1948 El Paso, Texas

Barbara Geissler Stokes
Born in 1942 in Germany
First movie memory in El Paso, Texas
Interviewed by Sydney Bowen on 1/22/18

I was roughly six years old when I saw my first movie. It was circa 1948 and we were living in Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, a few years after we came to the US from Germany. My father had arrived in America in 1945 through Operation Paperclip, a top-secret government initiative that brought German scientists to America, and my mother and I had come the following year in ‘46. Fort Bliss was my first home in America – an Army fort turned internment camp lined with barbed wires fences and lookout towers. We had been placed there with other German immigrants to protect us from anti-German hostility from the outside population. We lived in old converted barracks, and, to my knowledge, there was no theater on the premises.

I remember that we had to go through a checkpoint to go in and out of the compound. My father had acquired a car by then (a black used Dodge, I think) and we all drove into El Paso to see the movie. I don’t recall ever having been afraid or uncomfortable, but then, I was a very happy-go-lucky kid. My parents had been there to shop and eat before, and by then the military in charge had instructed my parents on how to comport themselves and what to look out for in the population.

But it was the first time I had been to town at night, after dark. It was so alive and exciting. I remember the bright lights and the glowing neon signs that lined the streets. There were people still out – wandering and eating – and it was very different from the empty, dimly-lit streets of the base after dark. I was with my parents (my sister wasn’t born yet, I don’t think), and the whole excursion was novel and thrilling. It was such an occasion!

The movie we were going to see was ​Bambi​. It was a Disney animation and in color too! And the theatre! It seemed so grand and fancy with its massive lobby and red velvety seats. We sat in the front, not the balcony – that area was where the teenagers on dates sat to “neck.”

There was a concession, and it must have been the first time I had ever seen candy bars and sodas and taffy. I didn’t get sweets like that at the base. There was this mouth-watering smell of popcorn that hung in the theatre too. I had never tasted it, but it smelled so wonderful I was itching to try some. My parents never bought anything at the concession stand. We were trying to save money and even three years after living through the war in Germany, snacking was not part of our lives. I quickly forgot about those sweet enticements, though, once the movie began.

My comprehension of English was still pretty sketchy at that time. There were English classes at the base, but I hated them. I often snuck away and hid with my best friend. I didn’t have to understand the dialogue to follow the gist of the movie.

There was Bambi and his mom, his cousin, a rabbit, and other little forest animals that were all friends. And there was a Blue Jay that would shriek “THEIF, THIEF!” in a shrill cry that pierced the silent theater. Each day the animals went to a meadow and all played and frolicked together. It was an idyllic existence. There were scary and sad parts too. I remember a forest fire. At one point, a hunter shot and killed Bambi’s mother. But Bambi’s father, a magnificent stag, came to his rescue and took care of him until he was old enough to be on his own.

Going to the movies was not something we did often. We did not have much money, and any extra was used to send care packages to relatives in Germany, who had very little of anything after the war.

In fact, I don’t remember going to another one until many years later. By then, we had left the base and moved to Huntsville, Alabama.