1941 New Castle, Pennsylvania
Yvonne Joseph
1937
New Castle, PA
Interviewed on 9/16/19
by Phoebe Cardenas
I’m not sure what the first movie I ever saw was. It might have been The Wolf Man. When I was little, I watched a lot of monster movies.I remember seeing movies like The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, andThe Mummy’s Ghost.
When I was young, my family lived in a fifth-floor apartment above a storefront, and my mom operated a grocery store out of our small apartment. Starting when I was about four or five years old, my mom put me in charge of manning the cash register. I used to steal twelve cents from the register when she wasn’t looking and hide it under the counter. Then, when no one was paying attention, I ran to a movie theater two blocks from our apartment and used the money to buy a movie ticket. My younger sister wasn’t born yet, and all my other siblings are much older, so I went to the movies by myself. It didn’t matter though. Back then, all the kids my age used to go to the theater by themselves. Whenever I went, I saw my classmates in the theater, too. Back then, the movie theater in our town only seemed to show monster movies, so that’s what we all saw. I definitely wouldn’t have chosen monster movies, but you didn’t have as much choice back then, in what you could watch.
I have five older siblings, so it was easy for me to sneak away. There was always a lot going on in our house, and my parents didn’t pay much attention to me. Some days, I fell asleep in the theater, and I wouldn’t wake up until the lights came up at 11 PM. Even when I stayed in the theater all day, I could usually sneak back into our apartment without anyone noticing that I was gone. The only time my mom ever got mad at me for sneaking out was when I came back from the movie theater to find that she had company over. Even then, she was only mad because she thought I’d embarrassed her.
I always went to The State Theater on Long Avenue in my hometown of New Castle, Pennsylvania. The building was owned and operated by a man named Mr. Markley. When I got to the theater, I gave him my twelve cents, and he let me pass. He never gave anyone tickets, and I found out later that it’s because he was committing tax fraud, and he didn’t want there to be a record of the sales.
The women’s bathroom in The State Theater must have had a plumbing issue, because when you walked in, the whole floor was dirty. There was only one toilet, not even in a stall, and that was what I had to use. It definitely wasn’t as nice as the theaters you go to today.
I never bought popcorn or concessions when I went to the movies. Back then, I didn’t associate movies with snacks the way you do, now.
I don’t remember that much about the movies I watched, but I do remember that they scared me. I got nightmares from some of those monster movies. I used to dream that the Mummy’s Ghost was chasing me around my apartment, and I can still remember the way hair sprouted from Lon Chaney’s skin in The Wolf Man.
Once I got older, I preferred to watch romantic movies. Those are the movies I remember now and look back on fondly. I’m a fan of all the greats: Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant. All those men were handsome, too. I love the way love stories were told back then. Now, it seems like everything focuses on sex, but back then romance was purer and more innocent. It reminds me of I Love Lucy; you could have a great love without the characters ever sleeping in the same bed.
