1946 Torino, Italy

Alberto Abelli
Born in 1940
Torino, Italy
Interviewed on January 28, 2019
By Carlo Abelli

The first movie I went to…it was just after the war. It was 1946, so I was 6. My father died in the war, so we were invited as children of soldiers who died in the war. We were invited by the Americans to see a movie. I think it was called “Gone With the Wind.”

It was strange because the country that was inviting me to this movie was the same one that killed my father. However, I remember I was so excited, because it was the first time I saw a movie.

It was packed and I had short pants still. The movie was very very long and I remember half way through I had to go to the bathroom. I remember that it starred Clark Gable.

It was a big elegant theater, almost like a smaller La Scala. It looked like an opera theater. Very fancy. An important elegant place in the city of Torino.

The projector was loud and you could hear it during the movie. Between the acts they stopped because they had to put in the next roll. So the whole movie would be split into multiple acts. During the breaks waiters would go around to all the seats offering drinks: lemonade and gazzosa. Maybe that was the first time I had a Coca Cola.

It was not like the states where you bought food before going in. These guys were going around during the intervals. And there wasn’t much food to buy. Italy did not have popcorn back then, so maybe they had some candies or chocolate. Most people were just drinking. Also they were smoking, and not just during the break. Often during the movie it was hard to see through all the smoke.

The situation just after the war…there were not too many movies around for us to see. There was no television. You went to the movie theater and every time they had some documentary on what was going on politically or economically. That was one way to get the news. The only video news was at the movie theater. You went for the movie, but you also went to see the news.

Later on, I remember going to the movies on special occasions: the first day of the year or birthdays when we could afford to. When we couldn’t afford the movie theater, the churches often had a small projector where they would show some films.

I remember back in those days the difference between the Italian and the American movies. Movies were very important in Italy back then. Neorealismo. They were very realistic and did not have big actors, but took people from the street to act. I remember “Bicycle Thieves”. It was very sad. You could see the cities in bad shape after the war.

Then we saw the opposite, the American movies. Gary Cooper and Kirk Douglas and the actresses Marilyn Monroe starred in the happy movies. We saw a completely happy life. Money and music. I remember Singing in the Rain. The girls would try to copy the hairstyle and the dresses.