1963 Brussels, Wisconsin

Janice Englebert
Born 1941
First movie memory in Brussels, Wisconsin
Interviewed on 8 September 2019
By Gracie Englebert

The first movie I remember seeing. . . well I don’t know, I don’t even remember. I didn’t see a movie until high school—1957-1961. I was fifteen, sixteen years old when I first went—Gerald took me. He had seen other movies before then—he liked the comedy ones, Ma and Pa Kettle I think—I liked the beachy ones.

The first one I really remember seeing was with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello— Beach Party. I don’t remember much about the characters. There was a lot of singing and dancing and beach scenes . . . and bikinis. They were all like that at the time.

Frankie and Elvis Presley were big at the time. Especially with the girls they were really big heartthrobs. 

I remember there were two, well I guess three theaters in town with the outdoor. There was the Dana Theatre downtown on 3rd Avenue and one more right on the same street, but it’s gone now and I don’t remember the name anymore. We usually went to the Dana Theatre, but sometimes we went to the outdoor, which was just outside of town in Sturgeon Bay. It was a longer drive, though, so we didn’t go as much.

They also used to have a big screen set up in Brussels—over by the supper club next to Vandertie’s farm—for about five or six weeks in the summer. They’d just set a sheet up and show movies on there. Gerald liked going down there a lot with his friends or his brothers. Now there’s nothing left—there was lots more to do back then.

We always got to the theatre by car—Gerald had a car just like a lot of the boys did back then. The ones we saw together must have been in color, but maybe they were in black and white when Gerald was a kid. Maybe Fibber McGee was in black and white, I don’t know. I don’t remember any ushers, no, there must not have been ushers. Yes, they had concessions—just a normal concessions with popcorns and drinks. Maybe there was candy, but we always shared a Coke.

I probably went to see a movie, I don’t know, once a month. It couldn’t have been more than a dollar—fifty or sixty cents maybe. It was mostly dates, and lots of double dates. I don’t think a lot of the girls went out to movies with friends. That’s why I didn’t see a movie until high school. The guys would go to movies, the comedy ones—Fibber McGee and Molly I think—without the girls. Gerald went with his Pa and his brothers. . . his Pa’s uncle too. 

After the movie we usually went home—it was probably a thirty minute drive—except when we went to the outdoor, then we’d sit in his car for a while, sometimes a long time, before we left. A lot of the couples stuck around. It was a forty or forty-five minute drive home, though, so we only went on Friday or Saturday night.