johnson
Born in 1935
First movie memories from New York City and Long Island, NY
Interviewed on 01/24/19
by Nolan Crawford
Gone with the Wind is one I saw many times, and I loved it.
Who was it that was in it…Oh yes, Vivien Leigh, she was beautiful and a great actress. British, but she played Southern. She was a bit troubled though, I remember that. Yes, she was
manic depressive. She struggled with that.
And Clark Gable! Handsome son of a gun. He was quite something, very popular in that era.
I loved the characters. I probably saw it 3 or 4 times. It was a long movie, but it was wonderful. It was beautifully filmed. What was that one famous line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”? Yes. She treated him so badly in the movie.
This was probably in the early ‘40s. I was young when I saw it for the first time. I made a habit of going to the movies for fun. It was nice as a special occasion. Whether it was in New York or in the country.
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I saw a lot with Paul Newman. He was fantastic. I remember seeing a lot of his movies in the theaters. They were exciting, and he was handsome as all get out!
I loved the movies of my era; they were great. It was all great.
When I went to movies, it was with my twin (Evelyn Bates Owen), we absolutely loved it when we were young. We did everything together, as you know.
We would always go to lunch and art galleries on Saturdays and sometimes to the movies.
There were no TV sets when I was younger, so we had the movies. When TV sets first came it was a thrill, I will never forget when my dad got one. It was usually one per house, everyone would gather around it. Only a few channels. It was exciting to have that in the home. But there were movies, or reading, or playing outside before.
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I never liked the silent movies. No those weren’t for me. I found them silly and “bobo” (Spanish for silly). Clownish is the word. I’m surprised they held peoples’ attention, because how could they have been entertaining when they were so strange. I think it was just because there was nothing else at the time, so that’s what people had to go to.
Again, I loved Paul Newman. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, yes that was great. And Elizabeth Taylor was really huge in my day. She was a big star, a celebrity.
She was married maybe 5 times. A bit too much, but it wasn’t her fault. The men preyed on her like praying mantises. She had one great love, that one man. He was British. Yes! Richard Burton was really the great love of her life. It must have broken her heart when he decided to move on to someone new. They made some movies together. Cleopatra; I loved seeing that one for the first time. We had some nice theaters in midtown where we went (upon doing some research, possibly The Rivoli). There were great movies in my day.
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Going to the movies with your date was really nice. Oh yes it’s something I did a lot. We had night theaters; the ones that you would drive up to in the car. It was out on L
ong Island. We would go there many times. You would go with your date, watch some of the movie, have some fun. Me and my twin always loved that. (Upon doing some research, the drive-in theaters referred to were likely the ones in Bethpage and Westbury, both of which were in Nassau County on Long Island before they closed in the 1990s).
You could buy food at the outdoor theaters. Popcorn, candy. On a nice summer night, there was nothing like it. You knew the hour, your date had gotten tickets. No, I wouldn’t change my time for any other. Medicine has gotten a lot better; that’s the only thing that I wish we might have had back then. Everyone was panicked over polio, but luckily we made it through. You take the polio vaccine now.
I still love seeing artsy movies. The Paris Theater is where we go a lot; they have great movies. That one has been around a while. (Upon doing some research, the Paris Theater opened in 1948)
I loved my time, but a lot has changed. I feel that people in my day weren’t so vain. No one ages anymore!
