1955 Chicago, Illinois

Alice LaBianco

December 24, 1943 Chicago, Il

Interviewed on September 21, 2019

By Isabelle LaBianco, Pace University

I am torn between two films that I remember seeing at a young age. Both were musicals; the first one I am pretty sure was Hit the Deck and one that was very popular because it hit the Broadway scene, Singin’ in the Rain. Those were the first two… but for some reason, I am pretty sure Hit the Deck was the first film I remember seeing. My parents never really took us to the movies or anything like that, so I will have to say I had to be around 12 or so because at that point I was old enough that I could go to the local movie theater with a friend. The tickets were so cheap back then that we would look for quarters on the ground in the city and use them to see movies. I loved the singing and the dancing in each film… I remembered that. Donald O’Connor was the lead actor for Singin’ in the Rain, I don’t remember his character’s name. But I do remember that for both movies, there were tons of famous actors from back in the day in them. I have the movie on tape somewhere in the house… I remembered I just loved the performances and the musical numbers. I don’t remember if Gene Kelly was in it, but there was a lot of dancing and they were on a ship. Oh, and I thought it was Ginger Rogers, but Debbie Reyonlds was in both movies. As you can see, I really enjoy watching musicals, and I love watching those actors dance. At the time, those actors were the popular ones. I have seen Singin’ in the Rain as a movie and as a musical on stage, and I never get tired of watching it. I don’t believe Hit the Deck has been turned into a Broadway musical, but I would love to see that. I do like dramas, but I always enjoyed more of the light stuff. There is enough serious events going on in the world, that I would rather see some fun stuff. When I saw Hit the Deck, I could’ve gone to see it with my friend Joyce. She lived in our apartment building. Oh, we walked to the theaters. That’s all we did! We would walk, but the theater wasn’t very far, about four blocks on Division Street. I don’t even remember the name of the theater if I am being completely honest. I am quite sure the theater is gone now. It was our form of entertainment. If we got to do something other than playing in the streets, we would go to the movies. I do remember going to the concession stand to get candy and popcorn. I always liked Raisinets, and I love popcorn. A lot of the time we didn’t have the money for the concessions, we just used our allowance on the movie. They had ushers back then… you’re right, there was. Not anymore, they only come in if there is any problem, like if someone is talking on their phone during the feature. We certainly did not have any cell phone issues during the mid 50s!