1953 Spanish Town, Jamaica

Junie Mull
Born in 1941
Spanish Town, Jamaica
Interviewed on September 17, 2019
by Rushea Bartley

I remember seeing The Ten Commandments, I think that was the first movie I saw in theaters. I am not so sure if that was the first movie because I was about 11 years old. But, I cannot remember seeing a movie before this one but I saw The Robe around that time as well. This was in Jamaica and my older sister used to take me to the movies. The tickets cost about 11 pence and we sat in an open-air theater where they set up wooden pews and there was a stage with curtains. However, there was always a good crowd in the theater. I don’t know how they got the projector to work, but maybe the theater had someone working it. We could hear the movie well and the colors were amazing in The Ten Commandments and The Robe.

The Ten Commandments is the story of the bible with Moses but I cannot remember the names of any of the actors. I remember how the people were dressed in those days, they had on robes and they were sometimes dressed like pharaohs. I remember how Moses got angry because the people would not listen to what he wanted to say. I remember God speaking during the movie as well. The movie was realistic and very moving.

My mother never came with us to the movies, but she realized that whenever my sister wanted to stay over, we would go to the movies. When I used to go to Sunday School, I didn’t take off the clothes I wore and mama figured that my sister was going to take me to the movies.

The Robe was about Jesus’ robe after he was crucified. People had to be very careful talking about Christianity. I only remember the name of one actor, Victor Mature, and he played Demetrius.  Demetrius had to meet with the emperor so that he could see why people were scared of Jesus’ robe. But when he asked to see it, he was too scared to touch it. That part of the movie really stuck out to me because of the acting.

My sister is three years older than me and she lived in another town with our aunt while I was living with our mother. But, she loved to stay over because we could go to the movies. This was usually when it rained or when my mother permitted her to stay at our house in Spanish Town. This was the only time we would go to the movies. She was the only person I would go with. We would walk 15 minutes to the theater but the theater was not big like the ones here, they were more primitive with a screen made out of a cloth material. I don’t remember having candy or food at the movies. We would just go to the movies then go home. The name of the theater was Astor Theater and we just paid your money and walked to your seats. There were no ushers.

It wasn’t until we moved to the capital, Kingston, that we were able to experience an indoor theater with candy and food. The candies were a treat. This was when I was a teenager and I used to bring my younger sister to see movies like The Sound of Music. I loved watching the children escape and I loved the music and the plot. I was so lost in the story.

When I was about fourteen years old. the first TV movie I watched was a series of movies called Lost in Space. These were my very favorite. It was about these children who were lost in space and the different adventures they had. They also had a robot that would repeat “Does not compute. Does not compute.” I cannot remember the exact plot of the movie or the characters because it was so long ago but this show had a lot of meaningful lessons for children.