<Begin Segment 10>

TI: I guess one question, how about entertainment? When you think of the Chinatown, you have the Japanese community, were there, what would people do for entertainment?

SK: Gee, I can't remember, but there were two movie houses in West Fresno, plus the Japanese, Japanese Hall. So I don't think we can even afford to go to the movie anyway. But I've been to a movie, I don't know how much it cost then, maybe five cents, I don't know. But... let's see now. They were on the next, second house away from our store. But I remember being in some of the theater, and then around the block... are you interviewing Nori Masuda?

JS: Yes.

SK: Okay. He's the next door. Where he stayed was the theater. And I don't know if he'd recognize, he was at my birthday party, but I didn't know if he recognized one of the women. She's Mexican descent, she used to take tickets over there. And let's see now... oh, then, another Japanese name, now that I recall, it's called Yoshioka, another restaurant. And let's see now.

JS: The theater, was that Ryan's Theater?

SK: Ryan's Theater was run by a Japanese family.

JS: Oh. Do you remember what Japanese family, the name?

SK: Yeah, Nishioka.

JS: And that was the one...

SK: Well, Ryan's came from a man that owned all the properties around there. It was a Ryan's Theater, Ryan's Auditorium, the Western Hotel, which was above our store, and as a little kid, my father used to take us to the Ryan's Auditorium, the old building. It's a boxing and wrestling, that's what they had when we went. My father loved wrestling, he watched wrestling. And it was usually on the weekends, and sometimes we went along. We tagged along. My brother was a real wrestling fan. But anyway...

TI: And when you say wrestling, what kind of wrestling are we talking about?

SK: The kind you see...

TI: On TV right now?

SK: Yeah. It's a fake.

TI: Fake, yeah. Okay. [Laughs]

SK: And one of the stars, well, Japanese, in camp, he was my neighbor, too. He was, I think, one of the wrestlers.

TI: And were the other wrestlers Japanese?

SK: No.

TI: Or it was all mixed, different races?

SK: No, they're usually white. But for some reason, he was there. [Laughs] And nicest guy, too. But I really got to know him real good, which was in camp, next door.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.