1956 Leavenworth, Kansas

Howard Renensland

Born in 1948

Leavenworth, Kansas

Interviewed On: 14th February 2021

By Minahil Nawaz

Even though my interest in films began later in life, the first movie I remember seeing in a theatre was Peter Pan, the 1953 animated Walt Disney film. It was at the Hollywood Theatre in my hometown of Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1956.

There wasn’t much to do in Leavenworth, a town of 35,000 people, but there was a little theatre in the heart of downtown. The town was largely supported by the federal government, as we had 3 penitentiaries and Fort Leavenworth, an army installation. A lot of military personnel lived there, and that’s probably one of the reasons why we had a theatre. Even though there was a theatre at Fort Leavenworth, I hardly went there as you had to be with someone from the military. 

I remember I went with a bunch of my cousins to the theatre, and it was in the summertime. I didn’t see these cousins very often, as some lived in Missouri, some in Texas, and others in Kansas City. My mother and uncle dropped us off in two separate cars, as there were so many of us.

I’m not sure what the theatre had been beforehand, but it was very nice. We went up to the booth and bought our tickets for a quarter each. Right next door, on the same block, we went into a little shop to buy some buttered popcorn and soda. The concession wasn’t even in the same building or room, as it is today! Once we had bought the tickets, a man took our ticket, tore it in half, gave us the other half and said: “Don’t lose this, because if you do, you can’t come back in.” If you had to go to the bathroom, you had to hang on to the ticket. From the inside, the theatre was lovely, with velvet seats and velvet curtains. 

I don’t really remember much about the movie itself, and I don’t remember if there was any other movie being shown besides Peter Pan. But I don’t think I’d been to a movie before that one, because my parents weren’t big on doing things together like that. I was also more enamored with the experience being a social event, where all my cousins and I were out enjoying ourselves, without any adult supervision. Movies, as a form of something that I value, didn’t begin in my life till much later. 

Today, Peter Pan is my daughter’s favorite movie. When we go to Disneyworld, she always seeks out the Peter Pan ride. I don’t really know why as I never forced it on her or anything. But I do find it kind of ironic.