1954 Farmington, Connecticut

Suzie Sandberg

1943

Farmington, Connecticut

Interviewed on February 11th, 2021

By B Lindsay

The first movie I watched? I think it was a movie called Young Bess which was about Elizabeth when she was a young girl before she became queen Queen Elizabeth…actually there was one before that and I keep thinking it was called Scaramouche. That was one of the first movies I saw along with cartoons and a lot of original Walt Disney ones at home if that was considered a movie too. The Young Bess was a drive-in movie and the other one Scaramouche-if that was a correct name-was at a movie theater Farmington, Connecticut would have been 13 in 1954 or 55 something like that. I always remember my parents drove me to the movie because I was always with my parents. I don’t remember being dropped off with other friends or like the drive in you just drove there.

When I saw Scaramouche I drove to the theater with my mother. We went with another mother and daughter, so two mothers and two daughters; it was just a girls day out.  There were five or six movies with the same title and I saw the one with Stewart Granger. It was about 1700 or 1800 in France where there was dueling. I thought it was probably a romantic comedy, but what I remember was the sword fight. They would first get you in the one arm and then get you in the other arm and then get you in the stomach. I had nightmares about it, so my mother had to explain to me that it was just bags of red gel underneath and that they really weren’t killing the people. I remember the costumes were beautiful; it was the time frame of Louis XIV or something like that, so it was all big fancy dresses. So, that’s what I remember other than the sword in the shoulder and in the other arm. 

What I remember about Young Bess was it was a period piece as well and they had some very beautiful costumes; all the pretty dresses and such. I remember Elizabeth fell in love with her senior advisor. I think she loved him her whole life and it was unrequited
love, so I thought that was sweet as there was a love story and it was a sweet time. There was also a lot of political intrigue I think, but I don’t remember the plotline too much except for the beautiful costumes. I thought the acting in Young Bess was very great and very natural. The costumes, the acting, it was a great period piece. Young Bess was at drive-in theaters cause the whole family could go in one car together and watch.

When I went to the actual theater there were ushers. They would use the flashlights to usher you down the aisle. They wouldn’t let you in at certain times; you know they let you in at the start, but there were certain scenes that were active and they wouldn’t let you in cause you would disturb people. At the theater I would also get candy. My favorite was Milk Duds or…I liked Necco Wafers. That was my number two!