1937 West Hartford, Connecticut

Sandra Edelstein

1937

West Hartford, CT

Interviewed on September 19, 2019

by Lydia Hill

My dad was a film buff, he loved movies, and he had a whole stack of movies and I think he had the first Mickey Mouse film that was ever made. So, that was the first movie that I ever saw. It was with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and I think it was called “Willie”, not “Mickey”, at the time. It was something like that. It was very old-fashioned and I can’t remember too much about it. We really should have kept it, because it would have been really something special, but that was the first movie and it was at our house. He showed it on a screen in our house and that was my first movie.

I was probably four. I remember that it was strange, a little bit strange. It wasn’t my favorite. It was jumpy and… it was just different. It was like stick figures. You know, at that age, I wasn’t into that and I don’t remember the movie that well, I just remember seeing it, so not much help on that one.

I was with my parents, my brother. We watched it in– we had a recreation room in the house, so we watched it in there, because my dad had like a stage, a real… with a pull-down screen. We watched it there. I saw it several times. But, um… it wasn’t the kind of Mickey Mouse movie that you would see later on, it was… I think it was called “Willie” something. I just can’t remember. What was it called?

“Steamboat Willie?”

Thank you. That’s exactly what it was.

It was in West Hartford, Connecticut and if I was four, it would have been during World War II. I would say we moved into that house in… probably… ’41? I would say 1941, ’42, somewhere in that area.

It wasn’t my favorite and I guess– I mean it was so long ago. I know I don’t remember liking it very much. The characters were so jumpy and jumping around and… I don’t remember if there was any dialogue. There must have been some music that went with it. But my memory of it is very, very weak.

So, I wonder how many other people saw Steamboat Willie.