1964 New York, New York

Stephen Blum

1952

New York City, New York

Interviewed on February 3, 2023

By Jimin Kim

I watched so many movies growing up, but the first one that I clearly remember is Dr. Strangelove in 1964, which was an early Stanley Kubrick movie. The full name was Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Love the Bomb. At the time, you didn’t do movies about atomic war because everybody was scared of it, but in 1964 there was a burst of such movies like Failsafe, 7 Days in May, and Dr. Strangelove. 

I’ve always been a sci-fi buff, and I’ve always been a little bit obsessed with dystopias. There are a lot of reasons for that. I was 10 years old when the Cuban Missile Crisis hit in 1962, and I remember asking my mother (to whom I often turned for comfort) if she thought we’d actually have a war. I expected her to say “No, it’ll all be fine”, but she said “Yes, I think there’ll be a war”. That probably affected the rest of my life without her realizing. 

Anyway, back to Dr. Strangelove. I watched it in 1964 when I was 12 years old. Back then, you could go and see double features on Sunday morning for a price that you would now find impossibly low. It was like a buck for 2 movies. Dr. Strangelove was one of these double features I watched. What was memorable was how odd it was and how even as a 12 year old I could figure out that it was a spoof. There are some priceless scenes that I won’t try to reconstruct, but one striking thing was that someone was actually making fun of nuclear wars instead of taking it seriously. I remember being virtually shocked at the atomic bombs and them showing pictures at the end of the movie of real bombs going off. 

It was a black-and-white movie, which in itself was kind of interesting for ‘64 since movies were migrating away from that. That was clearly not an accident, although I didn’t know it at the time. And Peter Sellers! I didn’t really know who he was, but what I do remember is that he played 3 roles, which was amazing. He played a scientist that was clearly an ex-Nazi who was working with the US, the president of the United States, and one other role (I think it was a military role) all in the same movie. My head exploded. I remember being fascinated about that. I’d never seen an actor have more than one role in the same movie before, and this sort of built on my obsession with dystopia, sci-fi, and nuclear war. The dialogue was fascinating and even the names, the people. The character names in the movie are just hilarious, like Dr. Strangelove! Wait until you hear the music too at various times in that movie. In general I just remember the experience of being surprised and shocked. 

I watched Dr. Strangelove at the RKO 86th Street Theater in Manhattan. This is where I also saw the other Sunday double features that were dirt cheap. I don’t think I recognized this when I was 12, but these theaters were architecturally amazing and beautiful. The RKO was probably built at the end of the Vaudeville era – it had box seats up next to the screen and an enormous stage that in retrospect was surely used for Vaudeville performances back in the early days of movies.

The experience of being in the theater was very exciting. The lights went down and it was exciting that you were sharing this experience with other people. I mean, clearly that’s why people still go to the big screen. Back then, not only did you go to be with other people, but the quality of the sound and quality of the screen was way better than tv back then. You went for the large screen experience. As a kid, you’re also going to get away – it’s a form of independence. Without realizing it, I think also it was just a break from whatever else was happening. Typically it was a weekend. When you’re that young, you’re not doing stuff on weekdays and weeknights because you’re doing homework. This was always a weekend experience. 

This is going to sound really nerdy and minor, but these were the days where having an air conditioner mattered. I can’t tell you for a fact that I saw Dr. Strangelove over the summer, but I can tell you that my first experiences of going to movies whenever we went in the summer were wonderful. We didn’t have air conditioners in every room in my house back then. The climate itself was part of the movie experience. 

I would’ve taken a subway to the theater even though it was only one stop away from where I lived. I’ve always been a train buff. I watched it with my best friend from grade school David. He lived close to the theater so I would’ve taken the subway and met him after I got off. The subway stop was right next to the theater. I also remember that right across the street was a little pizza place that had a little machine you could play to test your reactions. You put a nickel in the top of the machine, a second or two would pass, and then the nickel would drop. The minute it started dropping you tried to push a button to freeze the nickel before it came down. David and I would always spend a few nickels competing with each other at the pizza place before the movies. 

I don’t think there were ushers anymore. I almost always sat in the dead center and a little bit closer to the front than most people would’ve (I think maybe 2/3rds of the way up to the front). I really wanted to have the full experience of having the screen almost surrounding me. David and I for sure ended up getting popcorn. I was a heavy butter guy. I wanted my hands to be greasy and I really needed napkins. Now as I get older, I’d rather my heart give out a little later. But back then, who cared? Bring it on.