1947 Manhattan, New York

Mel Newman
1942
Manhattan, New York City
Interviewed on January 29, 2018
by Sam Feder

The first movie that made a very large impression on me is maybe not the first one I ever saw but it’s the first one that I think I traveled from the Bronx – where I lived – into Manhattan to see, and it was sort of like an occasion. I think I probably saw some things at the local theater, but they were standard cowboy shoot-em-ups on a Saturday when they would have a double feature, and I really don’t remember them very well. But the one I remember the most was with my sister in law (or future sister in law – I don’t remember which it was). I was around six years old. Took me downtown to Radio City Music Hall to see The Wizard of Oz. It was either Radio City Music Hall or The Roxy. One of the big theaters downtown . . . and that was the first one I remember seeing. It was very exciting.

 I remember the excitement of the experience of going downtown. That was a big deal. As I said – living in the Bronx and going into Manhattan was already like an adventure. I can’t say I remember much about the movie. There was another one I saw, probably around the same time, which may have preceded it, and that was when I went with my mother to one of the sort of large low cinemas in the Bronx to see Bing Crosby in Blue Skies. I remember the theme song . . . “blue skies headin’ my way” . . . and that one – I sort of remember the feel of that movie. It was musical, it was cheery . . . it was all that. I suspect I was probably a little afraid if The Wizard of Oz was my first one – it gets a little scary.

I remember he was sort of a very loosey-goosey type of character, Bing Crosby. His typical screen persona was a very devil-may-care thing. I do vaguely remember that, yes.

If it was the one downtown, it was either The Roxy or the Radio City, which at that point – right now they don’t show films – but in those days they did. Roxy doesn’t exist anymore, Radio City is now being used basically for live shows – they don’t show films there anymore. But it was enormous. Both of those theaters were very, very large theaters. There were like three movie palaces . . . probably more. But there was Radio City Music Hall – in Manhattan – Radio City Music Hall, The Paramount, and The Roxy. And whichever one it was, it was sort of like . . . a palace. The one in the Bronx when I went with my mother was a very large theater – it was, I remember, on Boston Post Road – and I think my memory of that one is possibly colored by the fact that I think we went in afterwards and had ice cream at . . . I believe it was a place called Eddy Valens. I think I had a hot fudge sundae. So the combination of that made for a very exciting day as well. But movies . . . even the ones in the local theater – the neighborhood theaters – were sort of adventures when you’re six, seven years old . . . and they were fun!

Both of those days were memorable and the movies . . . it was sort of magical . . . there was no TV at that time . . . this was pre-TV days. TV really . . . I don’t think we got our first TV until probably three, four years later – around 1950-ish. Movies were “it” for someone born in 1942 in their first five, six years. No other entertainment – visual entertainment – at that point.

The weather for Blue Skies, I remember, was a beautiful day. It was probably a spring day or a fall day. We were not usually in the city for the summer. My parents had a summer home. That we spent from mid-June to Labor Day or whatever. So it would have been either spring or fall, and I remember it being a nice pleasant day. That I do remember. The one for The Wizard of Oz was less . . . I have less memories on that. My guess is that we came down by subway. Which again, must have been an adventure for me at that time too – I rarely traveled on the subways, if ever. Maybe before that . . . I must have traveled on subways. Going from the Bronx to wherever – Radio City – would have been a subway ride. And it was part of the excitement and the adventure. As far as the weather, that I don’t remember.

The Wizard of Oz . . . I can’t say that I remember singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. I do remember that the song “Blue Skies” is one that I sang . . . it’s sort of a repetitive song in my brain for, I guess, the last seventy-odd years. So it obviously made an impression. The Wizard of Oz probably didn’t make the same impression until I saw it when I was older. It was the day. It was . . . heading with my soon to be or just had become sister in law and going into Manhattan was sort of at that time a unique adventure. We did not do that other than visiting my father’s . . . my grandfather, who lived on the lower east side. And that was basically a very boring regular trip that we used to do. I think we would go by car because once my father was involved – he had a car. And we drove. So the subway and Radio City was an adventure. The other one was a boring Sunday at my grandparents house. So it was a different experience, and I was younger then. My grandfather died I think when I was four. So this was a year or two after that. And it was sort of special in its own way. But I can’t say I really remember the movie from that go around. There were other movies that probably made more of an impression, but I was a little older. If you’re trying to go back to first ones – those were early ones, those two.

I believe after those when I was like seven . . . there were neighborhood theaters near where we lived in the Bronx. It was the Burke Theater which was on Burke Avenue and there was an elevated train line that went on the street that intersected Burke . . . that ran perpendicular to Burke . . . and it seemed liked a forever walk to get there, but if I went now it would probably be like a ten minute walk. But when you’re six or seven or eight everything seemed long. We also had a theater that was built . . . we had a summer house in orange county, New York – near Monroe, and near what is now Woodbury Commons, in Central Valley – and they built a theater that used to change the movies two to three times a week. And when I was growing up there . . . a little bit older – probably eight, nine years old . . . we used to see every movie. I spent summers there, I did not go to summer camp for most of those summers until I was about fourteen. So when the movie changed, we were down there. It was a walk from the house we had there. If they had three a week, we saw three a week. And it was fun! Literally it was a quarter to get in, and you’d buy some candy, and it was fun! It was exciting! And it was a way to do something different at night. In the summer we didn’t have cars that we could drive in ourselves . . . too young . . . this was our evening entertainment two or three nights a week. So I saw a lot of movies back then. If you ask me which ones – I have very little memory of particular movies. I remember a lot of . . . in Burke Avenue we had Saturday afternoon double features. So there were a lot of westerns, a lot of probably . . . Marx Brothers, or The Three Stooges . . . I think The Three Stooges were pretty popular back then. But we saw a lot of that.

I think for somebody born around when I was born, movies were exciting and it was . . . there was no TV, and the radio had its attractions but it was not visual attraction. But it was fun! And that was a big deal for kids in our day. Probably much more important . . . I think kids today are much more sophisticated, much more blasé about a lot of things that we did not take for granted. But anyway, time goes by and everyone has experiences . . . you’ll be telling your grandchild about your experiences when you saw your first whatever . . . computer game or something like that.