1945 New York, New York

Priscilla (and Art) Ulene

Born in 1939 (and 1936)

New York, New York

Interviewed on 18 Jan 2025

By Clay Skaggs

Clay Skaggs: What is the first movie you remember seeing?

Priscilla Ulene: The first movie I remember seeing was a movie called The Dolly Sisters.

Clay Skaggs: How old were you?

Priscilla Ulene: I think I was about six or seven.

Clay Skaggs: What do you remember about the movie?

Priscilla Ulene: It’s about these twin Hungarian girls who are brought to the United States, and they kind of become cabaret singers. They’re the Dolly Sisters. They start performing in cabaret, and it was Betty Grable and June Haver. That I would definitely remember.

Clay Skaggs: What did you think of the character(s), actor(s), story?

Priscilla Ulene: Well, Betty Grable was very famous. She was… She was known for her gorgeous legs. And they played twins in The Dolly Sisters. I guess they made them look alike. I don’t remember any of that. And… Betty Grable married a very famous orchestra leader named Harry James. I remember that. And I just remember it’s a musical, and I loved it.

Clay Skaggs: Do you remember who you saw the movie with?

Priscilla Ulene: I can’t remember.

Clay Skaggs: Do you remember the theater you saw it in?

Priscilla Ulene: No, I don’t. It may have been in New York when I was a little girl. I don’t know if it was in New York or in Los Angeles. I think it must have been New York.

Clay Skaggs: Do you remember the theater you went to in New York or Los Angeles?

Priscilla Ulene: Not when I was that young. There was another one that I saw called Meet Me in St. Louis, and that had Judy Garland in it.

Clay Skaggs: Oh. Did you like Judy Garland?

Priscilla Ulene: Yeah. Yeah, that was singing and dancing. I think there was a song called “The Trolley Song.”

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell…

Clay Skaggs: That’s amazing. Well, do you remember if the theaters looked any different than they do now?

Priscilla Ulene: I didn’t go to the movies very often. I don’t remember the inside of the theaters.

Clay Skaggs: Okay, well, thank you so muc,h grandma. Papa, you don’t remember movies from childhood, but you do remember a lot about the theater, correct?

Art Ulene: Yes, I actually can remember three theaters that were really important to us. The theater I remember in Burlington, Vermont is the Flynn Theater. I could actually tell you exactly where it is. I can remember what the marquee looked like.

Art Ulene: So that’s quite different. It was a community event. If you saw a cowboy movie—you know, cowboys and Indians, they used to have those all the time—people would scream and shout. You’d take sides, okay? I mean, it was just a very active social event.

As a child, at 10 years old, you felt pretty grown up being able to go, even though it was only a Saturday matinee. So that played an important role.

We moved to Los Angeles in 1947 to a new community that was just being built—Westchester, out near the airport. Except in those days, there was a little tract of homes here, and then there’d be a few blocks with nothing, and then another tract of homes there.

The movie theater was three-quarters of a mile from my house. At the age of 12, we were allowed to ride our bikes to the movies, and we went to the Loyola Theater, which was this very classic, beautifully… really a beautiful theater.

Purple drapes. They would actually raise the drapes before the news came on. And there’d be a newsreel, and then they’d lower the drapes. And then they’d raise it again for the previews of upcoming attractions. And then they’d lower the drapes, and there would be music, and then they’d raise the drapes again and pull them open, and they’d start projecting the movie on the screen.

It was a big deal to go to a movie. And again, it was a social event. As a kid, you felt very privileged to be able to go. And the adults went, and it was a community event.

Then, about three, four, or five years later, another theater opened in Westchester called the Paradise. That was a much more modern theater in terms of its architecture. But the rituals were still the same.

It wasn’t like television, where, you know, there’d be a commercial, and then the movie would start, and then they’d interrupt it. I mean, you saw it from beginning to end.

By the way, television started shortly thereafter. In 1947 or 1948, the first little TV sets, eight inches square, came. And we would stand in front of people’s houses—people who had TV sets (there weren’t many)—and they would leave their blinds open so the neighbors could come in and watch TV through the window.
All right. It was a different world. The excitement was all about the technology. But with movies, you immerse yourself in the drama.

I mean, literally, you know, when the gunfire started, you jumped out of your seats and shouted and yelled. It’s so very different than what you’d see today.

Clay Skaggs: Were there concessions back then?

Art Ulene: Oh, my goodness, yes. One of the big deals was if I got an extra quarter, I could get popcorn and a hot dog. They cooked hot dogs there. They grilled them on this rotating grill. There was popcorn, and a big machine popped it. There were cold drinks there, yeah. They made a lot of their profit on the food they sold.

Clay Skaggs: Do you remember any of the candies they sold there?

Art Ulene: Yes, I do. I remember Jujubes—I don’t think they exist anymore. J-u-j-u-b-e-s. And Good & Plentys. And gumdrops. Those are the candies I remember, and I still remember them. To this day, I still love Good & Plentys.

I interviewed my grandmother, born in 1939, and my grandfather, born in 1936. I included both of them for two reasons. One, they were together when I called, and I didn’t want one of them to feel left out. Secondly, my grandmother remembered a lot of specifics about movies but nothing about theaters. My grandfather, on the other hand, only remembered things about theaters.