How I Came to Love the Classics

by Jacqueline Gutierrez, age 18 

November 13, 1999

I love going to the movies and I have a special love for the classics. My family introduced me to classic movies when I was very young. My grandma and mom were telling me all about their favorite classic stars like Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Laurence Olivier. I was starting to get very interested in classic movies, and the first classic movie that I saw was Gone With the Wind. I was very lucky to see it in a movie theater. The experience was wonderful and I fell in love with this wonderful masterpiece.  I also fell in love with Clark Gable and my love for classic movies started. Then I saw It's a Wonderful Life and I fell in love with Jimmy Stewart and this wonderful film. After I saw these two excellent films, I got more and more interested in classic movies.  I started to watch them on video and TV--Waterloo Bridge, The Wizard of Oz, It Happened One Night, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, An Affair To Remember, Singin' in the Rain, Giant, An American in Paris, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Top Hat, The Best Years of Our Lives, Roman Holiday--and that was only the beginning of my love for classic movies. 

I became a fan of Jimmy Stewart, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Clark Gable, Doris Day, Cary Grant, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Grace Kelly, Gregory Peck, Fred and Ginger, Gene Kelly, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Claude Rains, Shirley Temple, Cyd Charisse, Eleanor Powell, Ingrid Bergman, Gene Tierney and Judy Garland and they were the inspiration for my love of classic movies. I am very happy to see so many other classic movie fans too.

In my opinion, the greatest movies of all times are the great films of the '30s, '40s, '50s and some of the '60s.  I was very lucky to see a few classics in a special movie theater dedicated to show the classic movies, like Gone With the Wind, Spartacus, Vertigo, Casablanca, Dial M For Murder, Rebel Without a Cause, Oliver! and Rear Window, but unfortunately, that movie theater is now closed. 

I have a dream, and that dream is that one day I will own a classic movie theater so that I could show many great classic films so that new generations appreciate the great talents of the classic stars like Fred and Ginger, Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, Claude Rains, Ingrid Bergman and Jimmy Stewart. 

The scripts of the classics were very well-written, the performances were very well-acted and the classic movies were much better than today's films. That's the reason why I became a classic movie fan.

I always get very happy when I watch one of my favorite films, and I also love to dream. I always get very happy when I watch Maria teaching the Von Trapp children to sing "Do-Re-Mi" in The Sound of Music, I always sigh when Sam is playing "As Time Goes By" in Casablanca, I always get excited when Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins are singing "The Rain in Spain" in My Fair Lady and I also dream that I am dancing with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. 

My five favorites of all time are Gone With the Wind, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, It's a Wonderful life and Casablanca. The classics are forever. 

(Please send your comments on this article to its author, Jacqueline, at jackie@bsmx.com.)

© 1999 Jacqueline Gutierrez

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