1954 Montreal, Canada

Ruth Feder
1939
Montreal, Canada
Interviewed on January 30, 2025
by Nava Feder

When I saw my first movie, I was probably 13 or 14, and we lived in Montreal. But Montreal had a situation when it came to movies and young people. There was a law that you’re not allowed to attend a movie until you’re 16 years old. And that stemmed from an episode that had occurred 10 years prior, where young mothers would leave their children in the movie theater and go off to do their shopping or whatever, because they were sure that their children were sitting in one place and that they’re safe. And that’s a practice that was going on for a long time. And one day there was a fire and a lot of children died without their parents next to them. So they had to create a law where no one can enter the theater if they’re under 16.

So at the age of 13 and 14 I wasn’t allowed to go, and that means that I saw very few movies. But we used to wear high heels, put on lipstick, and see if we could fool the person selling tickets, the ticketmaster, into letting us in. Sometimes we’d get in, sometimes we did not. The whole thing was actually a lot of fun. But I experienced going to the movies as very frightening and anxiety-provoking, and if I had the choice today I wouldn’t do it, because it’s not worth it.

Sunday was the time for movies. We would call each other every Sunday to decide whether we’re going to have the movie adventure that day or not. It was a whole adventure; it wasn’t just going to the movies. We’d go to each other’s houses, we’d put on the high heels, we tried to dress in very mature clothing that we borrowed from our older siblings. Whenever we went as a group, we never got in, but if we went individually with just one other person, it worked better. Or with an adult. An adult was the surest thing. I’d go with my mom sometimes. I’d go with my cousin, I’d go with friends.

The first movie I went to, I was a little scared, so I went with my mother. It was The Three Musketeers. My mother was a Three Musketeers aficionado. Instead of Little Red Riding Hood, we grew up on The Three Musketeers. So when the movie came out, we were all very excited, and my mother also wanted to go. I also had to dress up in heels to go with my mother. I wouldn’t take the chance, but she was there for moral support in case I was refused.

It was in the 50s, maybe 1954. It must have been an old movie; we probably didn’t get a new one. They might have gotten new releases in Montreal, but I don’t really know, because I wasn’t part of this movie culture.

What I remember about the movie – it’s pretty gross. At that time, the actress, Lana Turner, was a very big deal. And she and one of the lead actors kissed in the movie. And I did not know about kissing at all, and then I saw some saliva passing between them, and I thought it was so gross I just wanted to leave right away.

But I enjoyed the movie a great deal. I thought everything about that movie was absolutely fantastic, I was so thrilled. I knew the characters even before I went to the movie, but when I saw them in the flesh, it was quite something. And very different from what I had imagined. The characters were very well developed, I thought. Well, at that time I didn’t think in those terms. I had imagined that D’Artagnan was a very dashing figure, and so he was. But the others, I didn’t have much of a sense of them until I saw the movie. The movie gave them flesh and blood. But I don’t really remember the story that well anymore.

There was no concession, and even if there were, my mother would never agree to buy me a treat. She thought that was being spoiled. I don’t remember having candy. I don’t remember there being a candy concession, and we just didn’t do that kind of thing. My mother was very disapproving of it.

To get to the theater, I walked on my high heels. It was very close to my house; it was like a five minute walk. The theater was called the Rialto Theater. It was en route to downtown, on a street called Park Avenue. And they had ushers. It was very ornate, like they used to make theaters at the time. It was in a rococo style: very curvy, ornate design, very in your face. And it was just an experience just to go into the building. It was like forbidden fruit, it was so exciting.

Relationship of interviewee to interviewer: paternal grandmother.
Note: Montreal must have gotten The Three Musketeers late or else done a rerun, because The Three Musketeers version starring Lana Turner was released in 1948. That was before the interviewee immigrated to Canada from Slovakia, where she did not have access to movie theaters.