FEEDBACK FROM ALFREDO

Your blog on "Urdaneta, then and now"...you only quoted 2 theaters(Nela and Elite)...you forgot to mention Consuelo Theater,where most Tagalog pictures were shown.  It was located where Majik Mall stands right now.

 

Alfredo G. Rodillas 

Hi Alfredo,

 

You are right, I recall the name of that theatre already..Although I think it was in the present location of  ROCCA  ( I might be wrong too re: location ) but I now remember the name of CONSUELO theatre in Urdaneta.Might be owned by the Arboleda Brothers who once operated a movie house in our backyard.The magic Mall I think occupy the former market site where the vegetable vendors and where they used to auction animals ( cows, carabaos, etc ) every Tuesday ..I heard that every Monday night, Urdaneta became a live Wild, Wild West because many  Pangasinenses came with heavy moneybags to buy livestock. So all night clubs, especially the "Chickenhouse" of Telles ( another name for the Highway )are packed to the ceiling with "cowboys". Liquor flowed like water. And not surprisingly, there would be a few fistfights and shootouts, and live bullets were used!

 

Just like the Biblical times when God rained fire on Sodom and Gommorah, a big conflagration "cleansed" that part of Urdaneta. Maybe the animal trade was transfered somewhere else. The Magic Mall is now there. The most interesting store in this mall for me is a Gun Store which I saw at the 2nd floor in 2003. I do not know if it is still there. Various guns and firearms were displayed in cases and racks like kiddie toys. Wanted to buy maybe a couple, but how would I get them  through the customs without setting the bloody alarms in the whole goddamn place?--#