1956 Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Jackie Dooley
born 1952
Milwaukee Wisconsin
Interviewed on February 10th, 2023
by Bethel Asomaning

My family never once went to an indoor movie theater; it was too expensive. We always went to the drive-in movies because it was one price for the whole family, a lot cheaper than indoor movie theaters. Also, us kids could be misbehaving, and it wouldn’t matter. We went to that drive-in theater a million times. We saw animated films– only Disney made them then– and we saw lots and lots of westerns.

The whole family went together. That was the beauty of the drive-in movie. We could all go and talk and get popcorn on the floor. It was my mom and dad and two older brothers, and we would be packed into the car. My younger brother wasn’t alive yet. During car trips, my brothers and I were always fighting in the back seat, saying things like “mommy he touched me!” but at the movies we had this great thing to concentrate on, so maybe we didn’t fight then. I’m sure we were sitting forward, with our hands in the back of my parents’ seats, wrapped with fascination and adoration for the movie. 

We didn’t go in the winter because it would’ve been zero degrees out. In the summer, when it was hot and awful, we had the windows open because it was so hot. The mosquitos were awful in Winsonsin, so my parents would put these mosquitos candles in the back window so the mosquitoes would stay away. 

We would drive down this little flat part and turn our car into a place, and the car would point upwards a little so we could see the screen really well. There was this speaker on a pole that would hang on the car window. The sound was usually pretty awful and crackly. There were no commercials or anything, at least not that I remember, and two features at the movies was absolutely required until some time in the sixties.  

The concession stand was a building in the middle of the drive-in. It would be too crowded at intermission, and you would miss the movie if you went at any other time. We couldn’t go to the snack bar because it was too expensive, so we always brought a big jug of cherry Kool-Aid and a big vat of popcorn. It was like this dream to see inside the concession stand someday because we never got to go there. We never had anything but Kool-Aid and popcorn. But it was fine! Probably a real treat. We probably had Kool-Aid all the time at home, but I think popcorn was very special. If we had to pee we would pee in the cup outside behind the car door.

The only movie I actually remember seeing in the drive-in was Lady and the Tramp, the Disney cartoon. I was probably four or five. That would have been 1955 or 1956. That’s when a lot of the classic Disney animated films were coming out, so it was a new release. Of course we had to see it. 

I only remember one scene from the movie, when Lady and Tramp went to the zoo and there was a crocodile, which lept forward and almost got Lady. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. That one traumatic scene is all I remember. But I know I loved the movie. They were so cute, such sweet, wonderful friends, and the Tramp was this hero. The Lady is this sweet, lovely, well-groomed little girl, and he’s this scruffy little street dog. I’m not sure what I thought about the romance at that time. I think he saved her from something early on, and they’re completely enamored with each other. It was really a beautiful story.

I’m sure I was entranced. I mean, it’s not a Disney movie where there’s a princess, but Lady and the Tramp were just as wonderful, if not more wonderful, than princesses and knights and handsome princes who ride up on their white steed. Lady and the Tramp were just so sweet and happy and dogs. Who doesn’t love dogs? (we’re a cat family, but my family had dogs when we were little). I was completely enraptured because the cartoons were as real as anything could be to a little kid.