1952 Mexico City, Mexico 2

Tomas Reyes Revilla
Born in 1945
Mexico City, Mexico
Interviewed on 21 September 2019
Interview conducted and translated by Alec Bernal

I was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1945, and I moved to el Distrito Federal, or, rather, what used to be el Distrito Federal, when I was seven years old. Going from Oaxaca to the most crowded city in Mexico meant we had access to movie theaters.

The first movie I watched was King Kong, the 1933 black and white film, though I watched it in 1952. It was an impressive film. King Kong was this big gorilla, and there was la mujer bella, too. The most impactful scene of the movie was when King Kong climbs the top of the Empire State Building, with planes circling him while la mujer bella was in his hand.

I wasn’t afraid of King Kong, even back then I knew he couldn’t exist. But there was something about him that was fascinating to me, it struck awe in me. Maybe it was the size of the gorilla, or maybe it was that we saw the Empire State Building as the most important building in the most powerful country on earth. Uno nunca había visto eso (one had never seen that before).

I don’t remember the actors anymore, but I remember being impressed by the power of the gorilla gigante. It was also impressive because of the story. I don’t remember the details, but I remember being amazed that the powerful gorilla was capable of loving and caring for la mujer bella.

I lived about four blocks away from the movie theater, maybe five blocks… it couldn’t have been more than 500 meters away. Since it was close, we didn’t have to take the metro, we could just walk there. Sometimes I would go with my siblings, sometimes I would go with some of the other kids in the neighborhood.

The movie theater was called Cine Jalisco, named after a state in Mexico. The theater is on La Avenida Revolucíon. The building still exists, but it’s a church now. The theater was big and spacious, with beautiful red velvet curtains that opened and closed in a cool way. The screen was big, very bright and very impressive.

The movie theater cost 1.50 pesos. At least that was the Sunday matinee price, which is all we could afford. Even then, our father would only give us 1 peso or 1.50 pesos, so we weren’t able to afford both the ticket and food. We were clever though… I would go with your Tía Luz and Tío Memo to the movie theaters with the money our father gave us, and we would ask the person at the ticket counter if he would let us enter for free. It always seemed to work, even though sometimes we would have to beg for a while until they got annoyed and let us in. It was never malicious; it was just so we could buy food. My favorite was the palomitas de maíz, which were tasty but very salty. That’s why, if we had enough money, we would get a refresco. My favorite was always Coca Cola. They had Orange Crush, Cidral, and other flavors, but la Coca was always the best. We didn’t always have enough for it, but it was nice when we did.

We went to the theater almost every Sunday — it was cheaper, and they usually did double features. I don’t remember many of the films, but I remember they were all in black and white, with Cinemascope, I believe. I saw plenty of movies… I saw one with a Tarantula gigante, one with Godzilla. There was one called Los Hombres Radar de la Luna (Radar Men from the Moon) that I enjoyed a lot. They were in all in English, so we enjoyed them through Spanish subtitles.

Other than sci-fi films, Westerns were popular, too. They were jovial, and I always felt immersed in the movie, like I was there with them. Do you know Jyon Wa-in? He was the most popular actor in Westerns… an unforgettable artist.

There was also the fat guy and the skinny guy… Oliver and someone else… Stan and Oliver, that’s right! (Tomas laughs when I tell him the name after searching it online). They were English, I think, but they were comics popular at the world level.

There was Charlee Chaplee, too, he didn’t talk in his movies. Maybe that was a good thing, he didn’t need to speak, and he was still lo máximo. His actions were sufficient to make everyone laugh. He would make all of us laugh without language… laughter is universal. Nunca se me olvidará (I will never forget that).