1940 Chicago, Illinois

Stanford Marks

born 1932

Chicago, Illinois

Interviewed on January 28, 2019

by Owen Marks

The first movie I remember seeing is called “The Blue Bird” with Shirley Temple. I must have been 8 or 10, maybe 8. It scared the hell out of me. I spent most of the time hiding behind the seat, my knees on the floor peaking over the top of the seat in front of me. I found it frightening. I think the problem for early movies for a child was they couldn’t follow the story. I just got these vignettes of fright or joy or color.

When I was 11, or 12, I began to understand the plot. I wouldn’t comprehend the nuances of either the dialogue or the actors’ conduct, but I got the story. Most of them were war movies, with John Wayne as the hero. That’s what I grew up with.

So all I remember is that it was a little girl looking for a blue bird. Mostly I recall going to the movie every Saturday – it was kids’ day on Saturday. The movie started at maybe 12:30 or 1 o’clock. You’d go in. There’d be two features. It would be preceded by a news reel which would give you the news. During the war of course, it was scenes from battle and war. There was fashion, and there were cartoons. And then they had serials. Serials were running stories that ran from episode to episode. It was a source of frustration for me and everyone I knew, because we never saw the end of any of them. In I think it was the ‘20s they had a series called ‘The Perils of Pauline.’ It’d end up with Pauline tied to a railroad tracks and you’d see the locomotive roaring towards her and the camera. That was the end. Next week, she’s up and running – what the hell happened to the train?

There were movie theaters all over. A block from me was one theatre, a block to the north was one, a block to the west was another. It was like that, they were all over the place. And I’d always walk to the theater when I was young. The furthest one I’d walk to was about 8 or 10 blocks. Everyone walked. I mean it was a ritual. Saturday and Sunday, the weather was cloudy, so you’d go to the movies. You’d be there for hours. You’d have two features, then the serial, the cartoons, the news of the world. You could come into movies in the middle, as we often did, way after it started or just before the end. You’d think nothing of seeing it to the end and then sitting until it started again and ran to where you came in.

I’d go with my sisters, I’d go with my friends. As I got older, I’d go to theaters farther away. After the last show which was at about 11:30 they’d serve hot dogs and hors d’oeuvres in the lobby. They would sell popcorn which is what I remember getting. Once on the way to the theatre I bought a bottle of Pepsi-Cola, it must have been a nickel or something. And when I opened the top it was frozen. And I remember in front of me was a horse and buggy delivering milk or who knows what. That was a long time ago.

Did I ever tell you I was an Usher? I figured I could see the movies if I was an Usher for free. I got a job as an Usher for Saturday and Sunday. I had a dickey I put on with a bowtie attached to it. I’d walk up and down the aisle looking official, and I’d stand in the back to watch the movie. But they kept calling me over to clean the floor and wipe this or wipe that, so it wasn’t very successful of a plan.

Looking back, Shirley Temple had an incredible influence on a country that was in the midst of a World War. She made people feel good. And yet when you look back on her films now, you see that they’re very racist. Looking back at those movies, you realize how awful parts of them were, really staggering. The casual racism and bigotry and the authority of a child over an adult African-American is just stunning.

Movies were still a very new medium then. The physical things they had to work with – the cameras, the lighting – it was relatively primitive. The films moved more slowly, they didn’t tell the story as quickly or as fluid as they do now. They were slower. They’re not Aquaman.