1959 San Francisco, California

Diana Gay-Catania
Born 1954
First movie memories in San Francisco, California, population about 740,316
Interviewed on 2/1/25
by Rose Kosciuszek

I’m reasonably sure that [my first movie] would have been Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. I was born in ‘54 and that came out in ‘59; I would have been five years old. I remember being terrified by the witch. It was supposed to be this nice cartoon movie, but of course it had all the villains and the fight scenes and everything. I remember reacting to those and getting spooked. It was incredible animation at the time.

I also checked the dates on Snow White and Pinocchio, because those came out in the ‘30s and the ‘40s—before I was born—but I do remember seeing them in theaters. They came out again later and you were able to see them on the big screen. At the time of course, there wasn’t anything else, it was the big screen or nothing.

I seem to have a memory that before I went to see a film there was always some cultural preparation. I may have seen the book, or I was aware of the characters; I knew the story. For Sleeping Beauty, I remember getting the book. I might still have it somewhere! My little sister colored some stuff on the pictures. But I actually got a bound storybook of Sleeping Beauty that used still-shots from the film. And I’m reasonably sure that before I went to the film, I was made familiar with the story, and certainly the characters. I was supposed to really easily relate to the princess, especially because she went out to live in the forest like a “normal person” for a while. The prince part, I didn’t really get. That was alright. But, boy, that evil witch—she really got to me. The idea of a person being so deliberately malicious…at five years old that was pretty intense. And the shapeshift too, because she became a dragon! She becomes a dragon when she fights the prince. And I did this thing—I used to get teased for it—where I’d stand up, and turn around in the chair, and then kneel on the chair with my head facing the back of it and my little butt in the air! I’d do this whenever I didn’t want to see what was on the screen. I couldn’t close my eyes; I had to turn around completely.

When we went to the movies it was a family thing, especially when I was younger.  My mom would bring all three or four of us. My older brother probably dropped out of that after a while, but he was definitely there [for Sleeping Beauty], because he’d be the one to tease me for sitting in the seat like that. So he was there, and then my two sisters. I think my mom rounded us all up. But as the family got older and bigger, she could never get us all together to go on time. So I can’t tell you how many movies we saw part way in, and then stayed through the second feature to the beginning of the film we missed to see the first part of it again! We’d see movies in two parts: about two-thirds of it, and then the first third after. I don’t remember that with the earlier animated films, because when I was really young one of my sisters wouldn’t have been born yet—maybe it was a little easier to get us out the door.

It was probably evening on a weekend, because we’d have school during the week. It would have to have been early evening, in order for the second double feature to kick in before we left so we could see the beginning of the film we missed. There were a few times where my brother got to go see something that I didn’t, like he got to see West Side Story. And he was so taken by the gang violence in that. To hear him talk about it you would never have known it was a love story, or a musical for that matter. That’s what filtered through his little-boy eyes. I remember being very resentful that I couldn’t see it.

We traveled by bus or by foot, mostly by bus; that was how we got places. We’d take the bus up and down Mission Street, and there were about three theaters we went to; I can remember the names of only two of them. One bus went one direction—I guess south—and that was to the Granada Theater, which was right on the corner before you turned onto Ocean. That one was…not as nice, maybe. And the other theater was in the other direction, towards the north, and it was the New Mission Theater. It was a bit bigger and nicer. Across the street was another theater—I’m blanking on the name, but I think it closed sooner. The New Mission is still there; it was taken over by the Alamo tavern people—an outfit of younger people who’ve redone the theaters to make them more experiential. They have food, and they host events and so on. The theaters that have survived around here are the ones that are more than just movie theaters. There were also other theaters that we went to later. There was one just off Geary that has now been converted to a concert hall where we got to see some larger films that were a bit older on the big screen. I got to see West Side Story there, and also Gone With the Wind. 

There were concessions, but that wasn’t something we really did. My mom was a single mom struggling to raise four kids by herself, so we probably didn’t get much. We probably got soft drinks. I remember at that time in my life—it was the only time in my life—I drank a lot of Coke and 7-Up. Full sugar, both of them! I don’t like the stuff anymore, luckily, but at the time we probably had Cokes. I don’t think we got popcorn, but there was definitely popcorn. There always were concessions, always. That’s how the theaters were really making their money.

Note: Diana is my mother’s cousin.