1941 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Born in 1934 
Philadelphia, PA 
Interviewed on February 23rd, 2023
By Sophia Hall

What’s the first movie that you remember seeing?

Golly. The first I remember seeing. I’m almost positive it was a horror movie, because I loved horror movies at that young age for some reason. And then the next one, I remember going to the movies, especially on Saturdays when all the kids went in the neighborhood. The shows were… first you get the news instead of your radio – we didn’t have TVs – and you would see a chapter movie. I think it was Jungle Gym and Superman – the original Superman. It was just a lot of fun. Everybody in the movies shouting, having fun eating their snacks, or either running to the back to get a snack, but that’s how it was.

Is there a specific afternoon that you remember?

I just remember one. It was wintertime, and that’s the one where I went with my mom and dad. And we went to the movies, and then afterwards there was a candy store right across the street from the movie. That was a cute little candy store, I’ll always remember that. Really, really nice. And especially on snow days, that was a treat. Going to the movies, coming out, looking across the street, and the candy store was all lit up. You know, people all dressed up in their snow outfits – leggings and muffs. We had muffs then. You know what that is right? For your hands, those who could afford that had that. I’ll always remember my favorite candy. It was striped…and it was like a taffy… and it curled! The ribbon. The ribbon candy. And they have that today, as a matter of fact. Still have that same kind. And then we would leave there, put that away until you got home, ‘cause you couldn’t eat it then. Then you’d walk home, everyone chatting about how good the movie was, what they thought about it.

Then we would have dinner at the Chinese restaurant. It was not a real store, it was someone’s living room that they had turned into a store. That’s what I remember. The restaurant was really a house. You go up these four steps, I think, to get to the door, and it was right inside, dressed in reds. It was kind of dark. And then they had… a couple tables were in there. Very friendly. It was a neighborhood, very diverse in some ways, and people were friendly.

That was on Federal Street. Walk up from our house to Point Breeze – that’s the shopping area. It was about three blocks long. And the further out you got as you got to the end of the busy part of the shopping area, then it became more like a neighborhood. There weren’t too many stores. Don’t forget, the shopping areas are where everyone went for their groceries and everything. Foods were sat in a bushel basket out in front of the shops. That’s how things were. It was more of a farmers’ area. It was good. It was all run by Jewish people. There weren’t any Black stores then.

Do you remember what year it was when you went and saw that movie on the snow day?

That was – I’m going to take a guess at this – like I said, I was born in ’34, and I just remember looking up at my mom, holding her hand, and I was not at her knee level. I believe I had to have been about six or seven. So just add say seven years to the ’34, that would make it ’41. 1941.

You said you like thrillers, do you remember what movie you saw that day?

The one with Boris Karloff… oh I know! The horror movies that starred Boris Karloff, and the favorite one was The Mummy.

My grandmother went on to recount the entire plot of The Mummy. She remembered every minute detail, and went on for about ten minutes. She couldn’t recall how many times she had gone to see it. At some point along the way, she began to call Boris Karloff Bela Lugosi. He starred in some of her favorite thrillers as well. She said she would often go to the movies alone for the matinees because she could walk there alone. They would have them for children on the weekends.

She said there was only one theater, The Dixie Theater. She recalled being young in the downtown area, and her mother telling her where to walk, when to cross the street, when to go back. When she reached junior high school, she got a job at The Dixie. By this time, they had concessions inside the theater, and she would work at the counter. What she remembered most was how the hot dogs they served would sit there all day and get stale. She would never have eaten them. But when a little kid would come up – she was very insistent about this part – she would never give a child an old hot dog. They always got a fresh one, to make sure they enjoyed the movie.

Eventually, she and my grandfather would go on dates at The Dixie. They met when they were thirteen. He was there for our interview, listening quietly as she recollected.

“Oh here, you can talk to Grandpoppy too! Oh no, his mouth is full.”