1945 Baltimore, Maryland 1

Dolores Besche

1927

Baltimore Maryland

Interviewed on January 28, 2019

by John Besche

You would go to movies on Saturday afternoons. I lived on Preston St in Baltimore. The theater was only two or three blocks away. These were called kid movies since we were only ten years old or so. I was an only child so I think my parents would send me out with the neighborhood kids to get out of the house. I’d go with my German friend Janice to the 2:00 matinees. Movies were a nickel!

To tell you the truth I don’t remember a thing about what movies I saw. Usually, these were cowboy movies if I’m remembering right. I remember more from the 40’s. That’s when I was in high school. I used to go to the State theater for dates. They had an organ and a bowling theater in the basement. They had entertainment before the movie. They’d get the organ and vaudeville. Sometimes, the people would be famous. Frank Sinatra before he was famous would go around these kinds of theaters. I’m sure lots of people got their start like that. 

Now you’ve got me thinking about my social life. Bowling was for the weeknights, movies were on the weekends. All the boys used to meet at the confectionery store where they sold candies and cigarettes. Then we’d go bowling. I never got snacks at the movie itself I don’t think. I was dating a boy named Don and we’d go to the movies every Saturday at the Hippodrome. It’s not a theater anymore but it’s still there. We’d have to take a streetcar to get there and it was a Saturday night date, and he’d pay!

I saw quite a few Joan Crawfords and definitely all of the Mickey Rooneys. I’ll never forget Mildred Pierce. I think that’s the first movie I remember seeing by name. It got me hooked on murder mystery—film noir and what not. I think I probably saw it twice. She won the Academy Award for that film, Joan Crawford did. 

My mother went to the movies every week and every time they’d go, she’d get a dish. Each time you went, you bought a dish. I still have dishes from my mother that she got from going to the movies. They’re the pink ones your Aunt Cindy keeps sitting on a shelf somewhere or another.

The movies then started with newsreels and updates from the war for about ten minutes before the movie. Then we’d have the cartoons, then you’d get the movie. I don’t remember my parents getting the newspaper so as far as I can recall, that’s how I’d hear about the war. That and the radio I suppose. After the war I don’t remember there being entertainment before the movies. Of course nowadays the movies aren’t anything like they used to be, and they cost a h*ll of a lot more than a nickel!

Mildred Pierce and Baltimore’s State Theater