Tony Fidelle Interview
Victoria Plotkin
2002-2003
Participants
TF
Tony Fidele, interviewee (male)
VP
Victoria Plotkin, interviewer (female)
Mary
Mary (unknown surname), interviewee (female)
Man1
Unidentified man, interviewee (male)
Man2
Unidentified man, interviewee (male)
view transcript only
VP
Tony Fidele on the Union Square theaters, probably more The Strand. Ok, when you, visited The Strand, where did you live in Union Square?
TF
I lived, on the west side of Union Square, on Somerville Avenue, my dad had a little store, my parents were immigrant parents, in fact my brother and sister were both born in Europe, so we were a first generation Italian family.
VP
Right.
TF
...and the Strand would have been the go to...with a house like that pretty much determined which one you, you frequented, really, uh, the community, the Italian community, the Pizons of all the people who came from that same town in Italy, really lived in the Davis Square area. So, that would pretty much determine why I went to, not only where I live, but that was a Somerville [inaudible] [a person walks by] Hi David. We're talking about old Somerville theaters. Yeah. President Tiwanas now, he succeeded me as president.
VP
Oh wow.
TF
And I know he's been in touch with the museum about doing something up there to expose some of the business people [in Tawanas].
VP
Right, right.
TF
So, go ahead.
VP
Ok. Well, I was just curious, where you lived in Union Square, was it predominantly Italian, or predominantly immigrant families?
TF
No, and...the portion of Union Square that is close to Boston, in other words, east of Union Square, going towards Lechmere, that was a heavily Italian district. West of Union Square, coming towards Davis Square, you got into really heavily Irish, far more, an Irish district. The homes, close to [inaudible] where the Italian [inaudible], where the, probably left valuable property, a more depressed area at the time, closer to the slot of houses where a lot of those Italian immigrants worked...
VP
Ok.
TF
Ok. Nicer homes, a few single families, the newer developments for that time, would have been going up the hill towards St. Captain's, going up Somerville Ave that way. So, we get into a, an older population in the sense of, not, not so many first generation people, and as the Italians were successful, they moved up and away from Union Square, up the hill to Prospect Hill...
VP
Ok.
TF
...and up into the western part of Somerville.
VP
Ok.
TF
But West Somerville was the stronghold really for the old Yankee Protestant Republicans, long after the rest of the city had fallen to Catholic/Protestant demographs, you know.
VP
Right, right.
TF
But the Italians played, they really never got that involved in, in politics, really until the '50s. And they didn't elect a mayor in this town, until 1961 I think was the first Italian mayor. So they were very late, very late. And even on the national scene, the Irish, you know, found an outlet in politics, the Italians never did, you know ask Mario Cuomo why he never, one of, one of the explanations why he never, made a greater commitment and so on, is that he, the strength of the Italian family, and family came first, you didn't surrender your privacy and your family privacy, for, even for public affairs.
VP
Right.
TF
But that's another whole other historical argument.
VP
Right, right. Ok. Let's see. And so you had, you say you had an older sister and a older brother.
TF
Yup.
TF
They came over at ages 5 and 7. And my father had been back and forth to Italy a couple times, before he saved up enough money to, borrow enough money to send for the rest of the family, once they came over, 1933, my father never went back again until after World War II, 1950 was the only time back for short visit, and my mother, even though she still had sisters and relatives there, closer than my dad did, she never went back until, oh, '72, '73, whenever it was that we nominated Nixon the first time, cause I remember I was watching Nixon while she was over there.
TF
Uh, my, my mother was one of, uh, she was one of eight women, eight daughters, could you believe, be that poor peasant farmer was looking for some help in the fields? [VP Laughs]. Three of those daughters came to America. So there were three sisters, and we were very very close. All three families. The other five remained in Italy, and their families pretty much, none of their children ever came over, uh, but the three, that came, and all of their families were raised here and stayed here, none of them ever went back. I would be in that generation.
VP
Right.
TF
My father on the other hand, his father was here in the 1890s, worked in one of the factories on Somerville Avenue, a tubing [inaudible], copper tubing or whatever, and [a person passes by]...how you doing? ...and came down with lead poisoning, and died, died from lead poisoning. My dad was fourteen or something. So the three boys left school in the old country and had to go out and get work to support themselves and their mother, and as a result, dad went to work in, in the merchant marine, then joined the Italian Navy, and then, decided place to get work, since they didn't have it in Italy, was, was here. So he immigrated in the late '20s. But it wasn't until 1933 that, that he was able to afford to bring the whole family. He would of thought somehow to go back and get her pregnant a couple of times, [VP laughs] but couldn't afford to bring him over until the 1930s.
VP
And so, so the communities were separated by nationa-, were the, were very much?
TF
No, no, they, they, they were pretty much integrated, now you might find a concentration of Italians in, you know, that, that area between Union Square and Lechmere, but it wasn't exclusively Italian by any means, uh, the Greek church, was on Somerville Avenue in that area, and early on, there were a great number of Greeks in that area, but they eventually, as they, prospered, they moved into the heart of the city in fact, they moved their church, now the original church building still stands there, on lower Somerville Avenue, it's now an American Legion post, ok? And they bought the old Elks club on Central Street, and made that, redecorated, put in some beautiful stained glass, and made that, and it remains the Greek Orthodox church in the city.
VP
Right.
TF
But, that would, it was an, an example of the, the Greek community, really, a sample of the Greek moving from one end of the city to the center of the city. The Jews, there were, synagogues were on the line between Union Square and Central Square in Cambridge. They were, they were, and I remember at least one synagogue there, I think probably two in that area, and, the Jews centered pretty much between Union Square and Sullivan Square, you familiar where that is?
VP
Mmm-hmm.
TF
That whole end of the city, Harry Ellis Dickson, Jewish, the assistant conductor of The Boston Pops died a couple weeks ago, in his nineties, grew up in that area along what we call lower Washington Street, the area between Union Square and Sullivan Square, and there was a concentration of Jews there, as the Jews became successful and moved, the temple was built at the top of Central Street, near Broadway, almost at the corner of Broadway, and the temple [inaudible] almost died out in the '70s and '80s, but now a whole new crowd is moved in there and who revived that temple. Most of the Jews however was successful enough to get the hell out of Somerville completely [laughs], so it, it got to the point where there, there were almost no Jews here at all, in the '70s, and '80s, and n-, now with the, particularly the young professionals coming back, and got an, an influx of, uh, and it's totally unrelated.
VP
Right, right.
TF
But uh, Harry Ellis Dickson was a good example though, there was a time when all the tailors in Somerville were Jewish tailors and, as a kid I can still remember that. A lot of the pharmacists were, for some reason they were into pharmacy, they were more educationally oriented than some of the other groups early on.
VP
Right, right.
TF
Um, Boston Pops, doctors...then by the time the '60s rolled around, there were almost no Jews in my class, late '60s. They had, they had moved out of town.
VP
Right. Ok. Um, so the Strand was the, was the closest theater to you?
TF
Mmm-hmm.
VP
Uh, was that the theater that most of the people around you went to as well?
TF
Yeah, yeah. Although I was, being on this side of Union Square, being on the west side of Union Square, a lot of the kids I went to school with would go up to the Central Theatre, because my school, my school district, really on the line between two school districts, my school district, a lot of the kids went to the Central, because, it was closer to them.
VP
Right.
TF
But we were, we were right on Somerville Avenue, it was the route between my house and my aunt's house and...it was there all the time you know, it was part of your, your neighborhood. It was part of the neighborhood with Tufts, just like the local grocery store and all that stuff. And Union Square was the place to do the shopping, the equivalent of the supermarkets in those days, where the Bresgee's was there, and Mugworth's, and all the five and dimes and...and, and the theater sat right in the middle of all that, and when they went out at night that was the place to go, that's what you do in the war you know, that, people didn't go much of anywhere, unless you were young and had money for nightclubs, and the unpopularity of nightclubs after the famous Cocoanut Grove fire, people were afraid to go to nightclubs, and, a lot of the women were, even though they were married, they were single, because, the husband was away. It became really the bee's knees of entertainment.
VP
Right, right. How old were you when you started going to theaters?
TF
I remember, I had a godmother, she was a single godmother, so, she married late, well not as late, [laughs], not as late as I am, still single. She would have me take the subway, I don't know how the hell I got away with this, into Boston, she was a garment worker, typical immigrant, young Italians, rather successful, she became a manager, the other immigrant girls, and she would take me to the movie houses in Boston, so I have early memories of the Loews Arch, Loews Arch Theme on Washington Street, the ones they're redoing now, the Paramount theatre, and I became an early, an avid fan of the movies at that period. I could tell you what was playing and everyone thought I was a real wiz.
TF
Yeah! I was, you know I'm the twelfth. I think I must have been probably just eleven or twelve years old when, when, they were brave enough to put me on bus here, go to Lechmere, take the subway, knew not to get off at Essex station, what later became the combat zone, and my Godmother would be there to greet me, went to Topsy's for fried chicken or something, and the movies. And I remember seeing Betty Grable movies, that was, you know...yeah, so that...again, we were, not often that, I, I wasn't allowed the freedom most kids were, they were overly protective of me, so I didn't get to the Saturday afternoon showings that often. Most people did, and and, all the kids went Saturday afternoon, grammar, grammar school types. And it was safe, you walked down to the square, and the neighborhood, and everyone knew you, uh, I remember the war years a lot, I remember a lot of those war movies it, once in awhile, the Ronald Reagan type movies, you know.
VP
Right.
TF
I remember seeing those, and then, they always had, they had some of the show cards, I don't know what they call those, pictures, scenes from the movie...
VP
Ok, like the posters?
TF
...and posters. And then they would have actual photographs of scenes from the movies themselves, and they would change them, you know at the moment we came in, I remember they change the marquee...
VP
Right.
TF
I can remember the kids being up there on ladders, changing the marquee. But they would also change these, so everytime I walk by to my aunt's house or walk to, you'd stop, and you'd read all the credits and...
VP
Right.
TF
All the pictures, it was an event, I mean, what the hell else we, we didn't have t-, TV...
VP
Yeah.
TF
Not even home movies in those days.
VP
Yeah, yeah.
TF
So it was our opening to the world, if you will.
VP
Right. And this was, this was, it was at The Strand as well?
TF
Always The Strand, yeah, yeah.
VP
Ok.
TF
Well, you know, if you went into town, they, they, they sit at those playbills and...somehow or another, I guess, b-, because it was local, and you went by it so often, you always stop to check them...where as in Boston, how, how often get in there? And they, they were fancier anyway, and the lobbies, once you get in there, you went right in, if you didn't...
VP
Right.
TF
...weren't standing in line. That...
VP
How did do, how did you find out about the different movies?
TF
Newspapers.
VP
Ok.
TF
Yeah, newspaper. Yeah, and I prob-, I, I, I knew enough to, even at a very young age, I knew, I always, MGM must have played at the, at the Loews Orpheum on, on Washington Street, that's still there that theater, and beautiful theater inside too. And that was my favorite, I think it was because MGM did the musicals, and the Betty Grables, and, that sort of stuff.
VP
Uh-huh.
TF
But I, I remember The Paramount, that sign that they're restoring, I can remember that thing blazing along Washington Street in town, and then going to the archeo-, what was then The Metropolitan, now the Wang Center, which is a magnificent thing then as, as well as now.
VP
Mmm-hmm.
TF
And...so, I frequent most of those, along that Washington Street strip but downtown, what we would call downtown Boston, that's where the shop, the Jordans, and [inaudible] still is, and there are a number of big departments stores, and, the movies were really ah, all around that area.
VP
Right.
TF
But uh, I, I went into those probably more often than most kids because I had this Godmother who was treating me.
VP
Right.
TF
But most of the kids, you know, went to the local. And these guys are younger so, you go back as far as I do, to the war years, and before my time, the depression days, that was the only outlet, people really had. These guys at least had TV at home and, whole different thing.
VP
Right. When you were visiting movies at The Strand, did you, did you go for the, for the, a particular actor, a particular movie, or did you just go.
TF
I, I think, I think most kids went on Saturday afternoons, I think they went, because it was Saturday afternoons, a good way for Mom & Dad to get you the hell out of the house.
VP
Right, right.
TF
I, I probably have more of an attraction to, certain styles than most kids did, because I was, I was into that, as a kid, I'm, strangely enough I'm not into it now, but I was then, the Diana Derbens and, that kind of stuff. I, I wasn't always a John Wayne type I remember this but, I guess, thinking back I had a taste for the women [laughs], it was Diana Derben, it was Betty Grable, June Allison, you know uh, um, I do remember you know, seeing aeroplane movies and that sort of stuff. But, but, but prob-, Saturday afternoons, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry, and [inaudible] you could get Gene Autry [inaudible] a lot of Roy Rogers type. And another of my favorites, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, you know, I would make sure, if they were around, I'd go, go to one of those things, and they would use, they would feature those, for kids, you know, when, when kids were likely to go.
VP
Mmm-hmm. Right. Who did you usually go with to the movies, was it like neighborhood kids or...
TF
An older sister, my sis-, sister and brother were substantially older than I was, so
VP
Ok.
TF
Seldom with my brother for some reason, I [laughs], but my sister was older, she probably wanted to check out the boys down there too, she married one of the guys that used to hang out at the movie house [both laugh].
VP
Did they meet there?
TF
So, I would go, ee-ahh, no, they, they met in the neighborhood...
VP
Ok.
TF
...but they knew, you know they knew each others habits...
VP
Right.
TF
...he and his crowd would go every Friday night or whatever it was, and...
VP
Um, I remember you will, I remember you were talking earlier about it getting so rowdy on, on Saturdays, it was just like when the theater, when like a picture was bad, kids would...
TF
No.
VP
throw stuff at the picture, or it was just all the time...
TF
well, he, he said, he implied, [inaudible] pretty good too. He implied that when the picture was bad, they would throw it at the screen.
VP
Right.
TF
But I think if the, the picture wasn't bad, they were throwing anyway, it was just...
VP
Right.
TF
it was just part of the sport, I think.
VP
Right.
TF
Justwasn'tthey were bored, obviously, you know, they got a big long love scene, and that always causes...
VP
Right.
TF
...stir.
VP
Right.
TF
But I think it was just an excuse. I, I don't think if the movie was particularly good that they did it any less.
VP
Right.
TF
Throwing...except if they be absorbed in the movie, they might you know, stop it.
VP
Right. Did you sister tolerate you uh, acting out at all?
TF
No, no, she...
VP
Ok.
TF
if I went with my sister, it would have been one of the evening ones. That, that acting out stuff went on, as I remember, on Saturday afternoons...
VP
Ok.
TF
Didn't go on at night.
VP
Ok.
TF
Ok, when the adults were around, the parents were al-, kids would never...
VP
Right.
TF
But it was Saturday when everybody just tossed the kids out of the house, and go.
VP
Right.
TF
Um, that's when you, you had the [inaudible]
VP
Right, right. And when you went on Saturday afternoons, who did you usually go with then, I know you said you didn't go that often...
TF
Neighborhood friends.
VP
Neighborhood friends.
TF
Yeah.
VP
Ok.
TF
Kids that were in the neighborhood.
VP
Ok. Did the ushers try to control it at all?
TF
Oh yeah, I'm sure they I, I have vague memories of that uh...
VP
Ok.
TF
You heard thehe was so envious of the other kids because his dad managed...
VP
Uh-huh, uh-huh
TF
...managed the theater.
VP
[pause] How did you usually get to the theater, was it, oh you walked?
TF
Invariably.
VP
Ok.
TF
We didn't have a car in the family anyway, we did have a truck. We needed a truck for the store business, which [inaudible], they operated a grocery store, fish market, so we always had a truck until...until 1950 I guess we didn't have a car in the family [laughs].
VP
That's why my mom is anti-car, she hasn't gotten one yet [laughs].
TF
One of the jokes up here was, when, when I went to the prom, 1954, I borrowed my brother's car, he had a brand new Desoto which was ohhhh, and what a treat to have his Desoto for the prom, but the kids always teased me about, did I go in the fish truck, because we used to pack the truck every Friday night and go off to football games, we'd put eight or ten kids in the back of the truck...
VP
Right.
TF
So the joke was you're going to take an onion to the prom in the fish truck [VP laughs]. And to this day, they, they'll talk about the guy who took the date to the prom [VP laughs], but it wasn't true, it wasn't true.
VP
Did you go to school here?
TF
Yeah. Did, I graduated here in '54. So I'm a real product of the...
VP
Yeah.
TF
...of the place, like Charlie Cook there. [a man in the distance says something to Mr. Fidele] She's uh doing some interviews on the old theatres of Somerville, in connection with that exhibit at the...
Man1
Oh the central street theater?
TF
In, nah, they got quite an exhibit.
Man1
The Winter Hill?
VP
The Winter Hill, right. There's the Mashuda, right?
Man1
Yeah.
VP
Yeah.
Man1
Yeah, let's see, there's the one from the cross street.
TF
Orpheum, nobody wants to remember the name of that [VP laughs]. That one was called The Mughouse when I was a kid, nobody else seems to remember that, that was filthy, dirty...
VP
Is that the one with the rats, that was...?
TF
Yeah...but it sits right on the railroad tracks.
Man1
You could see a good Gene Autry movie there on a Saturday afternoon.
TF
[laughs] So, Gene Autry movies everywhere, I just mentioned Gene Autry.
VP
[laughs] Um...[pause] Um, the, do you remember the, the contests, was that, a draw, for any, you or any of your friends?
TF
I don't, I don't, remember those, I don't think I, I do remember the plate stuff, even though I didn't participate. Joe, Bob, Signetti remember that, what did he say, his uncle won a TV set or?
VP
Yeah, yeah.
TF
Now, that had to be, that had to be in the '50s, so that's late.
VP
Right.
TF
Man, by that time I was, in high school and college [laughs]
VP
Right, right.
TF
Probably went to the movies downtown instead.
VP
Right. Um, did your, did you sister, she was little bit older and I guess it catered more towards the girls, that plate...
TF
She, no, she didn't get into that, no, no. I think maybe she was even young for that, I don't know. I, I remember the year of the older women, the, you know taking part of it.
VP
Right.
TF
So there's, lot of the women who particularly had just, their husbands had [inaudible] during the [inaudible], this was a night out for them, gave 'em a good excuse to go
VP
Right, right.
TF
Yeah.
VP
Right. Yeah I remember, I just, uh I remember you speaking earlier about your roommate's, his mother who collected plates.
TF
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good example. She, her husband was at war, and uh, that was you know, every Tuesday night or whatever the hell plate night she would go every Tues-, so...the whole set is there.
VP
Yeah, yeah.
TF
Gravy, gravy you can't turn [inaudible].
VP
What did people usually do after the movie, was there...
TF
Home.
VP
Home, straight home, there was no activity...
TF
A movie get out that goes to eleven o'clock, everybody would walk directly home. Work in the morning, this is the working class, baby [laughs].
VP
Right.
TF
Yeah, no, absolutely. But I can remember, when we were late a couple times, my sister [inaudible] the movie, because dad was looking for her, you know?
VP
Uh-huh.
TF
So we, we actually walked out of the movie to be home by eleven o'clock or eleven-ten or whatever...
VP
Right.
TF
...was the normal time.
VP
Right.
TF
Oh, I think movies did start later, I think they started like eight o'clock and then they go to eleven. It's unusual.
VP
Right. Was there anything that you guys would do before, it was a just, was it only the...
TF
No, no you left the house [a women stops by to say hello to Mr. Fidele], How are you, good? Yeah, as usual [the women leaves]. Yeah, it was destination: home again.
VP
Right, right.
TF
[inaudible] Italians we get all about eating at home anyway.
VP
Right, right.
TF
We didn't go out to eat and then to the movie or anything like that.
VP
Right.
TF
And we were, we were young kids, so...
VP
Right. Did you ever go with your father or...
TF
Never.
VP
...mother at all? No?
TF
They didn't, I do remember, remember in town a couple of times, for Italian movie, Italian language films, which, in those days never came to the local...
VP
Right.
TF
So they did have a couple of movie houses in town, that were dedicated to the Italian, in the North End, is what now, now Government Center, and we went to see couple of movies, Italian movies in there. That was, and that was on a Sunday, it was an outing for the family...
VP
Right.
TF
You know, it was a special event for us. No, that was un-, uncommon.
VP
Right. Ok. Did you think it's because, uh, I, I, we'll be-, because the first language was, was Italian, did you think it catered to them or?
TF
They, they went into the movies to begin with.
VP
Ok.
TF
I remember very late in life, I, I made it a sp-, a special, special treat to get my mom and dad to see "Giant," Jimmy Dean, and Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor. I thought it was a special movie that they would like.
VP
Uh-huh.
TF
And I got 'em, but, and they were, obviously on the work night, but that was, very rare, it's seldom that you know, I would identify a movie that I thought, Gone With The Wind type, I know they had seen that one, I was too young to remember them going to that.
TF
But I remember doing that for Giant, trying to think if I ever did something else, it was rare.
VP
Right, right.
TF
It was a rare treat for, then you talk about the, you know the immigrants.
VP
Right, right...
TF
But I do remember, they were, they were, had, they had Spanish radio programs now, they did have Italian radio programs in that day too. So, they would advertise, even had some stage shows, performances, um [inaudible], in fact it was in the Burlesque House, I mean real burlesque, uh, on Sunday only I think they would, they would have an Italian program, not the old Howard, but another one down the street called The Casino.
VP
Ok.
TF
I can remember it plainly today. It was special going into Boston and, and uh, seeing an Italian movie.
VP
Right.
TF
When at the end of the war with all the great Italians, the Pollinis and all the rest of them, all the Italian stars, they, they came into the mainstream, I mean they, lot of Italian films. Even then Mom and Dad didn't go, I guess they just weren't movie fans. Although they were brought up on movies. Although when TV came in, they, you know they chose TV, and watched TV. But they never, you know they weren't part of that culture.
VP
Right, right.
TF
...complete American culture.
VP
Right. Right. What about when you were in high school, was uh, what movies like when that when you go to take a date...
TF
Date, right, yeah.
VP
Ok, ok.
TF
They weren't too many places you could take a date.
VP
Right.
TF
You would take a date, and you would, then leave The Strand, you would then leave The Strand to go to an another one where you thought the girl you were seeing [Mr. Fidele is interrupted by somebody passing by]. So um, yeah no yeah, you might change your habits depending on where your girl went to the movies, just uh, to see her on that night or, uh, if you had a date, you know if it wasn't the, the record hop at the high school, you might go to the movies.
VP
Uh-huh. Right. I remember uh, one of the other women who was just here saying that, the balcony was the area where you go if you had a certain reputation, or you wouldn't go there unless you wanted, unless you were certain reputation, right. Do you remember that at all [inaudible]?
TF
No, [Gail, Gail] might remember that and Mary. Maureen Leonard was telling, tell-, [inaudible] interviews on, on the theatres, the old theatres of Somerville.
VP
Mmm-hmm.
TF
Maureen said that if you went up on the balcony with a date, you were uh....
VP
You were seen as a, as a girl with loose morals I guess, and uh...
TF
As opposed to staying downstairs with a date.
VP
Right, right.
Man1
[in the distant background says]That's true.
VP
Is that true?
TF
Is that true?
Man1
That's true, yeah
TF
See, I didn't know that...
Man2
[also in the background] Or even up the back of the broadway
[A lady named Mary chimes in, inaudibly.]
TF
See, Mary knows, [Mary laughs], Mary knows.
Mary
Now why you doing this, it was in the paper a week ago or so, someone's written a book about something about...
VP
Oh y-, well I'm, I'm a, I'm a student at Tufts, and one of the classes there is called like The Lost Theatres of Somerville, and it's a study of, just because, really, a lot of studies haven't been done, of a lot of these older theatres just became like these, cultural draws, and kind of a lot of people have such, such emotional investment in these, and so many memories in these theaters, and there's so much that went on, around these theatres, so it-, it's kind of a study of...
Man2
[in the background, interrupting]Throwing popcorn boxes at the screen?
VP
Throwing popcorn boxes at the screen. And there are a lot of very vivid memories that people have of these theaters, and so...
Mary
[interrupting] Being dragged there out of school, from six to about ten, so my mother could make her set of dishes. [VP laughs].
TF
There you go, yeah.
Mary
We went to see every horror movie that was there, that was, oh my God.
Man2
I remember when it went from fifteen cents to seventeen cents at the Broadway, we were...
Mary
Oh wait, I was at the Teele Square.
TF
There you go.
Mary
We had the theater at the Teele Square.
VP
Uh-huh. Was that uh-...
Man2
Thirteen cents though, where did they ever get the idea, [inaudible] seventeen cents?
Mary
Seventeen cents yeah.
VP
Was that a common thing with the, the dishes? I, I...
Mary
Oh dishes, the towels, yeah I still have them. Yeah, I still have my mother's set, yeah.
VP
Right, they gave out towels as well?
Mary
Sure.
VP
Ok. [brief inaudible chatter, laughter between all members of the group]
Man2
Who was the guy in the Broadway theater who was the manager and we used to throw the popcorn boxes at him?
TF
I didn't go to the Broadway.
Man2
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday afternoons and Sundays, they'd run like fifteen cartoons, [TF laughs], yeah, and, and, the management would come out every time the kids got bored, uh...
Mary
Turn the lights on and off.
Man2
Yeah, turn the lights on and off, yell at us. [Mary laughs] Yeah, it was, it was, like abusive, um, and, and we'd throw the popcorn boxes at him, [VP laughs] that would make him even more angry [VP laughs].
TF
So more input on the same stuff, I guess we all have the same memories.
VP
Right, right.
Mary
The whole thing about going to the movies was eating.
VP
[inaudible], it was eating?
TF
Eating?
Mary
Yeah.
Man2
You'd smell popcorn when it was being made.
Mary
And on Saturdays, the double features, you were gone for the day.
TF
And the serials.
Mary
Yeah.
TF
And wasn't it that the parents were really, finding a place for you to be entertained, while, he did their thing, that was Saturday night.
VP
And it, wasn't the second movie the B-rated movie, is that what you said, like?
TF
No, the B-rated movie was usually first.
VP
The first one, ok, ok.
TF
Then you had the serial in between...
VP
Ok.
TF
And then you had your better movie, whatever it was. [A women walks by] Hello there! [they talk briefly].
VP
[pause] Lt's see...anything else...I think that might be...
TF
Good! That's enough for you.
VP
[laughs] Actually do have a, a, another side, side question for you. Uh, one of the projects that I'm working on right now is, uh, a possible theater for Union Square. What would you think about a theater in Union Square, do you think that would be a, a good project to undertake, as far as, the city, do you think another theatre is needed or it'd do the area good.
TF
We don't really have a regular movie house, I mean the Somerville does what, really
[tape cuts out and ends]
