1949 Ossining, New York
Carol Buchdahl
Born 1949
Ossining, New York
Interviewed on February 7, 2024
By Matt Kim
The first time I went to the theater, I remember being with my grandmother. When we walked down the aisle and approached a seat, she would say, “No, no, no… when you sit in the theater, you always sit in the row that’s one beyond the end of the balcony. The air is much better.” For some reason, that stuck with me, and I do it all the time. I grew up in Ossining, New York. Up the hill on Main Street, the theater we would go to was called the Victoria Theater. I can’t pinpoint the exact film that I watched in the theater… it could have been Mary Poppins or Peter Pan. But what I do remember vividly is that you would get very dressed up. You’d put on your best dress, and it was considered a big deal. There weren’t many movies that would come out, so when we would go, it was a big deal. I don’t recall going to many movies when I was very young, but we began to frequent the theater when we were teenagers. Everyone drove. We were out in the country, so we were just dying to get our license at age 16. Back then, we had these big, clunky cars. I graduated high school in 1967, and there wasn’t necessarily a movie culture where I lived because we were in a rural town.
My favorite film forever is Gone With the Wind. I would see that film every week if I could, but it’s three hours long. Remember, we didn’t have a colored TV until the 80’s. The novelty of the color in Gone With the Wind with Scarlet O’Hara. Isn’t it magnificent? And have you seen the Carol Burnett spoof on it? Carol Burnett came down these stairs wearing the curtain rod. It was hilarious. When I went to see it, I believe they had a little orchestra in the front. And you were absolutely spellbound, and then, there was a commercial in the middle. But it was just such a beautifully done movie. I can remember all the lines. It was just fabulous. This was a little theater maybe in New York City. It may have been just for a special New York showing.
Once I moved to Chicago when I was married, the Ingmar Bergman films took over. And we just saw every single film. We would go to Clark Theater and see whatever was playing at the time a couple of times a week. We saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was Paul Newman and Robert Redford playing outlaws getting away with everything. It was funny and brilliantly done. I also remember the comedies that came out that were always kind of slapsticky. Sometimes you don’t remember what happened yesterday but you will always remember films like Gone With the Wind. I always associate popcorn with the movies. Going in, I always say let’s not buy popcorn, but the next thing you know, I’m standing in line buying popcorn. I can’t see a movie without it. And my husband would always get Sour Patch Kids.
I want to tell you a funny story… We went to go see The Silence of the Lambs with my parent who, at the time, were very old. And we were so rural. They came up to Vermont, and they never go to the movies. But there’s this one movie that’s a farming film that they might like. I get a babysitter. Little did we know… we never even talked about it. It was dead silence in the car ride home. Wow, that wasn’t a good film choice. We were in the middle of nowhere in northern Vermont. It was horrific!
