Tale of Moonlight (1968) Soviet Animated Short Film

by G. Jack Urso

 

From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube Channel.

It’s always like that — if you try very hard to correct your mistake, the world becomes brighter. Oh, so much brighter! — Tale of Moonlight

I was first exposed to animated films from behind the Iron Curtin in the 1970s on PBS’ International Animation Festival (1975-1976), which I have previously reviewed on Aeolus 13 Umbra. Compared to American animated films of the same period, appreciating their Soviet counterparts requires a shift away from the style pallet of Western Saturday morning cartoon fare. American animation houses of the same period, Disney, Filmation, Hanna Barbara, Walter Lantz, and Warner Brothers, are easily identifiable and, of course, in English. So, navigating Soviet animation, with different artistic sensibilities, cultural context, and in another language, takes a bit of a shift for Western audiences; however, with patience one can appreciate the sense of fantasy and whimsy in many of the productions.

One excellent example is Tale of Moonlight (1968). Directed by Irina Gurvich and written by Gurvich and Nina Gernet. The narrator is Russian actor Viktor Khalatov. Gurvich herself is a graduate of Kyiv Art Institute, Ukraine. In this nine-minute short film, a black kitten accidently knocks over its owner’s lamp, breaking it. Going in search of a new one, the kitten thinks the Moon would be a good replacement. Unable to capture the Moon, the kitten returns home covered in glowing moon dust, thinking it failed, but its owner, a kindly doctor, is pleased because the light he needs comes from the kitten itself.

The story ends on the note: “It’s always like that — if you try very hard to correct your mistake, the world becomes brighter. Oh, so much brighter!”

How much better would our world be if it learned this little film’s lesson.

The translation of the narration below was provided by Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel subscriber MsMythOfDarkness, transcribed in Russian by Gemini 2.5 Pro and then translated to English by GPT-5.

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Screen shot from Tale of Moonlight.

Tale of Moonlight (1968) Narration:

Once, an old doctor had a kitten.

He was completely black — black as night — because that’s how he was born.

From morning until evening, the doctor treated children and grew very tired, because he always thought more about others than about himself.

In the evenings, the doctor would rest and always read the newspaper.

But the kitten would bother him, because what he loved most of all was playing cat-and-mouse.

“What’s this?” the doctor asked, upset.

“This is a tale about moonlight.”

“What have I done? I broke the doctor’s lamp.”

The kitten felt terribly guilty, because in the dark the doctor couldn’t read — not even with his glasses.

But where could she find a new light bulb? The kitten didn’t know.

“Maybe there’s a lamp shining over there,” thought the kitten. “I have to run quickly.”

Of course, the kitten was a little scared to be alone at night, but still he ran and ran, because . . .

On the hill stood the Moon — just then rising into the sky from behind it.

The kitten saw tiny fields and seas, and the lights of cities — because when you climb very high, everything below looks small, very small.

The kitten grew terribly bored and wanted to go home, because there was no lamp on the Moon after all. It was simply bright. That’s all.

“I think I’ve finally found a lamp,” the kitten rejoiced, because a star was shining even brighter than a lamp.

And by that time, the Moon had gone all the way around the Earth and returned home — because home, after all, is the best place of all.

“I don’t understand what he’s so happy about,” thought the kitten, because, in his view, nothing good had happened.

“What’s this?” said the doctor. “Why is it so bright?”

“I tried so very hard to make it bright again," the kitten wanted to answer, "but even the Moon laughed at me.”

That moonlit path, perhaps, appeared because all along the way the moonlight was falling from the kitten’s fur.

It’s always like that — if you try very hard to correct your mistake, the world becomes brighter. Oh, so much brighter!

 

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Mid-Century Modern Elegance: The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge, Catskill, NY

by G. Jack Urso

The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge in the mid-1960s.
All interior and exterior images of the Skyline are from period postcards.

In late 1989, I started a job in education at Hudson Correctional Facility in upstate New York. I spent most days going back and forth over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge in Catskill, NY, connecting the East and West sides of the banks of the Hudson River, not far from artist Fredrick Church’s historic Olana estate. As I crossed over from Hudson to Catskill, just past the toll booths on the right was a turn off with small hill on top of which sat a beautiful 1960s-era Mid-Century Modern building with a large sign that advertised the “Skyline Restaurant.”

Clearly abandoned, the building sat windswept and neglected amid the encroaching scrubs and trees. After a stressful day in the prison, and having a somewhat sentimental nature, I looked forward to crossing the Rip Van Winkle and even getting stuck on it during the seemingly endless construction on the bridge that took place in the early 1990s. It gave me just that much longer to check out the Skyline and marvel at its huge glass windows and slanted wooden beams that had the catbird seat looking over the Hudson. Past the bridge on the opposite side, one could see the large gothic Olana mansion set amid a sculpted landscape. At twilight, the golden glow of the setting sun would bath the Skyline. The scene must have been gorgeous any time of year, but particularly in the fall when an Oriental carpet of colors lay throughout the Hudson River Valley.

The main dining room at The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge, mid-1960s.

Its full name, I discovered many years later, was the Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lodge. The “Terrace Lodge” moniker recalls the famous Borscht Belt Catskill resort Grossinger’s Terrace Room and, indeed, the name is still used with some finer restaurants to evoke a sense of class and fine dining.

Eventually, my work shifted me north and away from the Catskill area. Many years later, when I returned to teach in prisons, I began crossing the Rip Van Winkle Bridge once again. To my disappointment, the Skyline Restaurant building was gone and if there were any remains, they lay hidden by a thick growth of brush and trees that now obscured the hill.

Overhead map of the north side of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge with the approximate location in red of where the Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge once stood (Google Maps, 2025).

In the decades following my first encounter with the Skyline, I obviously didn’t forget about it, but occasional internet searches revealed little until finally not long ago I came across a post on Facebook in which former customers recalled the old restaurant. Then, I finally had enough information to begin pulling together some history of the restaurant and what became of it. As the Mid-Century Modern design of the building suggests, the Skyline Restaurant was built to cater to that generation and it did so with a classic, and expensive, Mid-Century American menu. 

The Skyline Building

The ten specially laminated wood beams that support the roof each weigh a ton and are 61 feet long, varying in thickness from 6 to 20 inches. The wide fireplace and chimney with its unusual hood are field stone. Floors are Vermont slate, tile and carpeting.

     —     Description from the back of a Skyline Restaurant and Lounge menu.

The main dining room at The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge, 

looking west out the windows, mid-1960s.

The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lodge was built and run by Ben and Helen Winter. According to a relative I connected with on Facebook, they operated it throughout the 1960s and later sold it in the early 1970’s. It’s not clear how long it ran under the new owners, but it was definitely an abandoned building by the late 1980s. I suspect it closed down sometime in the 1970s for reasons I’ll get into later.

Looking at the long row of floor-to-ceiling windows and the skylights, anyone who ever had to pay a utility bill probably can see one of the largest expenses likely was the power bill. Sitting on a wind-swept hill above the Hudson River, freezing in the winters, baking in the summers, and not to mention two large walk-in coolers, the electricity expenses must have been considerable. The Winter’s sold it around the time of the 1973 Oil Crisis set in and they were probably lucky to do so. Given the Skyline’s location and reputation, it must have seemed like a wise investment at the time, but one can’t predict how quickly things can change. That is just speculation. There can be many reasons for a business to close completely unrelated to its expenses or income.

Back cover of the menu for The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge menu, 

circa mid-1960s.

At some point, the structure is reported to have burned down, but exactly when is not known. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as best as I could tell at the time, the structure just looked abandoned, not gutted by fire, but I could only see the front of the building as I drove by and it sat on a hill a few hundred feet from the bridge turn off. Nevertheless, there may have been a fire and the structure left standing in the hope it could be restored, but a photo posted in 2023 on a Catskill, NY, community group page on Facebook, clearly shows a dilapidated building with the roof fallen in. The photo’s date is not known, and likely before 2023. So, while the date and extent of damage of the fire is unknown, whenever the building was eventually demolished it was after the early 1990s.

The ruins of the Skyline Restaurant before demolition. Some fire damage on one beam can be seen. Credit: Clifford Beele, Facebook, Jul. 22, 2023.

What’s on the Menu

Kitchen walls of glazed ceramic tiles, stainless steel equipment, and minimum 180 degree automatic dishwashing . . . Ample refrigeration is provided by two large walk-in coolers . . . our Neptune Live Lobster Tank with its constantly circulating salt water, the next best thing to a lobster’s natural environment . . . keeps them very much alive.

    —     Description from the back of a Skyline Restaurant and Lounge menu.

The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge menu, circa mid-1960s.

The Skyline’s menu is a model of Mid-Century American dining — for meat eaters. If you were a vegetarian your choices were limited to five salads, potatoes, the “vegetable of the day,” and that’s pretty much it. The surf and turf offerings, however, were expansive and expensive. The brief selection below includes both the original menu prices circa 1965 with the equivalent 2025 dollar amount in parentheses (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator).

Broiled 16 oz. Sirloin Steak	$5.95 ($61.61)
Broiled 14 oz. Filet Mignon	$5.95 ($61.61)
Spring Lamb Chops	$3.80 ($39.35)
Calf’s Liver	$3.25 ($33.65)
2-lb Lobster	$4.95 ($51.25)
Frog Legs Provencale	$4.00 ($41.42)
Fried Frog Legs	$4.00 ($41.42)
Fried Florida Shrimp	$3.00 ($31.06)
Broiled Brook Trout Amondine	$3.00 ($31.06)
Broiled Swordfish Steak	$2.75 ($28.47)

As you can see, some of those 2025 price equivalents are breathtaking, to say the least. Similar steak dishes are cheaper today at a place like The Outback, but the scope and quality of the Skyline’s menu would be hard to match.

As wide as the menu’s offering are, keep in mind, they had to have all this on hand and be confident they could sell most of it before the sell-by dates.

Inside the menu of The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge menu, circa mid-1960s.

Another aspect of the Skyline’s menu was the wide choice of alcohol, including (among many, many, others) burgundy, champagne, chianti, Rhine wines, sherry, vermouth, port, gin, Courvoisier, Dubonnet, brandy, vodka, and, yes, domestic and imported beers.

The bar at The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lounge, mid-1960s.

People came to the Skyline to eat the finest cuisine, drink the finest wine and liquors, and pay damn well for it and the service. By all accounts, under the Winter’s ownership, the Skyline did just that.

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Sidebars and Salad Bars

Valle's Steak House sign, Albany, NY, circa 1960s. Credit: Saxon Sign.

The Skyline Restaurant recalls another Mid-Century eatery, Valle’s Steak House. A chain scattered throughout the Eastern United States, Valle’s sported a menu of pricey steak and seafood options as well as a cocktail lounge. Several locations, like the one in Albany, NY, and Springfield, MA, sported a Mid-Century Modern building design with fieldstone, timber, and large glass elements. Valle’s got hit during the economic downturn and energy crisis of the 1970s and fell prey to high inheritance taxes after the death of founder Donald Valle in 1977, eventually closing in the 1980s. The large-scale Mid-Century Modern design of the buildings, like those pictured below, also contributed to high overhead costs.

Valle's Steak House, Springfield, MA. Circa 1970s.

The former Valle's Steak House, Albany, NY, had a similar design to the one in Springfield, MA., now Bryant and Stratton College (Nov. 2024). The covered carport in front of the entrance, visible in the photo above, has since been removed here, though the exterior is otherwise unchanged.

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The Transsexual Skyline Squatter

After being sold, the Skyline reportedly didn’t remain open long, though how long is not known. Access to Catskill phone books from the era would help solve the mystery. Typically, one can find those at a local library, but that would require about an hour drive each way (ironic, since I once worked across from the Catskill Public Library for several years). While continuing my research on what happened to the Skyline after it closed, I came across a cryptic Facebook posting noting that two individuals squatted on the Skyline property for a short time (presumably before the fire). Their names were John-Paul and Dawn Langley Simmons.

John-Paul and Dawn Langley Simmons. Credit unknown.

I wasn't sure if that was a figurative or literal reference to squatting, but I thought it unusual is that after 45-50 years later, someone still recalled their names. If someone remembered them for so long there has to be a bigger story — and, boy, was there ever!

As it turns out, Dawn Langley Simmons, born and raised in England and later moved to Charleston, South Carolina, was named Gordon Langley Hall at birth. Born intersexed, but assigned male, she consequently went through a sex change operation as an adult. An experienced editor and prolific author, Dawn wrote several books before her move to the Catskills in the 1970s, funded, presumably, by her success in publishing.

Dawn, a White woman, married John-Paul Simmons, an African American man (alternatively described as a chauffeur, mechanic, and sculptor) in 1969. Interracial marriage in South Carolina (where the Simmons married) was illegal until 1967 when the Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. To its credit, New York, along with six other states, never had any anti-interracial marriage laws on the books in its history.

John-Paul and Dawn Langley Simmons on their wedding day. Credit unknown.

Looking for more accepting environs, the Simmons headed north. According to a The New York Times article, “Transsexual Starting New Life in Catskills,” Nov. 23, 1975, the couple moved into a former gothic home where President Martin Van Buren, who lived in nearby Kinderhook, was married. The Simmons had plans to restore it but abandoned the property when a book deal Dawn was working on fell through and they were unable to complete the sale, leaving the home, reportedly, “an empty wreck.” 

The Simmons’ purported squatting in the Skyline, if true, seems like it could have been another attempt gone bad to restore a building. If so, it likely occurred after 1975 since the Times article does not mention it (and such an incident would be relevant to the story), but before 1982 when the Simmons divorced. The fire must have happened after the Simmons left the Skyline, if indeed they were there.

After this difficult period of her life, Dawn returned to Charleston and went on to author a total of 20 books, novels, biographies, and children’s books, before passing away in 2000. John-Paul moved to Albany, NY, continuing as an artist, and passed away in 2012. In his obituary, though long divorced, Dawn was still listed as John-Paul’s “predeceased wife.”  

Concluding Thoughts

Matchbook.

I have a fondness for old buildings, even the ones no longer there, as covered in my essay, Novak Bowling Supplies, Avenue A, in which I explore where the old shed that contained the aforementioned bowling business once stood and tracked down who owned it and what became of him. Likewise, with both family and friends having been involved in the restaurant business, I have a fondness for the history and drama behind the scenes in food service as covered in my articles The Last Days of the Metro Diner and The Rise and Fall of Big Dom’s Subs. I tried to unearth what information about the Skyline as I could, but there are few print sources available on the internet, and not much on social media, so the information I sought would probably be found through oral histories by speaking with those who recall The Skyline Restaurant and Terrace Lodge, as well as the local library and newspaper archives, but I would have to live in the area to do that.

There’s more that could be dug up about the Skyline, and I suspect it would be no less dramatic, or sentimental, than it was for the Metro Diner and Big Dom’s Subs — though, admittedly, with a much better menu and view.

Sunset Over Olana and Rip Van Winkle Bridge by Kenneth Salaz - Art Renewal Center.

 

Note: Anyone who ever ate at, worked at, or knows any of the lore surrounding the Skyline Restaurant, please share your comments below!

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