1954 New York, New York

Alice Herman

1948

New York City, New York

Interviewed on February 19th, 2021

By Audrey Yeung

The first movie I remember seeing was Snow White by Disney, which must be a classic. I was about six years old and went with my father. It was frightening and I cried when the witch poisoned Snow White. My dad used his big white handkerchief to wipe my face and nose. I was really blubbering, there’d be snot dripping everywhere down my face. My dad probably thought

 it was hilarious on the inside, but he did a good job of drying my tears out. My only strong memory of characters was the witch, she seemed so relentless and scary. The way they drew her face and her sinister-looking eyes gave me a real fright back then as a six year old. I also remember the poisoned apple, and how it was slowly dipped into the pot of poison by the evil queen. Everything else about the plot or movie is a bit lost on me, as I was very young, but I simply remember the evil look of the witch as she tried many ways to get rid of Snow White. I didn’t think much of the hunter, or the dwarves, or even the songs! The witch’s long, black robe was fearsome, the smoke that would always be around her, and the moment when she turned herself into the ugly witch were such scary scenes to me that I wanted to look away.

We walked to the theater venue, as it was located right in my neighborhood. It was a Loew’s theater, and very elaborate I thought at the time — like a palace with fancy velvet hangings and elegant restrooms even though it was just a theater in the neighborhood. Everything looked so high up, so I would look up every so often to look at all the elegance. There were ushers with flashlights to guide you to your seats. At the time I thought they were very authoritarian and they scared me. They were scary looking men to me trying to order us where to go, so that’s why it might have been frightening at the time.

The theater was in Manhattan, NY at 175th St. If I was six, it must have been in 1954. I was born in 1948. I think it also got shut down sometime before 1970, but I was already gone by then. The streets would have a lot of people walking everywhere and I was small, so I don’t think I noticed the outside of the theater too much. I just remember the marvelousness of the inside of the theater, but again, it was just a theater in my neighborhood to me at the time. Then again, it would be a wonderful place to visit time and time again as I grew up with family and friends.

There was a concession stand but we never made purchases. I do remember my family was a little stingy about it. That must be why I can’t remember too much about what it was like or what it even looked like. On the other hand though, my grandmother would provide us with outrageously big bags, filled with treats from old fashioned candy stores where you could pick a few choices from many different bins. There would be jellies, chocolates, gummies, sweet hard candies that I really took a liking to. All the colors were such a delight to me. I must have eaten them before or after the movie.