1950 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Linda Moore 
1942 
Hamilton, Ontario 
Interviewed on February 16, 2021 
By Caroline Moore 

The first movie I remember seeing was In Hamilton, Ontario at the Palace Theater downtown. I must have been seven or eight years old, and I remember I went with a group of my friends for my birthday party. It was very common for us children to celebrate our birthdays at the movie theater. You would invite eight or ten of your best friends, a mix of both boys and girls, and the parents would take a few car-loads of us to the movie theater where they would drop us off — no chaperone. Our parents would drop us off at the movie theater because they knew it was safe, that there would be plenty of other children and parents there, and it was a fairly small town, so we knew everyone. Whenever we went to the movies, there was always a familiar face in the audience. Not because it was that small of a town, but because the theater was massive, and everyone would go.

The first movie I remember seeing was The Story of Seabiscuit (1949) when I had my birthday party at the theater. I remember it was on a Saturday afternoon, a time slot which was meant for children. They usually played cartoons or children’s movies at that time, and the theater would be filled with other little boys and girls from the neighborhood.

The building was utterly gorgeous, and the inside had these high ceilings that were ornately decorated, and the walls were covered with these navy blue, velveteen curtains… It was a magnificent building. The theater itself was massive and could seat hundreds, if not thousands of people. I don’t remember there being any ushers, but maybe that was because it was a Saturday afternoon and the theater wouldn’t be as full then. I remember the stairs were all lighted so you could see where you were going, and my friends and I all piled into seats in the same row.

Now, this was back in the days before television, so the theater always played a black-and-white newscast for about fifteen minutes before the movie started. Following the newscast, the floor-to-ceiling-sized curtains would close for a few minutes (probably to adjust the projector), then they would open again to expose a much bigger screen. I remember that’s when most people in the theater would start clapping with excitement because it meant the main attraction was about to start. On that Saturday afternoon, the main attraction was The Story of Seabiscuit. We bought our tickets for about ten or fifteen cents, and I remember my parents bought us lots of candy — licorice especially — from the concession stand inside the lobby.

I remember the movie was shot in Technicolor because that was still pretty new at the time. The colors were pale, but still so beautiful — I remember the pale red color of Shirley Temple’s hair, especially because she was so famous at the time. I don’t remember much about the plot, except that the movie contained some black-and-white footage of the real Sea Biscuit’s horse races, which my friends and I thought was really neat. I remember Shirley Temple spoke with an Irish accent, which was unusual at the time, and she and her costar were in some sort of love story.  We enjoyed the movie but were probably a little too young to really enjoy any on-screen kissing or romantic storylines.

Every time I hear someone talk about Sea Biscuit, I think of the Palace movie theater. There were so many gorgeous theaters like it in Ontario… It’s such a shame they were all torn down so many years ago.