1955 Providence, Rhode Island

Elwood Donnelly

Born in 1950

Providence, Rhode Island

Interviewed on February 10, 2023

By Ethan Riordan

I was born in 1950 on Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island. I was in the Italian section of town. My mother is Italian, and my father was English and Irish. At that time, there was a movie theatre called “Uptown.” Lots of movie theaters back then… The Strand, Loews, Majestic. But the Uptown was right up a few blocks. We were able to walk to this theater. It costs like 25 cents, and you got to see 2 movies; a short subject, it usually was propaganda, military propaganda, you know, about the United States being so great. And a cartoon animated feature. There was a propaganda film about drugs. This isn’t one we saw, but the films were similar to Reefer Madness. People smoking marijuana and getting crazy and jumping out windows! These were the kinds of films they would show back in the 50s. And also about the Army, Marines, and Air Force, how we were protecting our country… 

After all, we were only a few years away from the end of World War II. There was always the threat of being bombed. Sirens would go off in the city, and we would put our heads down on the desk in school and just wait for it to stop. 

Me and my three siblings lived in a small six-tenement building. We grew up in a cold water flat. That means you don’t have hot running water. Our apartment was a two-bedroom. My mother and father had one room, and the four kids were in the other bedroom. In that bedroom, there were two twin beds. My sister slept in one, and the three boys shared the other one. This went on until I was 10, my oldest brother was 15, and we all squeezed into this tiny twin bed. This was the time period we would all go to the Uptown. My father worked in a factory. My mother didn’t work outside the house. We were pretty poor. So, going to the movie theater was kind of an occasion. All together, it cost a couple of bucks (not counting refreshments). Even more of an occasion was when I could get a drink and candy because, of course, it was basically the price of the movie to get a few candies. 

Oh, they had all the candies and the popcorn, and the drinks. I think I always liked…milk duds! And those… you know those circular ones that are minty and chocolatey on the outside? Junior mints! That’s it! My actual favorite was “Canada Mints.” It was in a green box, and they were hard mints. They were made by the Necco Company. Some company took over and make some of those candies, like the Necco Wafers, but they don’t make the Canada Mints anymore…

There were ushers, oh yeah! They dressed to the nines. I think that means they use nine yards of fabric. You might want to look that up… fact check me on that! Back then, people used to wear suits just to take an airplane! It was a different time back then. 

My mother used to like movies with Victor Mature and Mario Lanza, not necessarily in the same movies, because I don’t know if they ever were. Movies like The Great Caruso or The Robe; she took us to see those, I believe. Again, we couldn’t go so often. But then, at a certain point, it just stopped. I don’t know why it stopped, you know, parents just do things, and kids have to just go along with it.

My parents would not take us to see stuff that we liked! They would just take us to the movies because we happened to be in the same house. So, I didn’t grow up with Disney Animated films because my parent never wanted to see them. I discovered them later in life. The amazing total animation – eyeballs moved, eyelashes moved. This was before The Flintstones. Those were completely magical. I wish I had seen those as a kid. But my parents would take us to see the things they wanted to see. We didn’t have much of a choice. It was often a film with someone like Mario Lanza, sometimes playing a swashbuckler and sometimes a singer. My mother loved those crooners of the day, especially later on with Frank Sinatra. Italian crooners.

My parents listened to music all the time, especially in the house. We had a record player, and they listened to musicals. The King and I, South Pacific, Camelot, Oklahoma. Those were always playing. And then the movies of all those musicals came out. I didn’t purposely go myself, you know, to watch them. My parents bought the albums of those musicals, and then we would all see them. 

Oklahoma came out in ‘55. Yeah… I saw that film with my family and siblings. I guess I was five years old then. That was pretty memorable because of the music. Uptown had a pretty good sound system, or at least I don’t remember it being horrible let’s put it that way! I think it was memorable because, at home, we watched so many cowboy shows. This was really popular in the ‘50s. Hopalong Cassidy. Lots of stuff with Tim Holt. I was not a fan of John Wayne. So, Oklahoma sticks out much more. The King and I was fun, I guess, because of all the palaces! So grand and…regal. But Oklahoma was homey. It was something I was familiar with. Even from that first song… “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning! Oh, what a beautiful day! I’ve got a beautiful feeling. Everything’s goin’ my way!” You can never get that tune out of your head. I loved the singing and dancing. And even though my parents had the album already, watching the film made it come to life. I was very lucky, I suppose, that I grew up in a family that loved music. Some of my friends growing up had no music in their lives. But my upbringing made watching it much more enjoyable. 

The music left a mark, absolutely. I just loved singing. When we had company, my parents would make me sing for them. And I wanted, when I grew up, to sing standards, just like Frank Sinatra or Lena Horne, and have a big band behind me. That was one of my fanatical dreams. 

I guess it is funny that my mother loved all of these crooners, and we would watch all of those musicals, like Oklahoma and Camelot, and I would memorize all of those songs, and then I ended up wanting to sing standards myself. I’m sure that is what inspired me just to sing. 

Uptown still exists. It’s still there. Same spot. It’s a music performance venue for rock bands now. Rock bands for guys in their thirties! I haven’t been there in ages. And even though it’s called “Colombus” now, I know some people who go there, and they told me that written on the tiles on the floor it says “Uptown.” I should go back and check it out.