1947 Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mary Denoncour

1941

Minneapolis, MN

2/2/2023

By Grace Vojta

I was almost six years old when I saw my first movie. We had just moved to Minneapolis and were staying in a hotel for about six weeks or so. We wanted to get out, so my sister, my mother, and myself went to the theater together. It was about six big blocks away, which was a bit too far to walk in Minneapolis in the winter even though we were downtown. So, my father drove us.

It was my first time in a movie theater, and it was dark of course. We sat maybe in the middle and maybe towards the back end a bit. We didn’t get snacks or anything. I didn’t know they had snacks in movie theaters back in those days.

It was about 1947 that we went – definitely before 1950. I remember the movie was called The Song of the South. The movie was based on stories by some author which were popular back then about Uncle Remus. You can look up who the author was.

Like I said, it was dark. The screen was huge so the whole thing was overwhelming. It was bright, loud, and all in color. The theater was busy but not too full. It was about ½ or ¾ full.

I remember the plot made me feel very sad. There were a couple of funny parts, too, but overall I felt very sad for the slaves in this film. It was the first time that I had ever thought about the issue of race. I remember the children in the film were very drawn to Uncle Remus and he would talk to them about issues I had never heard of before.

There were also stories about characters called Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear. Have you heard of those characters before? I think there were some bees in the film, too.

Uncle Remus would tell a bunch of stories about the animals and about a plantation. I don’t remember word-for-word Uncle Remus said to the children. When I saw the film, I didn’t think that someone was going to ask me 75 years later what the film was about and what the theater was like. Otherwise, I would have taken notes. But, I do remember he talked to the children all gently.

He was also kind of a narrator in the film. Everyone in the theater was drawn to him. He would take the audience through different stories of life in the south. I think nowadays the movie is seen negatively for racial stereotypes. However, it was also one of the only movies at the time talking about race and promoting empathy. We all fell in love with Uncle Remus and felt a huge amount of empathy when he told stories. I was more drawn to him as opposed to the other characters.

I feel like the children were supposed to be appealing to me as well. But, to be honest I don’t remember them at all [laughs]. I do remember Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear. They got into all sorts of trouble and were a bit dumb. Oh, that’s how I remember the bees! They attacked Br’er Bear. Oh, and the Fox would always try to eat the Rabbit which made me scared. He never actually ate him, thought.

Let me think, what else? Oh, everybody knows that one song from The Song of the South. The one that goes, “zip-a-dee-doo-dah-zip-a-dee-day my oh my what a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine headed my way, my oh my what a wonderful day!”

I remember crying in the film several times, too. I just couldn’t believe that people were treated like that. It’s funny because I think the movie was supposed to be more “happy” and “funny”.

But, the thing that stuck with me the most was the treatment of slaves in the south. I couldn’t believe that people had such power over other people. I was only five-and-a-half, so no one had ever talked about it with me before. I did not fully understand what was going on. There were no real-world times I had seen black and white people interact. Segregation was still very much part of life. Also, overall, there was little conversation about the history of slavery.

In the movie, there were birds and butterflies singing. It was definitely meant to be a cheery comedy. But, by far the most memorable parts even seventy-five years later were the parts about slavery in the plantation south.