1953 Bronx, New York

Judith Ruff

Born in 1947

First Movie Memory in Bronx, New York

Interviewed on September 19th, 2019

By Anthony Camaj, Pace University

I really couldn’t tell you the exact year but it was in the mid-’50s, for sure. I must have been around five or six years old and my sister, three, when my parents took us to the movies. It wasn’t even a birthday or a special event of any kind, just a casual spur of the moment type of deal. We were at the mall shopping for something, can’t remember what, but on the way back home our father detoured us to a theater, not too far away from our home. He was always into movies, classics like Gone with the Wind, so I guess it was only a matter of time before he took us.

At the theater, there was this tiny box, where a man in a cap stood – and that was the ticket booth. Inside I do remember that strong smell of buttered popcorn coming through, and might have even been the first time I’ve had popcorn. Anyways, my father liked to spoil us, so I do remember getting to pick out a bag of my favorite candy – peanut M&Ms, which is still my absolute favorite.

In the actual showroom, when the usher brought us to our seat, I do remember how daunting it was seeing a screen that big. We had a very small television at home, it was black and white, the picture was fuzzy, so most of the time you just listened. At our seats my mother was painfully annoyed at my sister, she couldn’t sit still in her own seat – so she had to sit down in my mother’s lap. My sister and I had no clue what we were going to watch, and I don’t think any film would have been a better choice than The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland for two little girls. The movie wasn’t brand new or anything, but the theaters at the time showed what they had in inventory. It didn’t matter to me because I loved it. From the flying monkeys to the green wicked witch of the west, and the red ruby slippers – it was pretty magical, and I loved the songs; the yellow brick road one is one that stands out for me. The story was very inventive, the characters well developed and felt very real to me at that age. The actors were well played and I remember how great the dancing was. The Scarecrow terrified my sister for some odd reason, but for me, it was the witch of course. For a while, I was wary of people with long nails because of her, it sounds very funny to say now, but it’s true. Like all little girls at the time, I also asked my father for my very own ruby slippers but that didn’t happen. I probably bothered him for who knows how long until my little brain moved onto something else.