1946 Paramaribo, Suriname

Frans Olmtak
Born 1936
First Movie Memory in Paramaribo, Suriname
Interviewed on January 21, 2019
By Kristen Gomez

I will never forget my first movie! I saw Son of Lassie! It was about WWII… a classic, really. This was around 72 years ago, so that would have made me about 10 years old. Since I was living on a farm, it was such a special treat to be allowed to stay overnight with my grandmother who lived in the town where the theater was located and then to also go see a movie for the first time. Remember, there was no television in the country, much less on the farms themselves. For me, it was a special day, so I wore my best clothes – the clothes I would wear to a formal family event.

I had been wanting to see a movie – any movie, really – for a long time. Every week, “new” movies were released, but these were in fact very old movies. It may have taken close to a year before a new movie actually made it all the way to us… to Suriname. The most popular movies shown were Westerns… Cowboy Movies, as they were called. Other popular showings were what we called “Series.” Gangster movies with a lot of fist fights. With me being a child, my parents did not want me going to these types of films, but finally, when Son of Lassie was released – an appropriate for kids film – I was allowed to go to a movie.

After getting to my grandma’s house, my father’s good friend called Paul Sie A Foeng picked me up on his bicycle. He was enamored with my older sister at the time, so sometimes, I think his offer to take me to the theater might have been to impress her. We rode Paul’s bicycle to Luxor, the theater, with me on the back.

It was a thirty minute ride from the house to the theater on a road that was unpaved and had many, many potholes. Almost everyone arrived to the theater on a bicycle – the main means of transportation in those days. Some came by foot. Few people privately owned cars, and there were no bus or taxi services either. At the theater, they had special stalls for bicycle parking off to the side. Mostly, bikes were just piled up and, understandably, this caused chaos after the show was over. People would run to grab their bikes all at once. It was madness.

After throwing Paul’s bike in a pile, we saw snacks being sold outside. In those days, the theaters did not have concession stands, but on the pavement, street vendors sold mostly homemade roasted peanuts and potato chips. Some even sold locally bottled sodas, my favorite treat.

Waiting for the movie to start, I was full of excitement, but I also remember not being that comfortable. Even though this was the nicer of the two theaters in town, it had no air conditioning. The seats were wooden and not kept up well. On top of this, the theater was infested with rats which seemed to not bother anyone too much. It was normal to have rats running past your feet while watching a movie.

The screens were very small. Maybe twelve by eight feet if I had to guess. The sound quality was not great – nothing like the surround sound we have now. Regardless, I still loved it.

There were many trailers before the movie. I remember hearing from others that sometimes the previews themselves were just as long as the actual movie. Some of the trailers I saw were news shows that broadcasted Dutch affairs and the progress of the aftermath of the war.  

It was finally time. The movie began. The occasion was overwhelming. Being a ten-year-old boy in Suriname, I knew one language: Dutch. Back then, all movies were in English and did not have subtitles. I like to think that this contributed to a majority of the people in this Dutch country beginning to learn and understand English. In the movie, I understood none of the words. I do think, though, that because of this, I still have vivid memories of the sounds and pictures in the film.

I remember the music, the random sounds, and mostly the suspense caused by the combination of these two. Of course, being so young, I was fascinated with Lassie the dog who, to me, was the main character and even the hero of the movie. I found the entire story to be very interesting and suspenseful (at least from the music and sounds). Just being able to see actual action with the corresponding sound on a screen was fascinating since the closest I got to a movie, sadly, was eavesdropping when my father listened to BBC radio in the evening. There was never even music, just news about the war. So this experience is something that really stuck with me. The scenes I liked the most were of Lassie the dog and its heroic acts throughout the movie. Looking back, I think this may have also been because the dog didn’t speak English either.

Throughout the film, there were many stops in the actual projection because it was done manually. This just added to the suspense. Things were not quiet in the theater because of the chatter between moviegoers, the operators, and even between the audience and the movie. Comments were constantly being shouted. I found them hilarious. Instead of ushers, there were “inspectors” of sorts that walked through the theaters. They were not there to keep people quiet; they were there to make sure there were not unaccompanied children. Luckily, I had Paul.     

I enjoyed the movie so much that I wanted to go back and see the exact same one again a week later. Unfortunately, my parents did not allow this. It was a one-time event. And that’s what made it so special.