1956 Bakersfield, California

Patty Lou Boyt
Born in 1943
Bakersfield, California
Interviewed on 28 January 2019
by Dalton Boyt

I snuck to the theater and saw the Christian movie “The Ten Commandments.” It was about my freshman year of high school so probably 1955 or 1956.

It showed the Israelites crossing the sea. I think it was Charlton Heston in the movie. I was real impressed when the chariots rode. That scene where Moses parted the red sea for the Israelites was incredible. I’d never seen anything like it before. And then when we came home Poppy built one of the chariots for a church play we were in. Wish we would’ve kept it.

That was the first time I went to the theater. It was banned. The Church thought it was bad. They thought it was showing too much evil to young people. I can see why’d they’d say don’t go to the movies now for some of them, but back then they were much better. Even though it was a Christian movie I had to sneak away to see it. My mom didn’t get mad when I told her. Eventually it became ok to go, or at least my Mom stopped expecting me to listen to her. I loved the theater when I got to go, because I love music and I loved the musicals. I was never allowed to the drive-ins.

I can’t remember the name of the theater, maybe the Californian, but it wasn’t any of the big fancy ones. I went to the Nile for my second movie, and it was with Doris Day and Frank Sinatra, “Young at Heart”. I loved that one. I wanted her to end up with the other guy (Gig Young). She was a singer, of course, and so was Frank Sinatra. It was a romance. A romantic comedy, you could probably say. And it was a musical. She had a boyfriend, he was a businessman and made good money. Frank drank, so her family didn’t like him. At first, she liked the bad boy, but eventually she realized it wasn’t love.

And then I wasn’t stopped from seeing Elvis Presley, Blue Hawaii. I should’ve been restricted he had a lot of moves.

My favorite movie was Pillow Talk with Doris Day because everyone liked that one and everyone said I looked like her. I don’t think she had a rival. Most of the time there is a rival, and there is always a love song or a funny one.

The Fox theater was the prettiest of all of them, and it’s the only one that’s still around. I saw The Lettermen at the Fox. My sister and I ran down to grab a tie off of the group when they came down singing, but all I got off of him was a button. When they came down off the stage all of the girls went crazy and came after them. That was a music concert, though, a rock and roll. The theaters were all kind of in the same area downtown. I liked the Fox best because the décor was more my type. It was Victorian. The curtains were red with gold fringe, and there was a beautiful staircase for the upper balcony. The seats were velvet, and they’d fold down with arms. The last five rows had loges that folded way back, but you’ve have to pay more for those. Can’t imagine why you’d want to pay more to sit in the back. The Nile was bee-bop, if you know what that means, like pony tails and poodle skirts. They had an orchestra pit, but they never used it for the movies. They always had sound with them. They all had ushers and everyone was quiet. If you talked they’d say “Shhh!” Then the ushers would come by and shine their light at you to shut you up.

Poppy and I loved going to the theater together, or with my girlfriends. My home was very strict so it felt exciting to be out with him. He was a good guy too, but it almost felt like I got to have the bad boys from those films and still not feel all that immoral.