1952, San Bernardino California

Laura Cordova
Born 1946
San Bernardino, California
Interviewed on February 4th, 2026
by Abraham Payne

Abraham: What is the first movie you remember seeing?

Laura: Yes, that was a movie made in 1944 called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

Abraham: Okay, how old were you saw this movie approximately?

Laura: I was probably about six years old.

Abraham: So that would have been 1952?

Laura: Yeah, 1952.

Abraham: What do you remember about the movie? Do you remember anything specific about the film, and maybe why it was the first movie you can remember?

Laura: My very first recollection of it was that it was the first time that I had ever been taken to the movies with my older brothers and sisters. And it was about—it took place, I believe, in Egypt or something, and what made an impact on me was seeing a different culture from what we saw in everyday America. So that made an impression on me. That’s why it’s always stayed with me because the very first time that I realized that there were other cultures in this world.

Abraham: Can you tell me what you remember about the characters or any other aspects of the film? For example the characters, the actors, the story?

Laura: Oh wow, okay. Um, well, I found that the characters were completely different from people that I had ever seen. They dress differently. As far as the plot, I just remember that he would, uh, I didn’t know if he was stealing to help people or doing something like a Robin Hood thing, but that he was supposed to be the good guy in the film.

Abraham: Right.

Laura: And that’s what I remember.

Abraham: Do you by any chance remember anyone that starred in it, was there a famous actor or anything about that?

Laura: No, they were, they were not American actors at all.

Abraham: Oh, they weren’t American?

Laura: As far as I know.

Abraham: Was this an American film?

Laura: It was an American film, but I don’t remember who the actors were.

Abraham: Okay, okay.

Laura: And even then I don’t know if it was an American film. I just know that it was done and made in 1944.

Abraham: Okay.

Laura: And that’s because I looked it up because I was trying to remember the name of it, and then I finally came to me and I looked it up and I said, oh, that was 1944. You know, so, yeah.

Abraham: And so you did not see it in 1944 when the film was originally released. Can you talk a little bit about the environment in which you saw it?

Laura: In a theater. We’d actually go to the theater.

Abraham: So this would have been a rerun of the film when you first encountered it?

Laura: Yes, it was. It had to have been for me to remember it because it came out in 1944 and I wasn’t born until two years later and for me to remember it, I had to be at least about five or six years old.

Abraham: Gotcha. Do you, by any chance, remember what the specific theater was?

Laura: Not particularly. At that time, there were like five different theaters. I’m trying to remember, we’d had to go into town, and one was called The Crest, and the other one was the Ritz, and the other one was The California. And there were two other ones that I don’t remember. But it had to be in either one of those.

Abraham: And this was in San Bernardino where you grew up, is that correct?

Laura: This would have been in San Bernardino, yes.

Abraham: You said you went with your siblings? Can you say specifically who? Was there anyone else with you?

Laura: It would have probably been, um, my older sisters and my older brother.

Abraham: Your parents weren’t there?

Laura: No, not my parents.

Abraham: Do you remember how you got to the theater? Did you walk or did you drive or take the bus or?

Laura: We walked.

Abraham: Did you go see this movie with the intent of going to the movie theater? Were you nearby and wanted to pop in and see it? Do you remember the circumstances by which you came to see the film?

Laura: No, we actually—that was what we were going to do because we had the money. Uh, for a reason that the nickel or whatever it took to get in and we were going. That was our treat, I guess, from our dad, and we were going to walk. Yeah, that was—the destination was to go to the movie theater.

Abraham: Did you go with this particular film in mind or did you just see whatever was screening?

Laura: I think whatever was going to be showing, because we didn’t have a newspaper, we didn’t know what was going to be on. I think we just walked in and that was the one that was the time that we got there and so that’s where we went in.

Abraham: Gotcha. You don’t remember the name of the specific theater, but do you remember anything about the theater experience itself? Do you remember if there were ushers in the theater?

Laura: Yes, yes, there were ushers.

Abraham: Gotcha. Do you remember any concessions? Did you have a favorite candy or popcorn or something that you remember eating?

Laura: There were concessions, but we did not purchase any because we didn’t have the money for that.

Abraham: Right. Do you remember what concessions there were?

Laura: Mostly was popcorn, popcorn and some kind of carbonated drink could have been Coke or Pepsi. I have no idea.

Abraham: So no Icees just yet.

Laura: [Laughing] No, no, no.

Abraham: Can you remember anything about the sensory experience of the theater? Like the lights dimming and the color of the seats, the smell, the sounds, if anything particularly kind of comes to mind when you think about that day?

Laura: I think I… oh! I remember the carpet was red. And the theater smelled of popcorn. And I remember a rat going over my foot.

Abraham: Oh!

Laura: Yes. [Laughing]

Abraham: Wow. Um…

Laura: Yeah, I remember that and then I mentioned it to my sister and she just told me to, you know, uh, sit on my legs, you know.

Abraham: Was this in the middle of the film or before the film started?

Laura: I think it was in the middle of the film.

You: So you were committed to seeing the film at that point. You were like, “I’m not gonna let a rat stop me.”

Laura: Well, I had no choice because I was young and that nobody else was leaving. [Laughing]

Abraham: [Laughing] Right.

Laura: That’s right.

Abraham: Shifting gears a little bit, you said that your father gave you the money for this. Was there a specific occasion that he gave you the money or was it like an allowance thing? A birthday gift? Christmas?

Laura: It was just an occasion. It was just something that he had the extra money at that time and he handed it to my sister or my brother and he told us that we could go have a treat. You know.

Abraham: And the “treat” that you ultimately decided was the movies. Who was it that decided? I’m assuming not just you? Was it your sister, your brother? Was it a group decision in terms of who made the opposition to go to the movie theater?

Laura: The decision didn’t include me because like I said, I was so young. It was just something that they could go and spend an hour and a half or whatever long the movie was going to be and then we could go back. That was it. It was just, you know, something—a diversion for us. You know, since we very seldom had anything like that. And so he was, I think, at that time, I… I think he was… wow, I don’t even remember where he was working. Um, but yeah, it was just, just a treat. It was almost the thing about how we could get the most of what we had. And a movie was it. Okay, we could get the most entertainment out of going to a movie. We could have gotten candy and gone home, but that’s not, you know, it was, it was a really special treat, so I said, “No, we were going to go to the movies,” and let it extend longer than just a candy.

Abraham: Do you know if this was also your sibling’s first film or had they been to the theater before?

Laura: I don’t know. I’m pretty sure they must have, but this was my first experience.

Abraham: Could you tell me if you remember liking the film? Or what you came away with after seeing it?

Laura: I think what I could say is that I wanted to watch more movies and I really enjoyed it because it did expose me to other cultures. I think I made a big impression on you because I was so young and what they were presenting to me, I just took as fact, because I didn’t have anything else to refer to. This was the way they dressed. This is the way they spoke. This is how they lived.

Abraham: Do you have anything else that you would like to say about that experience at the movies?

Laura: I think the only thing I can say about it is that it must have made a great impact on me because to me at my age, I still remember it.

Abraham: Right.

Laura: You know, being a five or six year old for me to remember that and I have a habit of putting things [memories] away, you know, they don’t interest me, but that one always comes back to me, that movie. I don’t know why it made that impact on me, but that was just it, that I can still remember the movie. Not specific so much, but just the title. But I, you know, the visual part of it, you know. That that’s about it.

Abraham: One of the reasons that I chose you to interview is because today, you go to the movies more than anyone else I know. As a result, I was wondering if there was anything else you would like to say about growing up and going to the movies, maybe not this particular first movie that you saw, but other other movies that you saw as a kid and growing up that really impacted you?

Laura: Oh wow. In, in any, in any year or just?

Abraham: Yeah, this is kind of an informal addendum to the interview of the specific experience we discussed, and so I’m just curious if you could talk a little bit more about your relationship with going to the movies, in general. If you could talk about why you go to the movies every week, what your relationship with the cinema is and how it has changed over time.

Laura: Well, for me, it would be that you’re in a group of people that you’re gonna watch a movie that you’re interested in and how people react to that and the interpretation of what the director is trying to tell me. So I would like to see a movie maybe two or three times because every time that I see a movie, I see deeper into that movie. The first time I see a movie, I only see the first level of it. When I see it again, I know I can go beyond that first level and now I’ve seen the second level and the third. It’s the same way that I read a book. I read a book and I’m just taking what the author’s giving me and then later on I’ll read it again and I go, oh, I get it. I get it. So I just go deeper, deeper into it. And I am a visual person, I’ve always been a visual person. So to me, I just find that it’s, uh, I enjoy it. I enjoyed, um, what the director’s trying to tell you, um, what he’s trying to show you. And uh, And how that’s interpreted by whomever goes to see a movie, you know.

Abraham: What brings you back to the theater? Going to the theater with Mike rather than, you know, just watching a movie on Netflix or something with him every week.

Laura: I guess just the experience of being with the, with the kids, you know, as, as I was. The only—okay, the reason I remember Alibaba is because I think that’s the only movie that I ever went to see when I was young. It was only after I became, you know, a teenager, and then we would go see the movies and then we really didn’t pay attention to the movies. But as an adult, it was just the idea that it was a treat to take the kids to the movies. It was uh, to get the popcorn and to… well, primarily because Michael took such an interest and then, then your mother did, that we really enjoyed, you know, going to see these different movies. And so it was just the family experience.

Abraham: When did this practice start?

Laura: We started going to movies when Michael was, I think, eight years old, so Sylvia would have been, Sylvia’s what, six years younger, so, uh, she would have been two, so she wasn’t going to the movies then, we were leaving her with grandma.

Abraham: Right.

Laura: By the time she was like four or five, then we started going to the movies, you know. And, and, and then Adrian [her oldest son] never particularly cared for the movies, so he would stay with grandma or he would, you know, to stay with her cousins, you know, down the street. He never particularly cared for movies, so he never went. Uh, so it was just that. And it was our treat. It was because that’s what we could afford to do, good movies, because it only cost like maybe $2 or something like that to get into the movies. And the popcorn wasn’t that expensive and stuff, and then it got to the point where the popcorn’s getting really, very expensive. So, we would take popcorn from this place that sold all different kinds of popcorns and would take it, you know, underneath our coats and stuff. Some people could go to Disneyland, you know, once a month or they could go, you know, to the beach or whatever, and we didn’t have that. So what we had was movies. That was our entertainment.

Abraham: And this is something that you still do today with Uncle Mike, and now Aunt Souad [Laura’s daughter-in-law, Mike’s wife], and obviously Grandpa as well. Can you talk about why you still go every week?

Laura: Um, because I get to share the experience with Uncle Mike. Because I get to see him, you know, on a weekly basis. Uh, so it’s, I think it’s just a familial thing. It’s an opportunity for us to get to see him rather than just to see him at, uh, the holidays or birthdays. And that was a tradition that he wanted to keep up. You know, when he moved out of the house he said that we were going to continue going to the movies, and to me, that was, yeah, I really enjoyed that. It’s always just been about, okay, go see a movie and I enjoy, you know, watching the movie and knowing that we both experience this movie and then we can talk about it a little bit afterwards.

Abraham: Yeah, yeah. So really, for you it is like a sense of coming together and seeing each other and having this kind of shared experience of like a thing that you get to do together and then and then take with you afterwards. That’s interesting. Thank you so much for this!

Laura: Yes.

Abraham: So after this interview, it will be uploaded to the Movie Memory Project archive, with a collection of interviews of former student’s grandparents and such. I’m looking at the website now. This one’s from South Korea. This one is in India. This one’s in Lebanon. This one’s in Ohio. This one’s in New York. So, what will happen is, I will take this transcript and upload it so your story will be a part of this archive.

Laura: Wow, so I have left my footprint, huh?

Abraham: Yeah.

Notes:

Laura Cordova is my maternal grandmother. Today, she goes to the movie theater every Saturday morning with her husband, Adrian, her son, Michael, and his wife, Souad.

San Bernardino played a role in early Hollywood. In the 1920s, it often served as the “motion picture preview capital of the world,” (City of San Bernardino, Nicholas R. Cataldo) where major film studios presented preview screenings to audiences. Movie stars like Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, and Shirley Temple attend preview screenings of their films in San Bernardino.