1964 Hollywood, California
Janice Bender
Born 1952
Pasadena, CA
Interviewed on February 8, 2025
By Quinn Evans
Quinn Evans: What is the first movie you remember seeing?
Janice Bender: My parents took us to see My Fair Lady.
QE: How old were you?
JB: For my 12th birthday – I have a twin sister, Gail – my parents took us to a big movie experience.
QE: What do you remember about the movie?
JB: For this little 12 year old, you know, it was on this ginormous screen, it was just such an unbelievable experience. Because Audrey Hepburn was stunning, and the music, and the sets, and the grandeur – she’s yelling at the horse races, and her costumes. It was just this fabulous experience. It was Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. She was the one who had her voice dubbed because her voice wasn’t good enough – I think it was dubbed by Marni Nixon. And Julie Andrews had had the role onstage, but when they did the film version they thought that Audrey Hepburn was more glamorous. And she was; she was so beautiful.
She was a Cockney flower girl at the beginning, and she had this big floppy hat, and everything was in dark shades of brown because she was in the flower mart area. Then they took her on as an experiment to clean her up, and “the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain” because they were trying to get her away from the “rah-yn in Spah-yn”. I’ll never forget her; she had on this white outfit when she went to the races, and this hat. I really remember the horse race scene. She was this long, tall, willowy, stunning thing. Or when she comes in at the end and she’s being presented to society, and she’s got this pompadour-y thing that’s up this high, and she’s wearing this body-hugging dress. So it was really all about the costuming.
After the movie, we went out to dinner at some fancy Italian restaurant in Hollywood. It was my 12th birthday, and I went into the bathroom, and I had started my period for the first time. That was my first memory of going to the movies. I will never forget that, I have such a visual of it. So I hope that makes it into your interview! My twin sister had started her period the month before, and I thought, What’s wrong with me? I didn’t say anything until I got home, I was so freaked out, and my mother told me, “Oh, you’re a woman now!”
QE: Did Hepburn’s character feel relatable or aspirational for you?
JB: It was set in such a different period – I don’t even think they had cars. She came from very poor beginnings, but it was really a transformative experience about film for me, just about how beautiful it could be. It was so beautiful, and that was 60 years ago. Because I’m 72. The thing is, I’m still 18 in my head; it’s unfathomable. When I say to you I’m 72 years old, I go, “Well, that’s just not possible!” I feel so young in my head, and my body is betraying me, but it doesn’t seem possible. My mother was dead at 75, and she was an old woman. My husband’s father was dead at 63 of his third heart attack. These are things you think about as you get older.
QE: What did you think of the characters, actors, story? More thoughts on the score?
JB: Rex Harrison was a snobby old man – I think if you think about it now, he was probably a little bit pervy. Everyone was really proper; even sitting around the house he was wearing his ascot. I think there was Freddy Highmore, this man who fell in love with her, and he was beautiful, and that’s where he sings “On the Street Where you Live.” Her father was still kind of a lower-class guy.
It’s all classic music. [Singing] “When I’m on the street where you live.” And [singing] “I’ll be getting married in the morning.” I listen to the Broadway channel all the time – don’t tell anybody – so there’s always music on. [Singing] “I got accustomed to her face,” with Rex Harrison. It was my classic. I’m sure there are movies in your life that have already become your classics. It’s like the music in the Wizard of Oz, how that just stays with you. Those were all great songs; it wasn’t just one song in a movie like A Star is Born. It’s a beautiful soundtrack.
It would’ve been hard to access the soundtrack afterward. It’s not like I was going to go see the movie multiple times; we just didn’t do that, we weren’t of those means. I remember my mother getting soundtrack albums, because she liked Broadway songs too. We had that kind of music around the house. Movies like Oklahoma stay with you – the play doesn’t hold up all that well, but the songs hold up really well. These were all movies where the music was almost more important than anything else.
QE: Who was with you?
JB: My brother was only 3 at the time, so he didn’t get to go. It was a big deal to dump my brother too. It was such a special event.
QE: How did you get to the theater/venue?
JB: We drove to Hollywood. I learned to drive on a 1963 tan Chevy Impala, so it might have been that car. Or we had this big old Plymouth station wagon that I also learned to drive on, and it had no power steering. You literally had to put everything into parallel parking that car, and you were exhausted afterward.
QE: Was there a concession? Did you have a favorite candy?
JB: My favorite candies were Peanut M&Ms – they’re still my favorite candy. Red Vines. You know those big tubs of them? When my mother sent me to college, when I moved into the dorms, she gave me a big tub of licorice. You put it in your doorway with your door open, and you left the door open, and that was a good way to make friends on your floor. Everyone would stop by because you’ve got licorice. When both my children went to college, I gave them both big tubs of licorice to put in the door. I remember sitting in the airport after we dropped my son off at college – he was our last, and I was crying – and he sent me a picture of the licorice open and in his doorway. So red licorice was really important.
It’s so expensive to go to the movies now. It was so cheap to go to the movies during those days. I remember, a couple of dollars; it was like nothing. And the concessions weren’t expensive either.
Then there was the summer I worked at a theater, the summer of my senior year in high school. I worked at a theater in Pasadena that was super modern for its era. It was called the Hastings Ranch Theater, and that was part of the area that burned in Pasadena during the Eaton Fire. [It’s hard to tell where exactly the fire border was in this neighborhood, but the theatre itself may have been spared.]
And we’d take those Jordan almonds, throw them on the ground in the package, and say, “Oops, spoilage!” You’d take a package of those, and a hot dog in a tray – I had a hot dog every single day – and a thing of popcorn loaded with butter. Freshly made popcorn, still kind of greasy. I used to eat it so I was done with tin before I started the movie.
QE: Do you remember the name of the theater? Were there ushers?
JB: We lived in Pasadena, and we went to Graumann’s Theatre in Hollywood. It’s not Graumann’s anymore, but it was. It’s the one with all the handprints out in front. It’s down the street from the Pantages and across the street from the El Capitan. It’s a Hollywood legend. It was a big deal we went to the movies.
It’s a huge theatre – I think they always had ushers. It’s so much easier to go to a multiplex now; in those days, a movie came and it played for quite awhile, so you didn’t have as many moviegoing experiences.
QE: What town and year was this?
JB: Hollywood, 1964.
Pictures of the Theatre
Graumann’s Chinese Theatre (now TCL Chinese Theatre)
