1952 Manhattan, New York

Bernice Rock

Born in 1940

Manhattan, New York

Interviewed on September 15, 2019

by Jared Rock

I think I started watching movies when I was about 12 years old. Locally, I went to the movies almost every Saturday morning. I always went to the same movie house locally. It was called the Loew’s American and it was located in Parkchester in the Bronx. When I was in my early teens, like 12 or 13, I went with friends, and when I turned 16 I probably went with my boyfriend. We would walk to the theater because it was close enough to where we lived. My parents would give me the money to go see them. I would guess the tickets cost 25 cents, but I’m not sure. My parents were really liberal, never questioned me, and just wanted me to have a good time and fun.

Sometimes, for a birthday or another special occasion, we would go to Radio City in Manhattan to watch a movie. I seldom went to Radio City, but went a lot for a 12 year old. It depended on the weather, too. We never went in the wintertime, but maybe went two or three times in the spring. When we went to Radio City, we were all dressed appropriately—no jeans, no sneakers, no flip flops, no tank tops. We looked respectable, like we could go to the best stores and the best restaurants, and we even wore a little makeup. *laughs*

At that time, movies were very different from today. In those days, there wasn’t so much shooting and fighting, wars, science-fiction, and all of that. We looked to go to a family movie that was really entertaining. When we went to the local theater, we saw cartoons, two movies, and sometimes, a few years later, we saw newsreels which were more like current events. But when we went to Radio City, we saw one movie and a stage show, although they’d keep alternating that stage show and movie throughout the day. Sometimes the stage show was The Rockettes, the dancers that danced in unison. That was really marvelous to see.

The first movie I ever saw was Singin’ in the Rain at Radio City, and to this day, those words stick in my mind and the minds of my friends—and let me tell you, we are all elderly seniors. *Singing the following:*

“I’m singin’ in the rain,

Just singin’ in the rain,

What a glorious feeling

I’m happy again.

I’m laughin’ at clouds,

So dark up above,

The sun’s in my heart

And I’m ready for love.”

That was a romance movie! It was probably one of the best musicals we ever saw. I would estimate I was 12 years old when I went to see it. It was the 50s. I would imagine it was in the spring, although I can’t say for sure. I went with one friend who became my sister-in-law, and another very close friend who is not with us any longer. We took a subway to the theater and at that time it was safe for young people to go alone on the subway. We probably could’ve seen the movie years later when it came to the local theater, but we really wanted to see Radio City because that was the most famous music theater, probably in the entire world. We just picked a day, asked our parents, they gave us money, and away we went. Times were real easy.

The movie starred Gene Kelly, whose character was a singer and dancer. In the film, the characters have to recreate a movie, turning it into a musical, but one of the actresses doesn’t really have a great voice, so they dub in Debbie Reynolds’ character, who is a young actress at the time with a gorgeous voice. In the movie Gene Kelly becomes so enamored with her and he is so in love with her that he goes singing in the rain! He is bouncing in the puddles, and after he finishes his song, out comes a group of dancers to dance behind him and sing. This scene left us in absolute awe. There are things that you may not remember a lot, but there are things that you just don’t forget. I don’t remember every detail of the plot, but I remember how the movie swept me and my friends out of our seats and into those puddles with Gene Kelly. Even though we weren’t familiar with the songs yet, we wanted to sing in the audience. In those days, we were good singers. We all belonged to glee clubs in school. Gene Kelly was so talented, and Debbie Reynolds after that had a big career in movies. She was adorable, talented, and everybody loved her.

It was memorable—the movie and the songs in the movie. I can’t say I loved all of the songs, because I couldn’t even name most of them. The only song I could really sing is “Singin’ in the Rain,” because we sang it all our growing up years, teenage years, 20s, 30s, 50s. We all came out from the movie happy. We probably all came out walking through the streets to go to lunch singing the songs. It made me want to see more movies, that is for sure, and to this day I am a moviegoer. I still go every Saturday.

Radio City was grandiose. It was huge. Don’t forget, I’m a young girl, and I’m sitting in probably the biggest theater I’ve ever sat in in my life. I’m not talking about a stadium. I’m talking about an extravaganza… a gorgeous movie theater with roomy maroon velvet chairs. At Radio City you were not squished in. At some theaters in New York there’s no leg room, the seats are tight, and if you’re overweight it’s hard to sit. But don’t forget, I was very young, so as three skinny girls we never had trouble. The crowd at Radio City was always packed. I’ve been there many times, even over the years, and there were always big lines to go to Radio City. I think that’s why it lasted so well, even when the economy got bad and times got bad and other theaters closed.

I’m sure there was a concession at Radio City, but we never bought anything at the concessions. When I was a little older we maybe would buy a bag of popcorn, but normally we did not. If I remember correctly, we brought food from home because we only had money for lunch. We liked licorice, the red long licorice, and we liked Good & Plenty and M&M’s. Sometimes I would bring one kind, my friend would bring another, and we would share.

There were ushers at the theater and we were three young girls running around. We ran into the theater to the front to get the best seats for the stage show, and then we ran to the back to be able to get a good view of the movie. Then after the movie? Oh well, here we go! Back to the front for another stage show, and then back to the back for another movie. We were full of the devil, and nobody ever said you can’t do that. Nobody ever said stop. After watching the movie for the second time we were off to Horn & Hardart’s for lunch. That became a standard because our parents weren’t with us and we could choose what we wanted to eat even if it wasn’t healthy. It was the time of our lives.

Compared to going to the movies back then, going to the movies now is like travelling first class on an airplane as opposed to coach. We now have theaters that have leather recliners. You get a blanket, you get a pillow, you get all the popcorn you could eat, and you get all the water you could drink. It is a totally, totally different experience, and with age, I have grown to love the luxury of this kind of situation. Also, years ago there were lots of little children at the movies. Today there are a lot of movies special for little children. The theaters have made a big, big turnaround.