1956 Fresno, California

Rae Grieco
1946
Fresno, California
September 14, 2019
by Ryan Cain

I don’t remember ever going to the theater alone. It was always me and my two sisters Patty and Anita. I think when I got to be a little older we would take the bus to the theater, but in the early days we would walk. Nobody drove us there, that is for sure, mother did not have a car and was on welfare.  I remember walking to the theatre around the time I got glasses first, they were payed for by the city you know, but I could see the individual twigs on the trees for the first time.

Well anyways, I would say the walk was about a mile or so. From our house to downtown I mean. Everything at that time was downtown you know. Downtown Fresno was where all the action was.  No shopping malls or anything, but if you needed something you would just come downtown. The movie theater was on the main street of Fresno, I can’t remember the name of it – was it the Hearties? I am not sure, but I remember seeing it. There was this big neon sign for the name and had this big old-fashioned marque that always showed what was playing.

Inside the theater there was a large balcony and they had a group play live music or songs from the movie. We always sat around 10 rows back because we enjoyed the music and we tried to get into the theater early just to listen.  They also played these “news reels” before the picture and since we didn’t read newspapers then, it was the only way we found out about what was going on in the world. There were ushers in the theater as well, but not the kind that took us to our seats; they had other people to control the seats. I remember a concession stand too, but you know we could never really afford to buy anything there.

Instead we had our little hustle. We would go to a Thrifty’s – or maybe back then it was a Woolworth’s – and for a nickel you could get three candy bars.  I got the same three candy bars every time – Look, Abba-Zaba, and Snickers. We’d shove them in our pockets and sneak them into the theater instead of buying candy at the concession.

Tickets were expensive too for me and my sisters, so most of the time we ended up paying with bottle caps. I don’t quite remember but I think it was around fifteen bottle caps a ticket.  We sometimes had to go rummaging through garbage to find some extra, but often we would just go to my uncle’s liquor store.  He collected them in his shop with a tin bucket nailed to the wall beneath the bottle opener and would save them for us each week.

The first movie I saw? Oh, it had to be Hopalong Cassidy. But the first film I remember seeing? Well, that would have to be the Lone Ranger. I must have been around ten years old the time we started watching all those cowboy serials on the weekends, so I think it was sometime around 1956 or 57. You know who you should really be talking to is my sister Patty – boy does she have a memory. I bet she could tell you what we ate for lunch that day.  Anyways the thing I do remember about the Lone Ranger is well, just how he was always riding.  He had a mask but always wore white clothes and a white cap symbolizing the good guy, and he was well known for how fast he was to draw his gun.  There was his horse too, what was his name, oh yes, Silver! The two were always together, and then there was the sidekick that rode with them too, Tonto.  Tonto was an Indian guy who was tall and strong, but something about the two of them together meant they could really solve a lot of problems.

The Lone Ranger though, boy was he handsome. Oh, I just love him! I am not quite sure what it is about him exactly, just that he was a strong man and did all the cool things. He rode around and saved lots of people too.  I remember about the first time I saw his serial it was him and Tonto out interacting with some Indians.  There were some white men doing something bad to the Indians, and you know Tonto was also Indian so the two really wanted to put an end to what was going on.  Eventually the Lone Ranger caught the white guys and put them in jail. What really impressed me was that he always caught all those mean men.  The kids in the theater would scream and yell in excitement – oh boy were they a rowdy bunch! It was a big thing for us to go to the movies you know. Our lives were really tough back then and the Lone Ranger was always out rescuing people. So, I guess we always just wanted to be rescued too.