1961 Osgood Indiana

Richard Smith

1952

Osgood Indiana

Interviewed on February 2, 2026

By Sophie Peetz

Interviewer: What is the first movie you remember seeing?

Rick: The first movie I really remember seeing was Rio Bravo, a western with John Wayne. I was pretty young, but that one was a really good one. Westerns were huge back then, especially where I grew up, and John Wayne quite the fella.

Interviewer: How old were you when you saw it?

Rick: I was probably around nine, somewhere around there. It was at the Damm Theatre in Osgood, which is the main theater in town. That’s where everyone went to see movies.

Interviewer: What do you remember about the movie?

Rick: I remember being completely pulled into it. There were gunfights, horses, outlaws, all the stuff you see in a western. John Wayne plays this sheriff who’s trying to protect the town and keep things together, and even as a kid, I could understand that he was the good guy, the one you were supposed to root for. It made a big impression on me.

Interviewer: What did you think about the characters and the story?

Rick: I loved the characters. John Wayne especially. He was always a strong character, and dependable. The stories were usually pretty simple, but in a good way. You always knew who was right and who was wrong, and the good guys almost always came out on top. That’s what you like to watch as a kid.

Interviewer: Who did you usually go with?

Rick: Most of the time I went with my family or with friends from school. In a small town like Osgood, going to the movies was a big deal. You’d see people you knew, sit near friends, talk about the movie afterward. It was very social. Everybody ended up at the Damm Theatre at one point or another.

Interviewer: How did you get there?

Rick: We usually walked or got a ride into town. Everything in Osgood was pretty close, so it wasn’t hard to get there. The theater was right on Main Street, so it felt like the center of things.

Interviewer: Do you remember the concessions?

Rick: Oh yeah– popcorn, mostly. That smell hit you as soon as you walked in. Sometimes I’d get candy or a soda if I had enough change, but popcorn was the main thing.

Interviewer: What do you remember about the theater itself?

Rick: The Damm Theatre was old, but in a good way. It had character. The seats weren’t fancy, but the screen felt huge, especially when you were a kid.

Interviewer: Did the theater become more important to you as you got older?

Rick: Yeah I would definitely say so. By the time I was in high school, the [Vietnam] War was going on, and that changed everything. There was this constant background tension, everyone knew about the draft, and it felt like something that was always hanging over you. Even if you tried not to think about it, it was there. Going to the Theatre became a kind of escape from all that. You’d go in with your friends, sit down in the dark, and for a couple of hours, you didn’t have to think about the war or the future or getting drafted. That mattered more than we probably realized at the time.

Interviewer: What town and time period was this?

Rick: This was all in Osgood, Indiana, mostly through the 1960s. My high school years were in the late ’60s.

Interviewer: How do you think those movie experiences shaped your relationship with film?

Rick: I think they made movies feel important, not just entertaining. They were a way to connect with people, to relax, and to imagine a world bigger than the one we lived in. Especially growing up in a small town, movies showed you places and lives you’d never otherwise see.

Interviewer: Thank you so much for sharing these memories.

Rick: You’re welcome. It’s nice to look back on it. I hadn’t really thought about it this deeply in a long time.

Richard (Rick) Smith is my maternal grandfather.