Let's Go Out to the Movies
Movies figured prominently in the lives of Americans on
the home-front. Quinsigamond Village was no exception to this trend.
Due to gas rationing, many people were restricted to the local community
for entertainment. With only the news and the radio for information
about the War, motion pictures provided Americans everywhere with powerful
images of American supremacy abroad. The public responded to the campaign
of the movie industry by coming in droves to the theaters.
Recognizing
the potency of the motion picture industry in shaping civilian morale
during the war years, the Office of War Information's Bureau of Motion
Pictures was created in 1942 with the aim of collaborating with Hollywood
to keep morale high among Americans at home. (21)
The implications for the film industry, as popularly perceived by Hollywood
executives, is captured in this mission statement from the Hollywood
Writers Mobilization for Defense: "The wartime function of movies…
is to build morale, and morale is… education… inspiration…
confidence." (22) Hollywood and
local theaters allied themselves by selling war bonds, serving as venues
for Red Cross fundraisers, and showing newsreels of the victorious Allies
in war-torn Europe. (23)
The themes typical of movies during the era naturally reflected traditionally
American patriotic values: the enduring heroism of the American soldier,
a heartless enemy, and close-knit troops dedicated to victory. These
films did not delve into the darker aspects of the conflict. Racial
tension among diverse American troops, the prevalence of alcoholism
among American soldiers, and the violence of battle were all aspects
of soldiers' lives that movie executives tried to stay away from. Considering
the fact that only 27 percent of those in the service during WWII actually
faced combat situations is a telling statement on the film industry's
role in mythmaking. Nonetheless, the movies filled a perceived void
in the lives of Americans at home. As Quinsigamond resident Eleanor
Rudge reflects on her experience in the Village, "We needed
it." 
The uncanny rise in movie attendance during the war years
lends added significance to this aspect of wartime culture. During the
1930s, an average of 60 million Americans filed into theaters each week.
During the War, this number jumped to 90 million. (24)
After what could have been a long walk to Millbury Street, villagers
paid their ten cents to enter the community's movie house, the Rialto
Theater (Gordon
Forsberg). If the Rialto was sold out, you would find many villagers
downtown at Loew's Theater, or at Capitol or Royal Theaters. (25)
Italian immigrant Fred Fedeli was the long-time owner of the Rialto,
whose theater was razed with the construction of highway 290. (26)
As the
appeal of the films' messages grew with the duration of the war, Rudge
says going to the movies became a kind of ritual. It was a custom that
she appreciates today: "They were wonderful. We really needed it.
The good guys always came home and we needed that, we need too-the hope-that
our boys would come home. But we always went to the movies, we'd meet
in town and go, then we'd go to the doughnuts shop after. We took the
public transportation. No one drove." Along with the movies' thematic
elements, movie-goers were in awe of the sites of the battlegrounds
in Europe that were shown in the newsreels prior to the start of the
film. Evelyn Grahn,
a gradate of Commerce high school, reflected on the newsreels: "And,
every movie we'd go to, you'd see wonderful news. You know, not just
a flash, it would be, almost like a whole film." She continued:
"And you were right in, it was just a movie, but we were right
in the cities where the troubles were. So it was interesting in that
way."
Not everyone in the Village flocked to the movie house however. While
some area residents said they simply could not afford to go, others
admitted that they never were big movie fans. Some were fully engaged
in church sports teams, visiting dance halls, or in attending weekly
events held at the American Steel & Wire assembly hall. The absence
of the movie house today is lamented by villagers who appreciated the
way it vitalized the Quinsig community. Former American Steel &
Wire worker Ed Steele
commented, "They don't have anything like that down there now.
That's why it's so dead now. You take a long walk down there at night,
absolutely dead, even though they put the community center down there."