1958 Winchester, Tennessee

Linda Mccary
Born in 1946
Winchester, TN
Interviewed on September 18, 2019
by Maya Werner, Pace University

I think the first movie I remember seeing was Gone with The Wind. I was probably around 12 or 13 at the time, I’m not really sure. What I really remember about the movie is that it was really long. I’ve got that movie and I’ve watched it since. It was a really good movie it was just so so long. It was really good for the time especially. I don’t know when it came out, I’m sure you could look that up. But I know I was young when I saw it for sure. I remember Vivian Leigh was a really good actress. Scarlett O’Hara was quite the character. She was such a spoiled brat. I mean so funny but so so spoiled. And what was the guys name? Clark Gable’s character was so great he was just so in love with her. Even though she was so terrible to him and so terrible to everyone else he loved her. She was just a spoiled brat. I can’t remember the whole plot it was such a long movie. The most notable thing was their relationship that is what I really remember. She did go through some tough things in the film and you think maybe she is going to change but in the end she kind of stays the same character which was really interesting. I must have been with some friends I guess. I don’t really remember exactly who I was with. I definitely wasn’t alone. I wouldn’t have gone to the movies alone so must likely I was with some friends. We walked to the theatre. We walked a lot of places. When I was growing up I lived really close to the town so we could always walk to the movies.

They did have concession in the theater, but we didn’t have a lot of money. We were lucky enough to have 25 cents to get in to the movie. It is incredible that it was only 25 cents back then to get into the movies, it makes the prices nowadays seem just unbelievable. I can’t believe we used to go to the movie theatre for so cheap. I don’t think I had a favorite candy because I would never get candy. Maybe sometimes we would get popcorn. I guess if we were going to get anything at the movie theatre it would have been popcorn. It was in the Oldham Theatre. It is still there today. In fact a few months ago when I went home to see my sister we went and saw a movie there. They have obviously updated the theatre a lot though since I went as a child. They replaced all the seats in the theatre and updated the lobby of course. But it is still there sitting on that corner in my hometown. The outside of the theatre looks exactly the same though, it’s crazy how it looks the same as when I went so long ago. I can’t remember what year it was when I saw the movie. That was such a long time ago who can even remember. I guess if I was around 12 or 13 you can add that to the year I was born which was 1946. So I guess it was around 1958 or 1959. I’m pretty sure the film was released before I was born so it must have been a re-run in my town. Even if it was a re-run I don’t remember seeing any movie before that. I can’t remember if I saw any movies made in that year. But Gone with the Wind sticks out in my memory for sure.