1958 Rockford, Illinois

Cindy Osborn

1947

Rockford, Illinois

Interviewed on January 30, 2022

by Victoria Gasca

We lived in Princeton, Illinois. This was right after my parents got married, so I was about six years old. The first movie I recall going to see was The Long, Long Trailer, and I just remember that I threw up over the guy sitting in front of me. I remember walking down the street afterwards in the dark to go back home, because it was a smaller town. But that’s really all I remember about it.

Later on, I went to see South Pacific after moving to Rockford, Illinois. I think it was new, because I would’ve been relatively young then. I would’ve been ten. I’m assuming it was on a weekend because my grandma had work, and I would’ve gone to the movies with my grandma or great-grandma. I don’t know who I went with that time. The showtimes would be in the newspaper. There would be a section in the newspaper, and it’d show big pictures of what was coming. They had kind of miniaturized versions of what you saw on the posters outside the theater. Different people would collect those posters back then. We’d take the bus downtown–which I always thought was so cool, to take the bus. I always wanted to sit not in the back but in the front, where the seats were sideways to the driver.

When we’d go downtown, even if the movie was at the Coronado, the fancy theater, we’d walk an extra block past the Coronado to right next to the Times Theater. There were four main theaters in town. There were maybe one or two that did the reruns, but that was when I was older. Three of the theaters were probably within a two-block radius. There were maybe three or four blocks between the State and the Coronado, and there was only a block between the Coronado and the Times. Right next to the Times is where the Karmelkorn Shop was. You could smell the caramel corn a block away! That was one of the main reasons for going to the movies. It was a little black and white building. You’d get your caramel corn and you’d walk back to the Coronado Theater. I remember you’d walk into the Coronado and it was so elaborate. They had a big, wide staircase on the left going up to the balconies. You’d just walk down the aisle and then all of the theater seats were there to the right. I think it used to be used for stage performances on occasion, and now it probably does more stage performances than not. But at that time, it was mostly a movie theater.

The thing that I remember most about South Pacific and seeing it was the gal that sang “Bali Ha’i.” She was just gazing off into the distance, sitting down. I can vividly picture her. It was so beautiful and so neat, especially the sunset. She was looking out over the water. The other one I remember was “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” and it was when a whole troupe of them were dancing. Those two I remember really well. I also remember “Some Enchanted Evening,” which was between the two main characters. I remember thinking that the girl [Mitzi Gaynor] was so pretty, and it was this old guy [Rossano Brazzi]. I was like, “Oh, come on! Get somebody good-looking instead of this old guy!” And that was, I think, the most popular song of the whole movie, “Some Enchanted Evening.” Those three are my earliest memories probably. After the movie, you’d catch a bus and go home.

I think it’s the only time I watched it. You know, I’ve seen snippets since then whenever they’ve talked about movies, but I definitely can picture [Gaynor’s] blonde-ish curly hair and the [Tonkinese] woman singing.

I really don’t watch movies anymore, and I don’t go to the theater. I don’t think the movies are as good anymore. They’re not good stories. It’s either blood and guts or gory, or there’s got to be too much–I really sound like an old-fogey now–too much cussing and swearing and sex to make a movie. It’s to sell tickets to the majority of people, so I just don’t have an interest in it. The only movies I remember that I used to faithfully go to were the James Bond movies, and I was an adult. This gal and I would faithfully go out for pizza before or after and then go to the movie. Otherwise, the last movie I saw before I moved to El Paso thirty-three years ago–in Rockford–was The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. It was the last movie I saw, and then I’ve been to one movie here in El Paso that someone got me to go to maybe two years ago. I don’t even remember the name of it. It was with Bradley Cooper. I think he was a chef in it. Since December of 1985, that’s the only movie I’ve seen in a theater. It’s just not the same.