1944 Blacksburg, Virginia

Bernice Meredith Frith

Born in 1936

Blacksburg, Virginia

Interviewed on February 16, 2021

By John Patrick Frith Jr

I couldn’t go see movies very often, you know that we didn’t have gobs of money and tickets for 10 started to add up. I still got to see some movies growing up, and we usually watched them at The Lyric. Whenever we went to the movies, it was always on a Saturday, and usually in the evening. Saturday afternoons in Blacksburg were all about [Virginia] Tech football, so I wasn’t able to go see matinees often during the football season. The Lyric is actually still showing movies down on College Avenue! It wasn’t a very fancy theater, especially not like there are today. They didn’t have any huge neon signs, just a small marquee out front that showed the popular ones. The one thing everyone knew about Lyric was the masks. They had the tragedy and comedy masks right outside the entrance on the roof, and they were pretty big ones too! The seats weren’t particularly comfy, but they did have good snacks. I always loved the popcorn, and I think they started to carry Hot Tamales when I was younger, and those were my favorite. They were just spicy enough so that it had a little kick, but it wasn’t bad enough to need a glass of milk.

The first movie I think I can really remember going to see was called Going My Way. I would’ve been probably about 10 years old when it came out? I’m not sure, but it’s around there. I mainly just remember it because of the music, though. It’s hard to forget the performances of Bing, and when he did Silent Night I remember being just so frozen by the music. My mother loved Bing Crosby too, and so she made sure we got to go see it. It was also a kind of religious film, so that checked another box for my family.  Not everyone got to go see it, especially because some of my older sisters weren’t home a lot at that point. Probably about 5 of us went to go see it, and I remember that I quite liked it! Lordy lordy, did Bing have a beautiful voice, and I remember that his character was funny. He played a young priest, and he was coming into New York City to take the reigns from an older one. He got himself into all kinds of trouble and of course, he met a girl at one point, but it all worked out in the end and he moved on. Of course, Bing was the young priest in the movie, and Barry Fitzgerald played the older one about to retire. I don’t remember ever seeing ushers when I was there, but I do remember my friend Andy worked as an usher, so they must have had some.

Getting there was never a challenge. Blacksburg was a lot smaller back then, so you could walk or take a bike just about anywhere you wanted. The Lyric wasn’t too far away, it was maybe a 15-minute walk. That was a nice walk most of the time, but in the winter it was a pain to try and get around.  It was nice to walk with family and see what new things the school was building or what new restaurants were opening. I wish I remembered more about the movies themselves, but sometimes I guess just getting to go see them with your sisters or your parents was more memorable than what you saw. That theater actually closed down for a few years right after [my father] graduated college, and then they opened it back up as a more modern theater.