1948 Detroit Michigan

Lin Shaye

Born 1943

Detroit, Michigan

Interviewed on January 31st, 2025

By Stellan Min

LS: I remember the very first movie I saw. 

It was called The Fuller Brush Man and it was a comedy with an actor named Red Skelton. This was literally the first film that I’d gone to. I went to the Varsity Theater with my mother. There were two theaters in Detroit that I remember. One was the Royal Theater and one was the Varsity. And the Varsity was not very far from our house.

I just remember the idea of being in the dark and then this light opening up in front of you that engulfed you, that took you in. It wasn’t like watching a small screen—you sort of felt surrounded, even though then the screens were very small compared to what they are now. Back then, it was a little small kind of postage stamp screen really. 

SM: What do you remember about the movie itself?  

LS: I don’t remember much about the movie. I just remember he was funny and we all loved Red Skelton. He played this really goofy guy with a hat. He had dimples. He was a very good looking guy, but he had a persona that was really silly and goofy and very broad. 

He had a variety TV show as well. Jackie Gleason had one, Ed Sullivan had one, and I believe Red Skelton had one as well, because it was just the beginning of the small screen. But there’s nothing like going to the movies: you’re in the dark and you don’t know what’s going to happen.

I still get that feeling, that early experience of anticipation. Nowadays, everything is so sophisticated with IMAX and this and that. I honestly don’t need all that to be entertained or to be included in story. I don’t need to have the bells and whistles so much as it being a good story.

There’s still something very special about being in the dark with other people, having an experience with other people, but it’s a totally solo experience in a certain way as well. The experience is very singular and very personal. But the other aspect of it is that there’s all these people who are still also having a very singular experience and then you’re having it all together at the same time. So it’s kind of this dual experience of being in a group, but also being alone.

SM: What details of the theater itself do you remember? 

LS:  There were ushers to take you to your seat. I just remember they wore little outfits. I just remember it was real simple. I believe we were sitting on the right side of the theater.  I vividly, almost viscerally, remember sitting in the seat in the dark and it smelling like candy.  I’m sure they had popcorn too. The tickets were probably like 95 cents a piece or something at that time.

SM: Did you have any favorite candy?

LS: Mounds bars. Almond joys and mounds bars were my favorite. And there was something— the jelly, the jujubes. And Good and Plenty! Oh, I love Good and Plenty. Licorice, licorice and sugar.  

SM: That’s all you need. 

LS: That’s all you need is right. 

It was definitely a social activity. It’s still special, except now it costs $40. It’s gotten to be such an expensive project, but there’s still the fun of going to the movies. I still think that whole thing with the candy counter and the rattling of things and everybody smelling different candies and sugars and everybody gets excited before it starts. That’s exactly the same I think.

SM: What sort of impression do you think the movie made on you? Did it play any role in sparking your love of acting and of movies? 

LS: Not really. For me, I think that acting was my way of entertaining myself. 

I never thought about being in the movies. I had no kids in my neighborhood—I was alone a little bit—and so the way I would entertain myself was I would make up stories and my dad always told me stories before I would go to sleep. He would tell me Candy Land stories.

The idea of storytelling was always kind of in my family, but I think it is for every kid, you know. I don’t think that’s unique. I think by nature, we make up stories.

I think there’s a part of me that’s an entertainer at heart, which I don’t quite understand. My early thing would be literally in my bedroom with all my stuffed animals. All my bears and my dogs and my sleepyhead. I had lots of dolls. You know, Betsy Wetsy dolls—they were really kind of clever: you would give them a bottle of water and squeeze them and they would make pee pee! And I would make voices for all the animals. I would have full blown storylines and all the animals had names and personas and it was a very rich world of my own imagination. So  I think I just saw the idea of going to the movies as people telling stories. 

SM: Thank you so much, Linda. I think that’s all the questions I have—do you have any last thoughts?

LS: The only thing I guess I would say again is that it [film] was an avenue of storytelling, but I never thought about being an actress. I think for me, I liked to pretend I was somebody else and I was good at it. I’m very good at pretending to be somebody else. And it still holds pretty true, I think. But it didn’t have to do with the actual vehicle of being on screen.

Seeing live theater is a whole different experience than going to see a movie. It just is. And one is much more private than the other. 

Going to see theater is very communal. Like the audience is like one piece, kind of. But going to see a movie is very private. Even if you’re with a lot of people.  That’s the way I see it. So, I enjoy making films. It’s a whole different experience also. That’s a whole ’nother discussion, of course. But the movie is made in the edit room—you really are only giving pieces.

SM: It’s really interesting your love of acting and your love for the movies didn’t connect until later on. 

LS:  Much later, yeah. I mean, I did theater all of when I lived in New York and was an early actor—I didn’t make a movie until well into my career. It was all theater. And I never really had the desire to do movies. Theater is still my…there’s nothing like theater. There’s nothing, nothing, nothing like live theater, both performing it and seeing it, in my opinion. Films are made by the editor and the director, not by the actors. Theater’s made by the actors. That’s my final answer!

Note: Linda is my maternal great aunt, and she has spent her career working as an actress in film and theater.