1961 Landsdowne, Pennsylvania
James (Jim) Arthur Lawrence
Born 1952
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Interviewed by Thomas Lawrence on January 28, 2018
The first movie I remember vividly was the summer of 1961 release, the original Disney animation of 101 Dalmatians.
When I eight years old, I was taken by the parents of one of my friends to a drive-in movie theater on the outskirts of our small town of Lansdowne, just outside Philadelphia.
I was in the back seat of my friend’s parents’ car. My friend sat between his mom and dad in the bench front seat, and I sat in the back seat with two other friends. None of us wore seat belts.
As we entered the drive-in, my friend’s parents paid for each passenger in the car, and I noted that kids were charged much less than the adults, even though the parents were there only for the kids. (Later, as strategic advisor to Disney, I recommended that Disneyland raise the ticket price of kids to the same as adults as that was why they were going in the first place. Disney profits then soared.)
The parking attendants then directed each car into a parking space in the large flat field, filling up rows in an orderly fashion similarly to how cars are directed to park at the Yale Bowl for football games today. Next to our car, was a metal post that looked like a parking meter with a large top that turned out to be a detachable, weatherproof speaker.
My friend’s dad then manually cranked the driver’s-side window half-way down, grabbed the speaker box, which measured approximately 8in x 6in x 3 in, and hung it on the inside of the car window. Our audio system was fuzzy and scratchy, but the music was nothing short of magical.
Next, we all got out of the car and tromped to the back of the field to a snack bar to purchase our snacks for the evening: Coca-Cola, popcorn, hotdogs, and Raisinettes. What an amazing treat!
I remember the animation had fantastic music—probably the best musical sound I had ever heard in my eight years.
The most striking characters were the song-writer hero protagonist, Roger, and the villain, Cruella de Vil. The song-writer sang a dark, melodic tune at the beginning of the movie about Cruella that absolutely captured me.
Cruella had black hair with a prominent streak of white through it. She was very tall and thin and had sharp, chiseled facial features. She had long bright red fingernails. She almost always held a foot-long black cigarette holder with a smoldering cigarette at its end. To me, she looked like “evil personified.”
At that time, my family had a Dalmatian named Chris who I adored, so the story was very close and touching for me—perhaps too close.
I also remember the movie was set in London. I had never been overseas, so this was very cool for me to see a movie set in a foreign location. Later in life, I went on to live and work in London for over 12 years. Perhaps this movie was an early and underlying motivator for me to jump at the opportunity to work in London when it was offered at age 25.
For better or for worse, I continue to be enthralled by London, continue to love dogs, continue to be disinclined toward smoking (even though my own mother smoked), continue to think cigarettes holders are far from glamorous, and continue to enjoy the musical scores of movies.
