1964 Pittsburg, Kansas

Donald Morrison
(Ft. Remarks From Barbara Morrison)
Born 1950
Pittsburg, Kansas
Interviewed on January 25, 2026
By Ruby Knoebel

What is the first movie that you remember seeing?

When I was a kid, there wasn’t much TV. You’d have rabbit ears on top of the TV. You got about one channel. Probably we’d go to the movie – on weekends, you could buy $1 tickets and go to the theaters. Probably, what was that one with W.C. Fields?

[My grandmother is sitting in the same room and responds: My Little Chickadee]

My Little Chickadee. Mae West and W.C. Fields.

What was that about?

That was a comedy. They both were kind of crooked for those times. It was a Western comedy, and W.C. Fields thought he had married Mae West, but she had gotten somebody to fake that. He was more of a drunk. She made him sheriff, and he ran a bar. [Laughs] He couldn’t handle a gun. She was really good with a gun, but he couldn’t. So that’s pretty much what that was about. Made in 1938 probably, somewhere in there.

Have you rewatched it since then? It sounds like you remember a lot.

Yeah. [Laughs] I’ve watched it several times. [Laughs]

Do you know how old you were the first time that you watched it, approximately?

Probably 13 or 14.

What did you think of the characters, actors, and storyline?

They were all pretty good for what they had in the 1938-timeframe. It was all, of course, black and white. But they were good. They were good.

How did it compare to movies today?

Oh, I like them better. [Laughs]

Yeah, I thought you might say that.

Yeah, I like them better. The only things that we had on TV were I Love Lucy and Abbott & Costello and Dragnet. Ed Sullivan – he had all the music talent and the comedy talent on there for a one-hour show.

When you watched that first movie, do you remember who watched it with you in the theater? Or if you don’t remember that, who was with you when seeing other movies?

Probably Bill Russell, who later played baseball, and Johnny Black, who was another neighbor. Might have been both of them, back in the old days. [Laughs]

Did you and Grandma ever go see movies together?

Oh yeah, we used to go to a lot of shows.

Were only TV shows playing on the TV that you had, rather than movies?

Mainly TV shows back then. There wasn’t any HBO, none of that, just an antenna on your house and you’d get two stations, maybe three, or with rabbit ears, you’d get one. [Laughs]

When you were going to the movie theater, how did you get there?

You’d either ride your bicycle or walk.

How far away was it?

[Considers this for a moment] Two miles.

That’s a pretty long walk. But a good bike ride.

Yeah, we used to walk all the time back then. We either rode a bicycle or walked.

Was there a concession stand at the movie theater, and did you have a favorite candy or snack? Or sneak candy in?

Had to have a Dr. Pepper or anything that was a chocolate candy bar – probably Hershey’s chocolate.

Do you remember what the name of that theater was?

Fox Theater.

And where was this?

Pittsburg, Kansas.

Were there ushers to lead you to your seat?

No, you had one guy with a flashlight and he would walk around and shine his light on you once in a while.

[My grandmother: But those were considered ushers.]

They might’ve called him an usher, but he didn’t usher you to your seat.

They were just making sure no one was up to any funny business in the theater?

No funny business – nobody’s kissing or making fun like that. [Laughs]

There might be some sensory details, like smells or colors, that you remember. Is there anything distinct about how it felt being in that theater or the communal aspect of watching a movie with other people?

For us to go to the movie theater was really a big deal. You’d have a great big screen, and they were in color, which you didn’t get at home much. The smell of the concession stand more than anything else. [Laughs] Popcorn.

What kind of movies did you and Grandma watch together?

We watched all kinds. Clint Eastwood had a lot of Westerns going.

[My grandmother: Bruce Lee.]

Bruce Lee.

[My grandmother: James Bond.]

[Laughs] James Bond. 007.

The Ten Commandments was on. There was a show called The Hustler with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason, and it was about a guy who shot pool for money. The Alamo with John Wayne and Richard Widmark. That was a pretty good one. George Burns and his wife Gracie were in a lot of shows. That was back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. There was an old, old TV series, Dragnet. So that was about the extent of it. We just didn’t get a lot of TV.

Was Dragnet something you would watch at home then, if it was a series?

It was on once a week at home.

Did you guys have a TV for your entire childhood, or did you get it later?

We had one, probably the whole time. We had just rabbit ears for a long time, then got an antenna. I can’t remember when we got HBO, probably didn’t even come around until the ‘60s.

With those changes, when my aunt and mom were growing up, did you still take them to the theater, or did you shift to watching more movies and TV at home? Do you feel like the role of the theater changed?

I think they both went to the movies – mainly on their own, not with us.

[My grandmother: Well, we took them too, remember? We used to do every Sunday.]

We took them too.

[My grandmother: Yeah, every Sunday, we used to do at least two movies. Every Sunday, we would go and we would watch one movie, and then we would do popcorn.]

[Laughs]

[Casual conversation is omitted here; it led into the following questions.]

Were the Three Stooges another big name at the time?

It was Moe, Larry, and Curly. They were big comedians. They were pretty good. Whatever they did would be like 15, 20 minutes, but they would be on every week.

Oh, so it was a show?

Kind of like a series for a while. It’s still pretty popular. A lot of the people my age and younger still have some groups that get together and watch them.

What was your favorite movie that you watched when you were younger?

Oh, I don’t know.

Do you have a favorite now, from that time?

I always liked Peter Sellers. He was The Pink Panther and The Return of the Pink Panther. He was the one that died young, but he was a good actor.

[Here, he hands the phone to my grandmother to add any comments that she has.]

My grandmother: He was a big James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart fan. If there’s a James Cagney movie on, he’s more likely to record it and watch it. And The Thin Man. That was another one. You know we’ve all watched those a dozen times. William Powell and Myrna Loy. And those are not only things that we grew up with, but we enjoyed them, and then your mom and your aunt also enjoyed them because those are just true classics.

And I remember watching those too.

My grandmother: Yeah! They’re just true classics. So many of the new ones are remakes of the old ones!


Relationship: maternal grandfather; remarks by maternal grandmother