1960 Brooklyn, New York
Karen Vaccaro
Born in 1945
Brooklyn, New York
Interviewed on February 7th, 2023
By Graham Stodolski
Pop and I’s first date was a movie. It was January—I know the date—January 3rd, 1960. And we saw On the Beach with Gregory Peck. I think it was a war movie. It was a long time ago, but it’s funny how I recollect. We got all dressed up to go to the movie. It wasn’t like jeans—we got all dressed up. After the movie, I went back to his house. I had met his parents before, but I was walking down the basement and fell down the whole flight of stairs. And I ripped my nylons. That was my introduction to his aunt. And that was January 3rd, it was our first date. Isn’t that crazy? The whole dating scene used to revolve around the movies.
And we just loved the movies. We went every weekend. Friday night was movie night. Ben Hur, Spartacus, and when I was younger, I loved the Westerns. There was Gene Autry, and there were Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. I think his horse’s name was Trigger. It was a lot of Westerns back then when I was little. I’d go with my mom. She would take me to see Jane Wyman, who was Ronald Reagan’s first wife. She was in love with her. My mother was so upset when they separated and he married Nancy, ‘cause she loved Jane from the movies. But she loved the movies too—my mother, Ginger—and it’s crazy to think of it. So different. But we’d see everything—whatever was appropriate for me, ‘cause I was little. We’d watch one, then we’d go to another theater and watch another one. There was an A movie and a B movie, like an opener and the main event, so you’d always get two and we stayed for both. We really loved it. Sometimes we’d have potato chips for dinner ‘cause we were there for so long. Popcorn and potato chips!
I forget what the theater was called, but it was on Meserole Avenue in Greenpoint. That’s where I went with my mom. Then, in Bay Ridge, there was Alpine on 6th Avenue and 69th, the RKO Dyker, and the Fortway around the corner. All the theaters played different movies, so we’d go to all of them. I loved it.
