1957 Independence, Ohio

Ginny Eicher
1949
Independence, Ohio
Interviewed on January 27, 2018
by Clare Staib-Kaufman

The first movie I saw was called Perri the Squirrel, by Walt Disney. My clear memory was it was Perri the Flying Squirrel, and I remember seeing him flying. But I did go online and look it up just to make sure that I had the right name and there’s no mention of him being a flying squirrel! My husband said he also remembered him flying, so we’ve both converged two memories or something. But it’s Perri the Squirrel, and it came out in 1957. It was about a squirrel. Some scary things happen, but then he turns out okay in the end.

Back then, of course, you saw the movie when it came out or you didn’t see it at all. So I can pretty well be assured that I saw it in 1957. I would’ve been eight, so exactly sixty years ago.

I don’t remember ever going to that theater with my parents. Kids were dropped off. Technically, I could’ve walked. It was a small town. But I doubt that I did—I was probably dropped off and left, which was common back then.

It was called Willow Theater—I know that it was torn down sometime after I graduated from high school. I haven’t lived back in Ohio since then, so I’m not sure exactly when.

Independence Willow Theater was the only place to see a movie. So you either saw the movie they had there or you didn’t see anything. People would come from other suburbs—there was no other choice, unless you wanted to drive 45 minutes to Cleveland. We didn’t even think about choices. They’d have a single screen with a single movie, and it would stay like that for maybe a couple of weeks. Then they would choose another movie, and that would be the movie you’d see, or not see.

My most vivid memory of that theater—and I haven’t seen this anywhere else—is that there was a balcony of seats that was glassed in with sound piped in. I think it was for the noisy kids! So my memory of watching that movie—I don’t remember what happens in it, I don’t remember the plotline, but I remember pressing my face up against that glass.

I would’ve probably gone with my older brother—the one that was only one or two years older than me—who was a hellion. In comparison, I was Miss Goody Two Shoes! So I don’t think on my own I would’ve been sent to the balcony,  but if I was with my brother…

I don’t know if that’s for certain—maybe you just sat where you wanted to, and I wanted to sit up there. But that’s a vivid memory. More vivid than whatever storyline was in the movie.

I know there was a concession at the theater, but I don’t have any memory of buying food there or eating there. However, what I do remember is the only drug store in town, which was called Rexall—it was a true drugstore, and it had a soda counter. I associate after the movie or before the movie with going to the Rexall and getting a root beer float.

I don’t remember anything else in particular about that little theater, but going to the movies in Cleveland was different—I remember red plush. Independence Willow Theater was nothing like that. It was a place to show movies.

The second movie I saw was in Cleveland. I know from looking it up that it was in 1960, when I was eleven years old. And I’m with my mother and my grandmother in Cleveland, and we decide to just go to a movie and it was Butterfield 8, with Elizabeth Taylor, which is about a prostitute! I’m sure I didn’t even know the word.

So here’s my vivid memory: I’m sitting in this very plush, very exotic place, and having the thought: “I’m not supposed to be watching this movie!” My mother didn’t say that to me—it was like, “I don’t know what’s going on in this movie, but I don’t think I should be here!” I mean, I don’t remember being traumatized, but just like—“This is wrong, I’m not old enough for this.”

And that’s all I remembered—no, I did remember that it starts with Elizabeth Taylor being in bed with a slip on, and getting out of bed, and thinking “Who wears a slip to bed?” Thoughts like that.

And then in 1961—it’s very possible that these are the only three movies I saw in a theater during this time period—in 1961, I saw West Side Story. My older brother was on a date, and I was required to go along or asked to go along—in any case, I was there. My vivid memory of that movie was the scene where Maria is very excited about going to the dance. She starts twirling and her dress becomes this blue swirl that changes to the scene in the gym of the dance.

And I remember thinking, “That’s not real. That’s not how it works!” Special effects are not my thing. I don’t like movies with special effects to this day. Those things stick out for me—like, “Wait a minute, what’s going on here?”

In high school, it was a whole different thing. That would’ve been in the mid-60s. I had a steady boyfriend, and we’d go to the James Bond movies. That was what a date movie was! Course, he’d pay for everything, because he was my boyfriend.

This is what I vividly remember: on Saturday night, we would go to a hamburger place called Big Boys and we’d both get a hamburger, fries, and a milkshake, and we would go to the movies. And then he would not really fill up the tank, but go replace the gas he’d used. And he had five dollars, and he came home with change.

We both had dinner, we went to the movies, and he put gas in the car for under five dollars. Times were different!