1947 Augusta Georgia

Bette Howard
1938
Augusta, Georgia
Interviewed on February 2, 2026
by Rebecca Schussheim

Rebecca: What’s the first movie you remember seeing?

Bette: About 80 years ago, Bambi was the first movie that I saw. I guess I was about 8 or 9, and I’m trying to think who I was with… I wasn’t with a friend at 8, so I must’ve been with my parents.

Rebecca: What do you remember about the movie? Were there any details about the characters or plot that especially stuck with you?

Bette: I do. And I’m trying to separate what I’m thinking now about it and what I felt then. I remember that it starts out with Bambi being born in the forest and all of the animals are singing and ready to welcome this new prince to the forest fold. And it’s animated; I think that’s almost near the beginning of Disney animation, so it was very new to me. There was no television — when I heard a story being told it was always on the radio. So animation was very comfortable for a young child. At any rate, there was a rabbit who was his friend named Thumper, and a little skunk, I’ve forgotten the name. But all of the animals were trying to teach the prince how to get along in the forest, and I related it to myself because Judy had just been born. And I thought, you know, she was mine and I had to take care of her. So I was learning how to introduce her to dangers and everything else, and I felt that I was learning to be a teacher for my little sister.

And then it goes on to talk about Man and the dangers to the animals in the forest. That was a little foreign to me. Although I knew people that went hunting, I never related it to myself or a character that I knew. Bambi’s mother gets killed by the hunters, so what stuck with me the whole time, even after that part of the movie, was “he has no mother, what would you do without a mother, how are you supposed to survive without a mother?” Ultimately his father, who is the prince of the forest, says your mother will no longer be with you. From then on, he’s under the care of his father. And yet, I remember through the whole thing thinking, “he doesn’t have a mother, he doesn’t have a mother!” It goes on to talk about springtime, Bambi grows up, he falls in love, and everybody is happy again, and I still couldn’t get over the fact — I remember leaving with a down feeling because of the lack of a mother.

When I think about it now, it’s all about recovery from loss, and friendship, but I remember the loss of the mother was overriding for me. It’s an interesting story within a very childlike setting. I guess it was meant to be protective and safe, and my parents were always concerned about age-appropriate material. Even though we didn’t have the internet or social media to contend with.

Rebecca: Do you remember if movies had ratings of any kind at that point? Or was that not yet in practice?

Bette: I think it was a little later when they started rating movies because I remember when I was about 12 or 13, my friend and I wanted to go to a movie and my mother said “that’s for adults only.” Of course that made us want to see it even more. But Disney was always child-oriented at the beginning, so I think they felt that Disney was safe.

Rebecca: Did you see a lot of other Disney movies growing up, after Bambi?

Bette: We didn’t go to the movies a lot. I remember when I was older I was in Baltimore staying with my aunt, uncle, and cousins and I think I saw Fantasia there. I don’t remember Fantasia too well, I know it was animated and I remember the music being classical. That’s the other main movie experience I recall. It was nice to go to a movie in a big city.

Rebecca: When you saw Bambi, was that in Augusta?

Bette: Yes, Augusta.

Rebecca: And do you remember the name of the theatre? Was there only one movie theatre in Augusta?

Bette: Well there were two theaters. I don’t remember the name of the theatre I saw Bambi in, but I know the other theatre in town was The Imperial. It wasn’t the Imperial.

Rebecca: Okay, I’ll do some searching. Do you remember if the theatre had concessions, was there a favorite candy you would get?

Bette: We always got popcorn. Always. I don’t know if the candy counters had much more than that. There were maybe Hershey bars, but mostly popcorn and Coke because Coca-Cola was a Georgia business at that point. They even had Coke machines in the lunchrooms in the schools can you imagine hah!

Rebecca: And do you remember how you got to the theatre? Would you drive there?

Bette: We would drive. It was close enough to walk and we would walk sometimes. At the time movies were just another world. Think about it, no television at that point, for us at least in the mid ’40s. So getting away to the movies was a very exciting thing. My parents used to go to movies at night with other couples, though it wasn’t considered appropriate for us, and some of the showings on Saturdays would be Talent Reviews at the local theatre. And after the Talent Reviews there were comedies like Bugs Bunny.

Rebecca: Well thank you so much Nana! This was very informative, very lovely to hear about. Is there anything else you wanted to add?

Bette: It made me think back! I just remembered, there was one line that Thumper, the rabbit friend of Bambi says and I remember thinking this was so brilliant. He says, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say nothin’ at all!” I thought that was the greatest lesson of all!

Rebecca: Oh wow, I’ve heard that one, I wonder if that expression started with Bambi!

Bette: It’d be interesting to look up.

Rebecca: It’s definitely very wise advice. Thank you again, Nana.

This interview was conducted with Bette Howard, my maternal grandmother. We both greatly enjoyed this conversation! After some research, the theatre she likely attended was The Miller Theatre (pictured above), a theatre and vaudeville house in Augusta. The theatre closed in the 1980s but reopened as of January, 2018.

After the interview, I received this text:

Bette: Forgot to tell you another way our family enjoyed movies… the drive-in. We would go early to get a good parking spot in front of a gigantic screen. My mother would make sandwiches and snacks for the evening and we had a picnic in the car before and during the movie. Perfect!

Rebecca: Such nice memories! I’ll make sure to include this.