1945 Detroit, Michigan
Janet Levine
1940
Detroit, Michigan
Interviewed on 1-21-2019
by Jane Jacobs
I know exactly what my first movie was— it was Bambi. I was born in 1940, I don’t know exactly when the movie came out but I think it was a few years before I saw it. I was definitely very little. We were living in Palmer Park, around Woodward and 7 Mile, and it was just the one local theater. I don’t remember exactly where it was or what it was called. What I definitely do remember is the smell of popcorn; it was the first time I had encountered that theater smell. I really don’t remember what the place looked like or anything about it, except for that smell. I think I convinced my mom to get me some popcorn. I definitely had a favorite candy though. My friend Dory and I would only eat the black dots. They’re licorice, chewy and rubbery and they come in a little colorful box with pictures. They stick in your teeth, but you can pull them out.
Nana [my mom] took me, and I am pretty sure there was a little boy with us named Jimmy Mason. He lived downstairs from us, and he was a year or two older but the only other child in the building. If we went to the movie before the war ended, we would not have taken the car, because there was gasoline rationing. My mom had this three-wheeler bike with a big basket on the back, and we would go everywhere on it. If it was after the war we may have driven. I know we were living in this ugly yellow flatiron shaped thing in Detroit. Alright, so we moved to Huntington Woods (the suburbs) in 1947, so I must have been five or six when I saw Bambi. After we moved, my dad had this client who owned a few theaters. He gave us free passes every Saturday, and we would walk there, buy popcorn, and watch movies back to back.
You know the story of Bambi; there’s a big forest fire, and his parents are killed— or maybe it was just his mother— but it’s definitely sad. I don’t know if my mother used the best judgement taking me, but I never forgot it and I loved Bambi all my life. I can’t really tell you how it turned out, I know the other animals took Bambi in and kind of parented him. It marked me for life in a big way. For years I was terrified of fire. I would not let anyone tuck me in too tight because I was afraid that if there was a fire I had to be able to get out.
I remember smoke from the fire, and these beautiful glistening pine trees, but they were crackling and the forest was being eaten up. All the animals were running away. I was fascinated but horrified by it. And I remember Bambi, standing and shaking with his little spots. You know he was still a baby, with those little white spots young deer have. Oh, and there was a rabbit! He had very long ears, and you know, the animals had voices. The rabbit had kind of a deep gravelly voice and he was trying to tell Bambi not to be afraid, that they would take care of him.
You have to remember, we had no TV. I was nine years old before I ever saw a television, and that was a little black and white set with three channels, period. And my mother thought it was the most sinful thing she had ever seen. So this was the first time I had ever seen moving pictures on a screen. It was in color, but it was a cartoon. Well, most of it was a cartoon, I think the fire was real… but maybe I’m making that up. That’s what I remember.
There were three movies in my life that had a profound impact on me. Bambi was one of them, and then there was The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. I saw Bambi one time many many years later, it may even have been with one of you kids. The technology was not nearly as sophisticated as what they have now. But you know, they did have the talking animals. Now I think I should go see it again. Maybe they have it on Netflix.
