1943 Erie, Pennsylvania

Ed Hughes
1937

Erie Pennsylvania
Interviewed on 1/26/18

by Evan Hughes

The first movie that I saw was Lassie Come Home in 1943. I was five or six years old. It was such a sad movie, for the most part. Lassie ran away, and then had to fight her long way home. It was a real tearjerker. You remember things like that, even all these years later. The sadness stays in your memories. I’ve seen the movie since, but I still remember that first time.

It was at the Warner Theater. This was the most beautiful theatre in the city. You would go into it and they had long drapes and beautiful carpeting, and they had two floors and special boxes up around, like the boxes that Lincoln would’ve sat in. They had beautiful curtains that would open up for the movie. We had ushers that would take you to a seat, with flashlights to show you the way. When the movie was about to start, the long curtains would open very slowly. Such a beautiful theater.

This was in Erie Pennsylvania. I haven’t been back for quite a while, and haven’t looked at the theater. I think it has been has been restored for special events—it’s not a movie theater anymore; it’s more for concerts and things like that.

I got a quarter to go to the movie and ten cents that I would use for candy. I don’t remember what candy I got my first time.   For other movies I saw, I would get Good and Plenty’s, Juicy Fruits. Those were for 5 cents. Or you could get the fancy candies: Mounds or Almond joy—they were ten cents. Popcorn was cheap too—not like today.

I went on a Sunday, still wearing my suit from church. Up until I was 14, we would go to movies almost every Sunday, always in our church clothes.   I often went with my friend who was a few years older than me (so he could look out for me, I guess). Back then, we had five theaters in Erie. Each would have an area where they put up black and white pictures of the stars and some scenes in the movies. My friend and I would walk back and forth between all of the theaters to see which had the most exciting movie.

That first time, though, I went with my aunt (my birth mother had died when I was two—so my aunt and uncle raised me). I don’t remember her taking me, but I know that she would’ve been the one to take me because when I went with my friend, we always chose cowboy movies. The two of us also didn’t like movies with girls then, because they had less action, and Lassie Come Home had a young actress: Elizabeth Taylor. My aunt would bring me along to the movies she wanted to see, and they would be Lassie movies or one with some other actor that she liked (usually Irish).

My aunt and I had to take the bus because this was during the war. They had restrictions and rationing of gasoline and tires and things like that. So, like most Americans, the bus was our main mode of transportation and how we got to the movies.

That movie was so scary and sad. The end was okay, but it took a long time to get there. If it hadn’t been from those emotions, I might not have remembered so well. Clearly, it had a lasting impression on me.

A few years later, a stray dog—a collie—followed me home (my mother always said I was dragging her home). In Erie, we had an area where people dropped off dogs (some of them even became wild).  I had a paper route, so while I was collecting, I would pass this area.  I was running through the area, and this dog came up and jumped up on me.  She did follow me home, and I knew right away that I would name her Lassie.