1960 Montclair, New Jersey
Martin Murphy
Born in 1942
First Movie Memory in Montclair, New Jersey
Interviewed on September 20, 2019
By Matt Hennion, Pace University
We didn’t really get out to the movies a whole lot back then. I don’t remember going to the theater as a small, small kid. Probably not until we started dating and stuff. Not until I got my license in high school, that was when we really started going to the movies. We would go on dates to the movies. But until then, Nana and Pop couldn’t really take all of us (being a family of thirteen). It was tough for us. We were not really near any theaters- we lived out in the country, the closet movie theater was in Butler (New Jersey) which was several miles away, or the next option was the Pompton theater which was even farther than Butler. Nana and Pop didn’t really drive us down. Nana didn’t really drive at that time, and Pop was always working. We didn’t get to go the movies all that much.
There were ushers at the time. Yes, there was a concession. I’m not sure about my favorite candy at the time, but we liked the Cracker Jacks! It was like a candy popcorn, with peanuts in them, and everything else!
I remember seeing The Sound of Music (1965) but that wasn’t my first moviegoing experience. I watched a lot of cowboy movies with Duke… John Wayne! He was making movies back then, but I can’t tell you the name of one I saw in the theater. I’m sure I saw True Grit (1969) or The Alamo (1960) because those were the things we saw back then.
I enjoyed the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movies that they did together. The “Road to…” movies. It was a series. Each movie was about their travels to a different, foreign place. There were so many of them. They were very fun movies, they were comedies they were great!
I remember enjoying a Marlon Brando movie. On the Waterfront (1954)! I don’t know if I saw that later in life, but I remember that one. I loved that one. I remember Marlon Brando was battling a union gang or something like that. He had his girlfriend Stella. “Stella, Stella, Stella!” That’s where that quote comes from. It’s a great movie, especially if you’re a Marlon Brando fan. This was one of his big ones, that he broke out on.
Alfred Hitchcock was making movies around that time too. He was hot then, something about him, he was a real artist that guy! I remember The Birds (1963). It had this invasion of pigeons. I also remember the one with Grace Kelly in it. Rear Window (1954). She was beautiful, I remember that!
One experience really sticks out to me. It was more about the experience, rather than the movie. I remember taking Nana out! We were teenagers at that point, we were just getting engaged! I took her out to see The Longest Day (1962). That was an army movie. We saw that at the Bellevue Theater in Montclair (New Jersey). It was a premiere kind of thing- it was the first showing in the area. The theater was packed, we had to sit right in the first row! I only remember that because it was the weekend we got engaged. It was Easter time in 1962, and Nana had just got a new white coat. And she had rubbed up against a rope going into the theater, which had purple. She had a purple stain on her coat, and she was all upset! That’s why I remember that! For those reasons, more than the movie itself. I can’t tell you about the characters, or the actors in it. I can’t tell you too much about the movie, besides it being a war movie, and it being a long one!
