1960 Bronx, New York

        Sarina Tuttle

         Born in 1952

     Bronx, NY

Interviewed 19 September, 2019

By Olivia Mancino, Pace University

The first movie that I saw was The Wizard of Oz. That movie was made in 1939, but they were showing it at the theater years after it was first released. They would play this movie all of the time. I went with my mother and father. I was around eight or nine years old, I don’t remember the exact year. We took a car to the theater. It was close to our home in the Bronx. The theater was somewhere near Fordham road. I believe it was called The Paradise Theater. It had a painting of a night blue sky inside.

The movie started out in black and white, but that’s what movies and television were like back then. But when I saw it on the screen, it changed to color! I just remember the munchkins, the bright colors, and the fantasy of it all. It was a little scary with the witch and her flying monkeys, but that turned out to be my favorite song, Ding Dong the Witch is dead. I loved Dorothy. I also loved the lion and his courage! It was a very entertaining story, not something so believable, when you are older you know better. The actors did a beautiful job. I know the Tin Man was supposed to be played by Buddy Ebsen, but he was allergic to the silver paint and it became Jack Haley. He was just excellent. Anything that Judy Garland was in, I liked. She was in A Star is Born in 1954, oh is she just amazing.

The theater was big and crowded. They had ushers with flashlights that were dressed up with a fancy bow tie. They asked you where you wanted to sit and showed you to your seats. They made sure you didn’t fall because it was so dark. The movie theaters also gave vouchers to a store right on the corner of the street, and you could turn them in and get yourself a pot or frying pan. The movie theaters used to say, “ok, we’re giving out dishes today”, and they would give you a dish or two at the theater.

My father used to get us the concessions, he was good for that. There were Bon bons, Snowcaps, Milk Duds, popcorn with the hot butter, and soda. Chuckles came in a six-pack; they were cherry flavor and lemon flavor. Oh, you haven’t lived till you’ve had Snowcaps in the theater because you keep those little white pearls in your mouth and you crunch them. Oh and Raisinettes, can’t forget the Raisinettes!

It was a really good experience. As I got older I went to more movies. I didn’t go a lot when I was younger because my mother and father used to work there and they hated being there all the time. My mother sometimes sat through a movie 15 or 20 times because she was the manager. They became sick of it. I began to go with my uncle.

The first movie I saw here at the Interborough Theater was Planet of the Apes. And then before that we would see Cat Baloo, Viva Las Vegas, and Play Misty for Me at other theaters in the area. We once saw a picture that we weren’t supposed to see because it was rated for an older audience. You couldn’t see those movies without your parents unless you were old enough but we went in anyways. They didn’t stop us. They didn’t check as much as they do now.

It was dark of course. You smelled popcorn the second you walked through the door, that’s the first thing that triggers you. And as much as people say “oh don’t eat movie theater popcorn it’s gross or it’s bad for you,” oh please I say.  You get that smell of that butter and you’re in heaven. I never snuck snacks in because they were fairly priced back in the day! They no longer are! I go now every Tuesday to the movies at the local theater. Ten dollars for a tiny popcorn, it’s crazy. I’m not kidding you.