1953 New Haven, Connecticut 2

Patricia McCormick
Born 1947
New Haven, Connecticut
Interviewed on 1/24/19
by Brice Bai

The first movie whose name I remember was Disney’s Fantasia. I can’t remember the name of the very first movie I saw, but I do know that it was a western—I remember the cavalry, dead soldiers, and dead Indians. What really made an impression on me was the question of the dead people. Where did the people die? Did they put them in prison? I thought they were really dead. How did people get chosen to die? I don’t remember much about the movie’s storyline. I just remember the parts after the battle scene. I was very worried and concerned about all the dead people.

I think I was six years old, so the year must have been 1953. It was in New Haven—I was born and raised in New Haven and didn’t move until I graduated high school. Then I lived 20 years in East Haven and another 20 years in West Haven. The theater was either the Roger Sherman Theater or Loew’s Poli Theater on Church Street. There were ushers who wore these special uniforms and hats. I think they were there until the 1960s.

I went to see this movie with my parents and little brother. We went in own car, a Packard. My brother was born in 1960, so he would have been around three. The theater mostly had adults watching this film. Saturday afternoons were the time when the high school kids and older grammar school kids came. After Sunday dinner, it was almost tradition to send the kids to the movies.

I did used to buy candy from the concessions, but I have learned better over the years. I loved Jujubes. J-U-J-U-B-E-E-S, I think. They were these hard little things, and as you sucked on them, they would soften and get stuck in your teeth. A dentist’s nightmare.

I would go to the movies more often in the summertime. We would go to drive-in theaters. My parents liked it because my brother and I could be in our pajamas, and if one of us fell asleep, we’d just drive back home. My mother would provide the snacks. I remember going quite often in 1953, ‘54, ‘55, and ‘56. Six times in the course of the summer. It was a way to get out of the city, the house, the heat.

I remember one movie we saw as a family a couple years later. It was set in South America. There was an invading of ants. To this day, I cannot tolerate ants. It frightened me. People were being overrun and eaten by ants. I had such an impressionable young mind.

I’ve always loved the movies, especially the actors and actresses. I don’t follow their personal lives—I don’t care about their personal lives. There were particular ones that were my favorite though. Like Humphrey Bogart movies. Some of my favorite movies from him were To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, The Petrified Forest, The Maltese Falcon. I was in high school when I first saw one of his movies, but I think I first saw him in late night television. I also liked Elizabeth Taylor movies: Cleopatra, BUtterfield 8. I think another movie was Suddenly, Last Summer.

Movies made such an incredible impression on me as a young person.