As a child, I lived with movie stars

It was, by no means, a great cinema palace, the Wythe Theatre which I attended on Saturday afternoon in my childhood. For me, however, it was a magical auditorium, a refuge from my ordinarily rather humdrum world.

It was a neighborhood movie house located in the Wythe Shopping Center two blocks from my house. For a quarter, I could get to see cartoons, a news reel, and a full-length feature; possibly a double-feature on weekends. No doubt about it, it was a bargain. Ventures onto that theater was an exhilarating and eye-opening escape into an exotic universe that was larger than life. The movie stars were larger than life characters too, and I knew then, or thought I did, like people in my own town, although in truth, they were absolutely nothing like my neighbors, Mrs. Ferguson or Mr. Joyner. No, not in the least.

The silver screen produced larger-than-life images of larger-than-life stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn. In no fashion nor at any time did such luminaries grace the environs of our Wythe District. Although I suppose I could mention that Ava Gardner once attended Newport News High School with my brother-in-law, Billy. That was, however, back in the day when she was an awkward, not particularly glamorous teenager, if you can possibly imagine it.

The huge movie screen in the theater made the actors appear up close and personal. After seeing them week after week, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe and Tony Randall were almost like old friends.

Also at the movies, I traveled the earth. I witnessed Niagara Falls, with all its power and glory; spent an evening dancing in the rain in Paris with Gene Kelly; and traversed the Red Sea with Charlton Heston. In that darkened theater, watching the flickering screen before me, I journeyed to hitherto unknown parts of the world way outside the walls of my house on Bay Avenue.

And also a far galaxy removed from my lackluster daily routine of going to school, coming home to do homework, sleeping at night.

I do not have fond memories of my school days. I hated studying in the classroom five days a week. I despised homework as well. Going to the movies, on Saturday was a great escape for me. Movies meant total and complete entertainment; there was absolutely nothing for me to learn from them, or so I thought.

Little did I know that my visits to the Wythe Theatre were an educational experience after all. I learned Civil War history from Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable in “Gone With the Wind,” in Hollywood fashion, of course. British film maker Alfred Hitchock taught me American geography in the film “North by Northwest.” Actress Eva Marie Saint was by far, a much more interesting instructor than old Mrs. Selby, my third grade teacher. And I wasn’t so young that I couldn’t see that Mrs. Selby couldn’t hold a candle to her in the pulchritude department. Why did textbooks have to be so boring? They put me to sleep, especially when I did my homework just before bedtime. The conflicts between the farmers and the cowboys in the Oklahoma territory sure were a lot more interesting when told in a musical by Rogers and Hammerstein. Oops, I suppose I was learning more at the Wythe Theatre than I ever imagined.

No matter. Those Saturday matinees were a wonderful respite from the trials and tribulations of home life. Yes, Saturday was the one day of the week when irrepressible negative forces came together. Perhaps they weren’t so negative forces as much as opposing ones. Dad, who had spent eight hours of the day working at the shipyard all week long, and mom who had spent all week at home, the lone adult, with the run of the house, suddenly became colliding weather systems and the perfect storm of emotions erupted.

On Saturday mornings our house could be like a battle ground state. Mom and dad fought the battle of wills and will power. Dad was an early riser during the week, leaving the house to go to work at 6 a.m. Habits weren’t easy to break, and he was always up at the crack of dawn. Mom, on the other hand, wished to sleep in. All week long she had risen early, cooked dad’s breakfast and packed his lunch through no choice of her own. And if that wasn’t enough, she had to repeat the process for us six kids. She felt she deserved a break, and that meant sleeping in on Saturday morning.

That was fine by Dad, but he got up anyway and let loose in the kitchen whipping up a breakfast fit for a king or at least, a hungry bunch of kids. Although he never accused her, she inferred that dad implied she was lazy. She rose up out of bed and stormed into the kitchen. Thunder and lightning ensued. Not literally, but platters and saucers crashed against the kitchen wall as mom flung them in a rage. The storm was short lived, but the metaphorical dark cloud hung in the air throughout the house. Hours would pass before the sunlight broke out.

Safe and secure, I spent several afternoon hours at peace in the Wythe Theatre. In the darkness of the movie house with only the flickering screen lighting up my world, I find a welcome reprieve from the harshness of the real world.

Emerging from the theater in late afternoon, I blinked by eyes at the first glimpse of the sunlight. The sky was a bright blue, and the surrounding neighborhood was bathed in surreal, copper light, a technicolor world.

Gradually I had to adjust to “life as usual,” hoping all the while that the atmosphere at home had calmed down in my absence, and hopefully mom and dad were talking civilly again.

The movies back then often took me on wonderful journeys of escape. They got me through the rough patches that life sometimes presented. Those actors, actresses, directors, cameramen were often my liberators. Their glamorous celluloid images both entertained and educated me. They imbued this child’s young mind with a sense of wonder. As for me, I think the actors are more than simply film stars. They are all winners. I would give all of them Oscars.

Whipple is a Williamsburg writer who has published several books.

Academy Awards

The 89th Academy Awards (known as the Oscars) will take place Sunday, Feb. 27.

Coverage begins at 7 p.m. on ABC.

A full list of Oscar nominations can be found at bit.ly/Oscarpics.