1946 Red Bank, New Jersey

Miriam Klein

Born in 1937

Red Bank, New Jersey

Interviewed on September 20, 2019

By Olivia Jorasch

I don’t remember the first movie I saw, but I’ll tell you about the first movie I remember seeing. It was a Christmas movie, with Jimmy Stewart. What was it called? Ah yes, It’s a Wonderful Life. I went to see it with my mom. In the movie, Jimmy Stewart gets to see how people respond to his absence. I think it was supposed to have a deep meaning, but I was only about eight years old. All I really remember is the feeling that I got in the theater, sitting next to my mom. I felt warm and cozy, and I immediately wanted to see the movie again. Luckily, it ran every year at Christmastime, so I saw it every year for a long time. Since then, I’ve seen it probably ten more times, and it always brings me back to my first memory of watching It’s a Wonderful Life.

When I turned twelve years old, my friends and I started to obsess over movie stars. I had a scrapbook that I shared with my friend Lizzy. We would buy cinema magazines and cut out pictures of our favorite actors to paste into the scrapbook. We had a whole page dedicated to pictures of Clark Gable. We knew all of the actors and actresses and their marital standings. We followed them; we dwelled on them; we tried to fix our hair like they did. 

Going to the movies was our whole social life. Well, that and playing baseball and going to parties. When we were able to drive, we started going to drive-in movie theaters. Drive in movie theaters charged by the car, so we’d pile as many kids as we could into a car. Every car got a little speaker that played the audio for the movie. The sound quality was terrible, so we would all huddle around the speaker trying to hear as much as we could. But honestly, none of us cared much about the quality of the movie.

Movie theaters were a constant during my dating years. In high school I went on dates every weekend. The theater would be dark; it was a perfect date. I had back pain from a childhood fall that made it very uncomfortable to sit still for long. So I was always fidgety, and when a boy took me to see a double feature, I’d think Oh God, now I have to sit still even longer. But I never considered not going to the movies—it was the thing to do. I always came early, because I got most of my news updates from watching the newsreels that played before the movies. And I saw just about every movie that came out during this era. Seriously, give me the name of a movie and I’ll tell you who starred in it.

I never met a famous movie star, but I did meet a director’s son. My brother’s friend was friends with Frank Capra’s son, Frank Junior. Frank Junior took a liking to me, and one day I let him take me out on his dad’s boat. Honestly, the boat was a lot better looking than the guy. I remember his two front teeth were a little crooked. But it was a really nice boat, so I agreed to go with him. Anyways, we only went out that one time. I didn’t realize until much later that Frank Capra was the guy who directed It’s a Wonderful Life.

When I was in college, I got a job writing the womens’ page of a newspaper. I had to write some fashion columns and obituaries, and my favorite part was writing about movies. I got a free pass to go to the movies each week and write up a review. One movie I remember in particular was Creature of the Black Lagoon. I’m not sure why I remember that one; it was a really terrible movie. Years later, when I moved to Nashville, Creature of the Black Lagoon was playing at the Tennessee Theater. I saw this crowd of people outside the theater, and I wondered aloud why there were so many people lined up to see such a bad movie. My friend nudged me and whispered, “They’re not in line—they’re picketing the theater, because African Americans aren’t allowed in there!” Until that moment, I hadn’t considered that not everyone had the same opportunities to experience the theater as I had.

Movies were a regular part of my social life until I started having kids. I didn’t really have time to go to the theater while my kids were growing up. They’re all grown up now, and I have lots of free time. And yet, I never got back into the habit of going to the theater. It’s easier and cheaper to watch movies at home. It can be nice to watch movies at home. When the whole family is together, watching a movie in the den, there’s this sense of togetherness. But it’s still not the same as going to the theater.

Do I think the new generation has lost anything? Yeah, I do. You have so much at your fingertips that we didn’t have. You can turn on the TV or the computer or even your phone, and choose from millions of different movies. The quality is certainly better than it used to be. But there are just too many options now. Back then, we saw every movie; we knew every movie star. It was this base of common knowledge that everyone shared. Going to the theater was awesome. That’s how I remember it; it was awesome in the literal sense of the word—awe-inspiring.