1942 Shelbyville, Tennessee

Willa Parker Thomasson
Born 1934
First movie memories in Shelbyville, Tennessee, populations 6,537
Interviewed on 1/12/17
by Camille Thomasson

The first movie I can remember was a western. I went with three neighborhood kids – three of
us – in the summer. I bet I was eight. We walked downtown. The theater was in the town
square. That was in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

I liked to go the movies. I went with my friends. We’d walk past the cemetery, then past
the Baptist Church and then past the First Christian Church. I liked the summer Bible school at
First Christian. We got to carve soap bars to make the town of Bethlehem.

There were two movie theaters in Shelbyville in 1942. We saw the westerns in the not-so nice
theater. Still, it had velvet seats. They’d show a short serial before the western. Those serials had bad people in them. The bad people would be throwing someone over a cliff or down a well. Or entombing somebody. That kind of thing. So you were left in suspense if the good people were going to live. Those would go on for nine or ten weeks like that.

I saw Hopalong Cassidy. He had a big black hat. He rode a white horse. I would see Gene Autry,
The Singing Cowboy. Roy Rogers had a girlfriend. They would sing and have adventures
together. Those were Saturday afternoon matinees.

My Daddy smoked, my uncles smoked. I didn’t know any man who didn’t smoke. It was a part
of my life, so smoking in the theater was just the way life was.

There were newsreels. Those were war years. But maybe those newsreels were for night time
movies. I’m not sure. I can’t remember.

Mother made all my clothes. Mother made me a red dress with white stars. I loved that dress. I
wore that dress to the movies. I carried my movie money in a handkerchief. Mother or Daddy
would tie it up in the corner so I wouldn’t lose it. Two dimes. The movie cost ten cents. I never
bought candy at the concession. I was saving my money for the dime store after.

That theater was filled up with kids. And they’d scream out when something bad happened. I
didn’t buy the candy, but I remember how it smelled. Like coconut. Pink, black and white.

After the matinee, I’d go to the dime store to buy something made out of paper, something I
could write on. I had a make-believe grocery store under the eaves of our house. Old cans,
empty boxes. And we’d keep a pretend ledger as kids bought those things with pretend money –
or on credit.

Then I’d go in and tell Mama about the movie as she made supper.