December 27, 2024
You may be wondering what movies have to do with genealogy. Turns out, it’s a lot. Generations of Americans went to the movies routinely during the 20th century. During happy times, the movies were a place to have a good time with your friends. During sad times, movies were an escape from the traumas of day-to-day life. They influenced a lot of lives.
My family loved the movies. My mother was one of seven sisters, and they all loved going to the movies. Mom grew up during the depression, and her large family was poor. Somehow, though, Mom and her friend Muriel were able to scrounge a dime, or if they were very lucky, a quarter, so they could see the latest movie in town.
According to Mom, tickets for kids under twelve were a nickel. Candy bars were also a nickel. Mom and her friend lived several miles from town, so if they only had a dime, they had to walk to and from the show. If they had a quarter, they could ride the Bamberger (the local tram) to and from town and still have another nickel for penny candy. They thought they were rich on quarter days.
I guess a love of movies is passed down since one of my best memories is of going to the movies when I was young. Mom and Dad liked to go to the movies and usually took all four of us kids along. We watched whatever shows my folks wanted to see. Even though Disney children’s movies like Bambi and Snow White came out during my childhood, I never saw them. I did, however, see The Bridge Over the River Kwai when I was nine years old. So did my younger siblings, even my two-year-old sister.
All the theaters then had what they called “cry rooms” which were separate from the main auditorium. If the littlest movie attendees were restless, parents could still watch the show and not bother anyone else. However, my family prided themselves on not needing to take anyone to the cry room. From our earliest childhoods we were engrossed by whatever movie was showing – no matter how inappropriate it might have seemed for children.
When I started doing genealogy, I learned that some of my mother’s relatives had moved to the Los Angeles area in the early 1920s. As I researched them, I learned that one of them, Edwin Bennett, spent decades as a projectionist at the Strand Theater in Pasadena. In those days, being a projectionist was a skilled job which required several people to be in the projection booth to make sure that reels got changed smoothly. Films often broke and had to be spliced. The film was flammable and sometimes caught on fire. Projectionists had a lot of responsibility.
I knew all of this, but my first thought when I learned about the projectionist in the family was,
“Wow, he got to see all the movies. I bet his family did too. What a great job.” I don’t know if Edwin and his family watched the movies; my family lost touch with his long before I was born. I hope that he loved the movies and watched them all. I’m sure I would have.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society