1966 Queens, New York

Ovidio Hidalgo-Gato
1955
Queens, New York
Interviewed on 1/29/18
By David Hidalgo-Gato

The first movie I remember seeing is the movie Ben Hur with Charlton Heston. I saw the movie when I believe I was in sixth grade, eleven years old, so between 1966 and 1967. It was part of a class trip that we took down the street to the theater. I was a sixth grader at Joan of Arc elementary school in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, and it was the first time I had seen a movie, as well as the first time I had been in a theater.

Oh yeah, oh yeah. I remember the movie itself – the reason we went to see it is because it was tied to our religion, when we were studying Christ, and Christianity, and the things that happened and so forth, and, uh, what was happening historically in that time, and I remember being awed by the big screen and how realistic those things looked and all of the scenery going back to the time that christ was persecuted and died and all the stuff that was happening. It just seemed so real – it blew me away that all of that was happening on the big screen.

The cinematography itself – I remember there was a big scene in this movie about a chariot race, like a horse on a chariot. And the guys are battling, okay, and the way this thing was shot, you know, you’re like out there with them on the track and you’re seeing what’s going on, and it was very scary and thrilling all at the same time, and one guy on his chariot has these long blades that are intended to cut up the other guy’s blades, and people are yelling, and dying, and all of that! It was absolutely wild!

I loved it. It was fantastic, the whole experience and everything. So I developed a great interest in movies. Not just movies, the experience of going to the theater. The theater was a special place. Unfortunately at the time my family’s circumstances were not good, so we didn’t have the resources and everything to see the movies, although it was significantly less expensive than it is now.

You know, now you can see movies and you don’t have to go to a theater to do so. So that changes the whole concept of availability. Back in the day, the only way to see a movie was at the theater, and it was a lot of money, a luxury that many of us couldn’t afford. For us, having a dollar was significant at that time. We would go get a soda for like twenty, twenty five cents. So to go to the movies and eat candy and stuff was a luxury that many of us couldn’t afford a lot of the time. If as and when we could go, we viewed it as an adventure. And we had a lot of fun with it. We had a tv at home as well, but back then we didn’t really have a lot of options when it came to digital entertainment. Especially when it came to movies. Those were reserved for the theater.

Yeah, going to the movies was a very big deal. Something we did not take for granted. I remember, if one of us was gonna take a girl out to the movies, it was like, “Woah! You gonna marry this girl?” Those were fun times.