1960 Wildwood, New Jersey

   Betty McCaffrey
Born in 1947
Wildwood, New Jersey
Interviewed on September 24, 2019
by Jimmy Check

The first movie I remember seeing was Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960. I remember it like it was yesterday because it was the most scared I had ever felt in my life. I was with my cousins and sister and at the time we were in middle school, I was in 8th grade. Today I don’t think I would have ever gotten into a movie like that the way things are rated today. I was at my aunt’s house and asked them if we could go to see a movie and she said yes, probably to get us out of the house for a few hours. I didn’t usually see movies other than when my aunt took us. She would take us once or twice a month to see a movie but nothing like Psycho. Cinderella, Dumbo, and the Ten Commandments are a few I remember seeing with her. 

At the time it cost 20 cents for kids to pay for a ticket and only a nickel for a candy bar. It was always a great time. But, Psycho was unlike anything I had ever seen. We thought it would just be a good movie because we knew Alfred Hitchcock made great mystery stories. As a kid, I loved a good mystery and still do today, but Psycho was a little more horror than I was ready for at that age. Being a kid, I was terrified 5 minutes into the movie and weeks afterward. The theatre was on the boardwalk near our house in Wildwood, New Jersey. We walked maybe 6 or 7 blocks by ourselves, which today parents probably would not let kids that age do in a city around dark. I certainly hadn’t to see a horror movie either. My family didn’t have a car and neither did my aunt so we didn’t really have a choice other than walking.   

I remember going in and getting some candy which I always loved to do. Back then there were ushers with flashlights who would take you into the theatre and seat you. One of the first scenes of the movie was a girl being killed in the shower. I was terrified. The whole movie people would scream at the particularly scary moments. My favorite part of the movie is when it was over. I remember starting the journey walking back in the dark and as we continued slowly moving faster and faster. None of us wanted to be the slowest one because we thought that person would get attacked. We knew they wouldn’t catch all of us, only the slowest.

In hindsight, I thought Psycho was actually quite a good movie, and I’m not that scared of it today. I still love Alfred Hitchcock movies not because they’re scary but because they’re always very well written and I never knew what was going to happen. That was something I grew to love in a movie, the ability to keep me guessing and capture my attention.