1955 San Antonio, Texas

James Billings
Born in 1946
First movie memories from San Antonio, Texas
Interviewed on January 21, 2019
by Ameera Billings

The first movie I recall going to, when I was about eight years old, was Lady and the Tramp, so this was in the mid-fifties—1955, I think. It was a Disney movie. My father was a TV repairman, so we had a TV, and I was very familiar with the movie from watching Disney on television, and I remember I hounded my mother to go see this movie.

My mother worked downtown, and so my oldest sister, who is about six years older than I am, took me on the bus to meet my mother at the Majestic Theater in downtown San Antonio, which is an old theater, but probably the nicest. It was originally a theater where plays and performances and such were held and had been converted to a motion picture theater. It was very ornate and large with balconies and statues and carvings everywhere. Even the ceiling was made up to look like the sky, with stars when the lights went down. The theater itself was a spectacle, to say the least.

When we arrived, we got in line, and it was a long line. It wrapped all the way around the block. It was a very popular movie. I don’t remember if it was the opening day, but it must have been very close to it.

After we stood in line, we went into the theater. I think a ticket was something like a quarter for a kid like me back then. They did have a concession there, and it was full of candies and popcorn and drinks. I think we got a bag of popcorn on the way in, but I always liked it if I got those malted chocolate balls. Those were my favorite.

After we got our popcorn, we went inside and there were ushers in uniform with their little hats on. What I noticed more was that they had flashlights because it was semi-dark inside, just before the show started, and so they would lead you to your seat. I think they sat us on the ground floor.

Back then, movies used to start with a newsreel of whatever was going on that day. The Korean War had wound down by that time, so it was mostly just international news. After the newsreel, they would have a cartoon, either Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse or something. After the cartoon, they would have a short, which is just a ten or twelve minute movie—usually a comedy. Then finally, they would have the main attraction.

The movie, of course, was an animated movie and it was very colorful. I was used to looking at things in black and white on a small screen—TVs were very small back then—but this was a huge screen and the colors were very vivid, especially for someone my age. Another thing I remember is how clear the sound was—much, much better than what I used to watch on the little television set we had.

I enjoyed the story, essentially a love story about two dogs. Lady came from a very affluent family and Tramp was just a dog off the street, but he had a real nice character. One scene I remember in particular was the scene where he had taken her out on the town and they went to an Italian restaurant, but, being dogs, they went to the back door through the alley. One of the cooks liked Tramp and gave him a bowl of spaghetti. And so they were eating the spaghetti, and kind of looking around, and both ended up on the same strand of spaghetti, and they ended up kissing, which I thought was funny at the time.

Going to the movies as a child was always an event. It was something out of the ordinary. It was getting dressed and going there and enjoying the movie with others, usually my family. I always enjoyed the whole experience. We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up, so going to the movies was a really special occasion.