1960 Manhattan, New York
Chanan Beizer
born 1952
Manhattan New York
Interviewed on January 28th, 2017
By Vicki Beizer
It’s hard to remember the first movie I ever saw, it’s all kind of a blur of going to the theater and having that ‘cinema’ experience. I recall being very young and going to the Jamaica Theater in Queens—we lived in Jamaica, and it was this huge, beautiful monstrosity. It used to be a vaudeville theater when it opened, then I think had shows, and finally showed movies. But, theaters aren’t good money, I guess, and it turned into a bingo place until they tore it down, because that’s what happens to old majestic things in New York City.
If I think really hard, I remember seeing Little Shop of Horrors there. I must have been 8 or so, so 1960. The colors were so bright, I recall, like big reds and sharp greens. I liked that it was musical, though remember being very scared when it came to the plant eating everyone. My brother and father were there, I think it was on a Sunday, maybe in spring. I might be mis-remembering the time of year. I remember popcorn; I never wanted to ask for it because I knew it was expensive. I felt very small in those velvet seats; I think I sat on a booster chair to see the screen.
The first film I really remember seeing was 2001, A Space Odyssey. I was older then, maybe 16. My father and I went into Manhattan to see it. I loved science fiction, and remember thinking “Wow, this is really what the future will be like.” You have no idea today, with all this CGI, but back then, it was really amazing to watch that kind of film. The way they had the trip to the moon and the Pan-Am shuttle—it was an entirely new level of movie. They put in scientific accuracy to the best that they could, beautiful cinematography, a beautiful story. It was based on an Arther C. Clark story that I had of course read, and to me it was Arthur C. Clark’s vision writ on the big screen. That kind of movie makes you feel hopeful about what’s to come, like there’s endless possibilities of technology and innovation.
There were other science fiction films, but they were all pretty lame. Lots of horror ones from the 1950s like The Glob, and another where people stopped aging at 30, I forget the title. Science fiction on the screen was something different than science fiction in books; things would get “Hollywood-ized” and lose a meaningful plot to make the aesthetics flashier. Sometimes there were double features of dumb science fiction films, I remember a Planet of the Apes. But the kind of beauty and brightness of 2001, A Space Odyssey –I didn’t see that again until Star Wars in 1977, and I was already 25 then. That was a totally different movie experience. I went with college friends when I was living in Manhattan, and it was a very shared experience, not like how everyone watches Netflix alone in their room today.
