1956 Kalamazoo, Michigan
Gail Toda
Born 1949
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Interviewed on 1/20/2024
by Genevieve Kim
What was the first movie you remember seeing?
I’ve been thinking about this because I thought you might ask that. The first one I remember seeing is Fantasia. Disney was responsible for it, I think. And I was in second grade. Our whole class went from Plainwell down to Kalamazoo to the State Theater. There were stars in the ceiling. I remember that. Have you ever seen Fantasia?
It’s the one where Mickey Mouse has the sorcerer’s hat? And the broomstick comes to life?
Yeah. Yes, it’s several different classical music pieces and each one is set to a cartoon kind of a thing. That one’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” And “The Rite of Spring” is another one. That’s the beginning of the earth. Oh, at the end is “Ave Maria” right after “Night on Bald Mountain”. So, for somebody in second grade, it made an impression. I really don’t think I had seen a movie before that, other than on TV. And there wasn’t that much on TV at that time, so it was pretty exciting to go there. Of course, I have no idea what color the seats were there, but I do remember the stars in the ceiling. And if you’ve been to the state theater, you know how ornate it is, and I do also remember that. I was so excited that I got sick the next day. Geez, it was a neat experience. Since then, Fantasia has been about my favorite movie.
What did you think about the characters? Did you have a favorite?
Oh, well, parts of it were from the Nutcracker: some of the dances and things. Oh geez. The little mushrooms – little mushrooms with red and white caps would dance around – and the other one from that from the nutcracker I think were the hippopotamus – hippopotami? – that had tutu’s on. You know, these little filmy pink tutus? And they would dance around on the stage. Lightly for a hippopotamus. And so I remember those. And some of them I don’t remember very well, but I would think those are probably my favorite characters.
Did you feel like it was a very communal experience? Do you think that it felt like an activity you were sharing specifically with some of your friends or were you more engaged with the film itself?
I think I was engaged with the film. I can’t even remember for sure who was in that class at that time because second grade was a long time ago. I do remember that we had a discussion about getting there and that we talked about a bus and somehow we talked about airplanes. And the teacher – the teacher was Mrs. Goodrich – she talked about how our whole class could fly on an airplane. I didn’t believe it because I didn’t know that planes were that big. So those two memories are connected, but we of course didn’t fly on an airplane.
How did you end up going there?
Probably on the bus. But that, I don’t remember. And I imagine there were parents that went, but it was a big deal to go down there and see the neat theater because the theater in Plainwell is little: the Sun Theatre. Later, as I got older, we could walk down there and pay 25 cents and get in and watch a movie, but going to Fantasia at that time was a big deal.
Were there concessions?
There might have been, but we didn’t buy anything that I remember. I mean, if this is the whole class, can you imagine the second grade having to go to the concession to buy popcorn or something? We just went in and sat in our seats part way back. If I remember right – and I don’t know – the whole theater was full of kids. Or not, but I know we must have taken more than one class on that bus.
Were there ushers?
That I don’t remember. I was so focused on the movie itself. And really before we went, I didn’t know what it was about. So I think it was a really neat experience for people in our class. For me, it was especially important because my parents were both musicians. My dad was the band director at Plainwell while my mother later became one of the music teachers. They both had majored in music, and they played classical music at home on the radio. I hated it until I got to know what it was, but that was much later. Fantasia was a good introduction for me of all these classical pieces set with cartoons.
Do you remember what year it was?
If it was second grade, let’s see. I probably would have been seven or eight. It must have been about 1956 maybe.
What do you think stood out the most to you from that experience?
I just remember the scenes from the movie, mostly the ones I told you about: the hippopotamus and the mushrooms and on the fairies dancing around and touching things with their wand and everything turning to ice. And, you know, it was really beautiful. A lot of the stuff was beautiful. I have a – well it’s not a DVD, it’s a video tape, so I can’t watch it – but we do have Fantasia, and I always wanted [my son] to see it because it was so impressive to me. I don’t think he was so impressed.
How were the colors and sound different from the colors and sound of today?
I think the colors were about the same as now, but I’m sure the sound is much clearer now. Fantasia is almost all music except for a little explanation at the beginning. I remember that voice was pretty quiet. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first ones that they used color in, wasn’t it? And it was black and white at the beginning if you watch that. Black and white and then when they land munchkin land that’s it. I love that movie. Judy Garland is wonderful. You know I’ve seen it so many times on TV that I don’t remember if I saw it in the theater or not.
Did you go to the theater often?
We didn’t go as a family much because my folks had 4 kids. And the only time I remember going all together was when our piano teacher gave us tickets to see Mary Poppins. We went to a drive-in theater and saw Mary Poppins. And my sister – she’s 8 years younger than I am, and I can’t have been very old – she cried through the whole thing. So that was aggravating. Anyway, we did see that at a drive-in.
Did you go to drive-in movies as much as you went to the movie theater?
No. No, just that one time. Because she gave us tickets, we were able to go to that. I’ve been to drive-ins, but because we lived in Plainwell and we could walk downtown as we got older, we could walk down there to the Sun Theater and see movies there. I can’t remember specifically what we saw down there because they had movies for kids and probably Disney movies. I do remember seeing Tora, Tora, Tora, which is a Japanese war film. I was a lot older when I saw that, don’t worry. And It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World. I saw that there. I don’t remember what that was about at all. We were able to go to those for cheap. And they gave us free passes on our birthdays and stuff.
I’m sure there were many film heartthrobs as you were growing up. Did you have any celebrity crushes from movies you saw?
Not that I can remember, no. And definitely not from Fantasia!
Have you gone to the State Theater recently?
No, they don’t use it for movies anymore now. They use it for, you know, comedy and music groups. There are some pretty good shows there sometimes. We saw Pentatonix there. [My husband] wasn’t happy with the sound though: too much amplification for him.
What was the last film you saw in theaters?
The last movie I remember seeing in a theater was Selma in 2014. So it’s been a while. Maybe we’ll go sometime. Though it’s always hard to decide on a movie, especially since [my husband] wouldn’t be able to see it.
Note from the Interviewer: Gail is a close family friend whose husband, who is blind, used to work with my mom at the Bureau of Services for Blind Persons in Kalamazoo, MI. She and her husband now prefer to wait for movies to come out on streaming platforms or on DVD so they can watch them with audio descriptions at home. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, movie theaters are required to provide headphones with descriptions for anyone who needs them, but some of the movies don’t have descriptions available at our local theater, and Gail finds it difficult to explain the movie to her husband in a crowded viewing setting.
The theater Gail visited as a second grader, the Kalamazoo State Theater, is a beautifully crafted piece of architecture and extravagance. The stars she mentioned are electrically powered, twinkling down at audience members from a ceiling painted dark blue to replicate a night sky (MLive, 2021).
An exhibitor’s campaign book from the 1956 re-release of Fantasia in theaters, which Gail saw with her second grade class. This booklet was sold in 2022 at auction with a starting bid of $115 (Hake’s – “FANTASIA” 1956 RE-RELEASE PRESS BOOK W/1940 PROGRAM as ISSUED, 2022).
A Kinematograph Weekly press advertisement for Fantasia from December 11, 1940 (Sibley, 2013). This shows an example of what the press material inside the exhibitor’s booklet looked like once published.
Image Sources:
Hake’s – “FANTASIA” 1956 RE-RELEASE PRESS BOOK W/1940 PROGRAM AS ISSUED (2022). www.hakes.com. Retrieved February 4, 2024, from https://www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/72468/FANTASIA-1956-RE-RELEASE-PRESS-BOOK-W1940-PROGRAM-AS-ISSUED
MLive. (2021). Relive 9 decades of Kalamazoo State Theatre history as the iconic local venue is added to National Register. https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2021/12/relive-9-decades-of-kalamazoo-state-theatre-history-as-the-iconic-local-venue-is-added-to-national-register.html
Sibley, B. (2013, July 20). Decidedly Disney: INTRODUCING – FANTASIA. Decidedly Disney. https://decidedlydisney.blogspot.com/2013/07/introducing-fantasia.html
