Going to the Movies

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If there was one thing that my dad really loved it was going to the movies. Since he worked as an editor for a Latvian newspaper he got a day off during the week. This was a good time to go see movies as the theaters weren’t crowded. He always knew about the latest movies and since mom worked in Manhattan I was the likely candidate to go with him. Of course all movies weren’t made for children so dad had to be careful of what he chose. In the 60s I got to see “Mary Poppins” in 1964 and “The Sound of Music” in 1965 both starring Julie Andrews. The one movie that dad wanted to see above all else was “Dr. Zhivago”. However this was definitely not a movie for children since it involved the Russian revolution and Bolsheviks and so on. Dad was impatient to see it and decided he’d risk it. Well I don’t remember what if any kind of impression the movie made with me but the one thing I do remember is that the movie began with Yuri Zhivago as a little boy at this mother’s funeral. That night one little girl had nightmares and my mother’s commentaries are not for repeating. Dad was unhappy and mom had to sit up with me until I could fall asleep and sleep the night through. Years later I saw the movie again and I could very well understand why I had nightmares then. Mom had an incident with dad herself. They arrived in New York City from Germany in 1951 and first settled down in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, New York. At this time the original movie “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi was playing in the movie theaters. Well mom absolutely insisted that she must see this movie. Dad took her one evening. It made a very big impression on mom. After the movie she said she was so scared to walk home that she kept an iron grip on dad’s arm but dad only laughed. Dracula had made no impression on him at all.