1955 Baltimore, Maryland

Philip Tacka
Born 1949
Baltimore, Maryland
Interviewed on September 15, 2019
By Julia McClellan

At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to remember anything, but I do remember seeing Disney movies, and I can tell you that I did see Disney movies in the theater. I know this because we didn’t have a color television set until sometime probably in the late ‘60s. I remember specifically, and I don’t know if I’ve got the order right at all, but I do remember in the theater seeing Pinocchio, Cinderella, and Lady and the Tramp. I could’ve been anywhere between 5, 6, 7, somewhere in there. I grew up outside of Baltimore and my grandmother would go shopping at an Italian grocery store that was in the city. We would go in on the bus, [and ride] minimally 40 minutes . . .  40 or 50 minutes. My grandmother would take my sister and me and deposit us at the theater. My sister’s younger, I’m the oldest. [My grandmother] would try to get us in paying only a dime. We would sit there and she would go and do her shopping and then she would come and pick us up and we’d get back on the bus and go home. It was special to go the movies.

My mother and father both worked and my grandparents lived with us. They had a separate apartment in the house but it was attached. In other words, to get to their apartment you had to go through the house. My mother would get us off to school but my grandmother would be there everyday when we got home. You know, if my mother was still alive maybe she could weigh in on it but unfortunately she isn’t. I could’ve even been younger when I was being dropped off at the theater, when my grandmother would go do her thing and come back to pick me up, which is of course not anything a parent would do today. . . or let’s hope not . . . but I know that there was just a lot of independence that we had. It really has made me think about being a product of a certain age. You know, I’m watching my nieces and nephews and they’re raising their own children now. They are incredibly attentive to their kids!

My grandmother was an Italian immigrant and she thought there were some things she shouldn’t pay for so she would try to get both me and my sister in for the price of one. We would go . . . now I’m going to name a theater although I don’t know if it is the right one . . . to the Hippodrome. It had red velvet or cranberry velvet seats. The woodwork was dark and the moldings were very elaborate. It had a brocade curtain that was pulled back. I remember a lot of burgundy color, white, and gold. We were shown to our seats — there were assigned seats. That could’ve been because my grandmother was dropping us off and we were young. They also did legitimate theater. There were plays that were held there. The theater was a real destination. It was in Baltimore city before the Inner Harbor was built . . . on Howard street. Howard street was a big shopping area. There were lots of different department stores. When my mother would take us into the city every once in a while and also when my grandmother took us in —though my grandmother was an Italian immigrant, she certainly wasn’t sophisticated or fancy at all —they both always wore gloves! When my mother came, they would take us to lunch at a really nice place: Virginia Dare. Oh yes, whenever we went into town we would have to dress up.

I remember watching movies late at night on Saturday night, sometimes Friday night. We watched them on television. There was an 11 o’clock movie on TV. The introduction to the featured movie was always the Tchaikovsky second piano concerto. I loved that piece and I would always want to stay up just to hear the introduction to whatever was coming on the movies. There was a pit in [the Hippodrome] because I had gone to that theater and seen some kind of show with dancing on the stage or something like that, but for the Disney shows, it was not live music. Still, though, I was completely engaged with what was going on, on the screen. I remember the vivid color. The color was just magical at the time. The screen was larger than life. I remember the screen being enormous and the characters all being enormous. I remember the animation at the time was thrilling, all because I did not have a color television. Most of the time I felt a lot of excitement. I don’t remember previews or anything, I don’t. But I was really excited when the film started. It really captured my attention.

We did not grow up privileged at all. Going into the theater, I remember the smell of popcorn, but we couldn’t get popcorn. We just didn’t have enough money to get popcorn. I don’t remember it particularly bothering us, though, because the films were always mesmerizing. Now, I can’t say I never had a bite to eat ever. I remember having popcorn and Jujubes, but my absolute favorites were a sort of chocolate covered mints. I think they were called Junior Mints.

This is when I was a little bit older, but I also remember my parents taking us to drive-in movie theaters which I always thought was incredibly cool. I can only recall one film: a horror film. Both my sister and I had a violent reaction to it. We couldn’t sleep that night. It was terrible! My father [called] his brother and [said], “We took the kids to see —.” Oh! Maybe it was The Fly. There was a giant fly and an awful looking man in it. It was just frightening. We were freaked out by it.