1953 Middletown New York
Richard Markovits
b. 1942
Middletown, NY
interviewed 8 February 2026
by Maisie Bilston
Interviewer: Okay, so the first question I’m supposed to ask you is, is what is the first movie you remember seeing? I don’t think it has to be the first movie you saw, but the first you remember?
Participant: I think it was a Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz movie; it may have been called “The Long, Long Trailer,” I don’t remember. But, each of them was a single parent of five, six, seven children, and I think they marry. It’s the story of them coping with the results .
Sounds like chaos. Oddly reminiscent of “Mostly Martha” [his favourite movie, which he has been trying to persuade the grandchildren to watch for a decade to no avail]. Maybe there’s a trend going on.
Ha, yeah. But to be honest with you, aside from the fact that both of them were, sort of congenial and physically attractive. I don’t remember a whole lot about the movie, so I’m not going to be very instructive to you. What I do remember is that, in the town I grew up in, Middletown, New York, there was one movie theater. I think it was called the Paramount Theater, and it had movies that were supposedly attractive to kids on Saturday afternoons. And on this occasion, they had sold out for whatever this was called, “The Long, Long Trailer.” The result being, I couldn’t go to the first showing, which, I’m making it up, was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon or something of that kind. And at that time, of course, before the feature film, there were cartoons and news reel stories as well so the whole program lasted quite long.
Yeah.
So, I remember somehow contacting my parents and saying I was going to wait to get into the second showing, and the consequence of that was, I couldn’t make my piano lesson, which was at seven o’clock on Saturday night, with Morris Bernstein.
Who?
Just the piano teacher. He was actually a Juilliard graduate; his wife actually was also a Juilliard graduate who had a minor concert career. God knows why they ended up in Middletown, New York, but they did.
So you got to miss the lesson. Killed two birds with one stone!
Ha. So, um, to speak. Yes.
What did you think about the movie at the time, did you enjoy it?
Yes, I did enjoy it. You know, because I must have been five, six years old or something of the kind.
And who went with you?
Um. I think we were just dropped off and picked up at the end of the movie.
Was there anyone looking out for you there, or somebody just drove you there?
No, I mean, you know, probably my mother, possibly my father, dropped me off at the movie theater, and we went in, bought the ticket, and they would pick us up, when the movie was over.
And was a concession, could you get candy there?
Yes, there was in front popcorn candy, soft drinks. I don’t think I bought that.
Ever?
Yes, it was available, but I doubt it.
And were there ushers — or, like, who worked there?
Yes, there was an usher. This was many years ago. I assume it was ‘48, ‘49, something like that.
Did you go to the movies often as a kid?
I think it was a standard practice that kids would go, at least middle class, upper middle class kids. Not during the summer, particularly, but during the school year, we’d go to these Saturday afternoon movies, which were selected to be appealing to children of that age, you know.
It’s funny because that sort of cinema culture is so not a thing anymore. Like the, the only real movie theater in New Haven closed down a couple years ago. When was the last time you saw a movie in theaters recently?
You know, your parents bought us coupons, so we saw, maybe a year ago, the movie about, I forget its name. The A bomb project and the Jewish German guy who led the A bomb project.
Not Oppenheimer?
Yes, Oppenheimer.
What did you think of it?
I sort of liked it. Yeah, I liked it.
I remember thinking it was the kind of movie that really was much better in theatres because so much of it was just like gigantic explosions on the screen. And so it was more dramatic when you were watching it on the big screen.
Yep. Well I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful to you.
No, no. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Lucille Ball movie in full. How funny.
Well, Lucille Ball, you know, this was fairly late in her career, but in the early 30s, she was a sexually attractive rising movie star, of a conventional kind, before she developed the I Love Lucy franchise and became a, you know, a fixture on TV. So she had a substantial career before that. She was a reasonably good actress.
That’s interesting. I saw “Top Hat” recently,and she turns out to have a very minor role in that film as, like, a flower girl or something, and it is, as you say, a sort of conventionally sexually appealing minor character. Surprising to see her in that capacity because I really do associate her with the kind of ironized persona she later developed.
Yeah.
What do you have on for the rest of the day?
Well, I don’t know. I may do a little work and then there’s a Super Bowl tonight, so we’re watching that. And it may be that the thundering hordes [young grandchildren] come over to, in theory, watch it with us as well.
In theory, watch it; in practice, howl through it, maybe.
Yeah. I have a historic dislike of Belichick, because he was cheating for a while, right? But he’s gone, so I don’t have a reason to dislike the Patriots anymore.
Okay, Dick. Thank you so much. Let me just quickly try to download the recording of this call, one sec.
Yes ma’am. It would be a pity to lose all the golden nuggets I gave you. The price of gold is rising.
Sorry?
The price of gold is rising. You can thank your president for that.
Right, I will. I’ll thank him personally. Okay. All right, Dick, give my love to Inga. Nice chatting to you. Bye.
Yes, ma’am.
Richard Markovits is my paternal grandfather. He grew up in Middletown, NY, the son of Jewish immigrants. He is married to my grandmother, Inga Schulthes, who grew up in northern Germany. They are both law professors at UT Austin but incapable of staying in one place for too long so spent most of their working lives travelling between London, Austin, and Berlin.
