I watched Godzilla at the theater

映画館でゴジラを観ていた。
I was watching Godzilla at the movie theater.

第一回『ゴジラ』(1954年)
First “Godzilla” (1954)

銀座の森永広告塔は壊さなかった。
The Morinaga advertising tower in Ginza was not destroyed.

昔、わが家の近くに「目白映画」という東宝系の映画館があった。目白といっても、山手線の駅前から1キロ余り離れた、素朴な商店街の一角の小屋だったが、ここでクレージーキャッツや加山雄三の「若大将」シリーズ、そしてもちろんゴジラを始めとする怪獣特撮モノを何本も観た。

A long time ago, there was a Toho movie theater called “Mejiro Eiga” near my house. Although it was called Mejiro, it was a small hut in a simple shopping street about a kilometer away from the Yamanote Line station, but here I was able to see movies such as Crazy Cats, Yuzo Kayama’s “Wakadaisho” series, and, of course, Godzilla. I watched a lot of monster special effects movies.

The Crazy Cats（クレージーキャッツ, Kurējī kyattsu）also known as Hajime Hana and the Crazy Cats（ハナ肇とクレージーキャッツ, Hana Hajime to Kure-ji- Kyattsu）were a Japanese jazz band and comedy group popular in film and television, particularly between the 1950s and 1970s. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Wakadaishō series is a series of films starring Yūzō Kayama and Kunie Tanaka. The first film in the series was Daigaku no Wakadaishō from 1961. Masao Kusakari portrayed the role of Wakadaishō in two other films. (Source: Wikipedia)

そんな郷愁もこめて、こういうタイトルを付けたわけだが、僕は昭和31年(1956年)の生まれだから、初作の「ゴジラ」の頃はまだ生まれていない。1967年にNHKでテレビ初放送された･･･というデータを見かけたが、初見したのはたぶんこのときだろう。前年に『ウルトラQ』がスタートしたのを機に怪獣が大ブームになっていた当時、年末年始などを中心に初期の怪獣映画が放送されていたのを思い出す。

I chose this title with such nostalgia in mind, but I was born in 1956, so I wasn’t even born around the time of the first Godzilla movie. I saw data that it was first broadcast on TV on NHK in 1967, but this was probably the first time I saw it. I remember when monsters were all the rage with the release of “Ultra Q” the previous year, and early monster movies were broadcast around the year-end and New Year holidays.

初代ゴジラには耳がある・・・って話がすでに話題になっていたから、まずそこに注目したが、白黒という画像をヌキにしても、小学5年生の子供にはかなり暗い映画だった。

The story that the original Godzilla had ears had already been talked about, so that’s what I focused on first, but even with the black and white image, it was still a pretty dark movie for a fifth grader.

封切り年(1954年)3月の第五福竜丸事件にも絡んだ反原水爆のメッセージとか、ゴジラが上陸移動する品川から銀座、日比谷あたりの精巧な模型セットとか、後作に引き継がれる伊福部昭の劇伴音楽・・・といった諸点に感心するのはもっとずっと経ってからのことである。

Ifukube Akira’s drama continues in his later works, such as the anti-atomic and hydrogen bomb message related to the Daigo Fukuryu Maru Incident in March of the year of its release (1954), and the elaborate model set of the area from Shinagawa to Ginza and Hibiya where Godzilla moves ashore. It wasn’t until much later that I was impressed by aspects such as the accompaniment music.

さて、ここではでき得るかぎりオンタイムの記憶を拠り所にして、作品が上映された時代の生活風景を書いていこうと思っているのだが、なにせ今回は知らない時代ゆえ、封切り当時の新聞(縮刷版)を国会図書館に調べに行った。

Well, here I am trying to draw on my memories of on-time as much as possible to write about the life scenes of the era in which the film was screened, but since I am unfamiliar with the era, I am not familiar with the period in which it was first released, so I would like to write about the life scenes of the time when the film was shown. I went to the National Diet Library to look up the edition).

朝日新聞の紙面には11月3日の封切りより2週くらい前から「森永ご愛用者5000名特別試写ご招待」なんていう森永ミルクキャラメルをスポンサーに付けた興行広告が載っている。「水爆大怪獣映画ゴジラ空前の特殊撮影が生んだ最大の戦慄!」。さらに「銀座大通りに暴れ狂う怪獣ゴジラ!」やら「大東京ビル街全滅!」やら、コピーは日によって多少アレンジされているが、「水爆大怪獣映画」という呼び文句は定着していたようだ。実は、昔から持っている姉妹社のコミックス「サザエさん」の第19巻にこんなネタがある。

Approximately two weeks before the November 3rd release, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper ran an advertisement with Morinaga Milk Caramel as its sponsor, saying, “5,000 Morinaga fans will be invited to a special screening.” “The greatest horror created by unprecedented special filming of the hydrogen bomb monster movie Godzilla!” Furthermore, the copy was changed slightly depending on the day, such as “Godzilla, the monster rampaging through Ginza Boulevard!” and “Great Tokyo’s buildings are annihilated!”, but the title “Hydrogen bomb monster movie” seems to have stuck. In fact, there is a story like this in the 19th volume of the sister company’s comic “Sazae-san” that I have owned for a long time.

「ゴジラにつれてってよ」「ゴジラ、ゴジラ」と、しつこくねだるカツオとワカメにむかってサザエが「あちらにいってッ!」と一蹴するオチ。連載元の朝日新聞をめくっていて、封切り6日目の11月9日の朝刊とわかった。すると、フタを開けてすぐに大ヒットしていたのだ・・・。とはいえ、新聞には「企画だけの面白さ」なんて見出しの記者による悪評が載っているだけで、ゴジラ人気を扱う特集記事もない。雑誌広告の見出しにもゴジラのフレーズは見当たらないから、怪獣はまだオトナのメディアが取りあげるネタではなかったのかもしれない。そういう意味でも、『サザエさん』の長谷川町子の先鋭性はすごい。

“Take Godzilla with me!” “Godzilla, Godzilla!” The turban shell responds to the bonito and seaweed that persistently beg, “Go over there!” I was flipping through the Asahi Shimbun newspaper where the series was originally published, and found out that it was published in the morning edition of November 9th, the 6th day after its release. As soon as I opened the lid, it was a huge hit… However, in the newspapers there are only negative reviews by reporters with headlines such as “The fun of the project alone,” and there are no special articles dealing with Godzilla’s popularity. Since the phrase Godzilla is not found in the headlines of magazine advertisements, monsters may not have been a topic for adult media yet. In that sense, Machiko Hasegawa in “Sazae-san” is amazing.

(Source: @sukebankunoichi)

「銀座大通りに暴れ狂う」と広告コピーにあるように、品川あたりに上陸(八ツ山橋を壊した後、一旦海に潜って再上陸)した後、とくに新橋側から銀座通りを進む特撮シーンは目を見張る。ニッポンビールのネオンの出たライオンビヤホール、松坂屋を炎上させて、服部時計店(現・和光)の時計塔を破壊しながら左折して、まだ水が流れる数寄屋橋の所で傍らの日劇をぶっこわす。その寸前あたりに入る銀座方面の俯瞰映像のなかで、前年(1953年)に完成したばかりの森永の地球儀型広告塔が煌々とライトを灯して回転している。これはやはり、広告スポンサーへの配慮だろうか(が、よく見ると、こちらのショットでは、森永広告塔の奥に和光らしき建物も健在だ)。

As the advertising copy says, “Rampaging on Ginza Boulevard,” after landing in Shinagawa area (after destroying Yatsuyama Bridge, diving into the sea and landing again), there is a special effects scene where they proceed down Ginza Street from the Shinbashi side is eye-opening. They set Matsuzakaya, the Lion Beer Hall with the neon lights of Nippon Building on fire, and destroyed the clock tower of Hattori Clock Store (currently Wako), turned left, and crashed into the nearby Nippon Drama at Sukiyabashi Bridge, where water was still flowing. In the bird’s-eye view of the Ginza area just before that, Morinaga’s globe-shaped advertising tower, which had just been completed the previous year (1953), was rotating with its brilliant lights on. I wonder if this is out of consideration for advertising sponsors (but if you look closely, in this shot you can see a building that looks like Wako still standing behind the Morinaga advertising tower).

ラジオに加えてテレビの臨時ニュースも時折入ってくるけれど、テレビ放送もこの時点では開始2年足らず。まだNHKと日本テレビしかなかった。実況アナが「サヨーナラ、みなさん」と叫んで殉職する電波塔は、紀尾井町にあったNHK千代田放送所がモデルというが、もう少し先の麴町の日テレにも小さな展望台付きの電波塔があった。『ゴジラ』よりひと月ほどおくれて新東宝が封切った『力道山の鉄腕巨人』では、正義の味方・力道山がその電波塔をゆさぶって、展望台に逃げた悪漢を落っことす・・・ゴジラ張りのシーンがある。

In addition to radio, we occasionally receive special news on TV, but TV broadcasts have only been broadcast for less than two years at this point. There was still only NHK and Nippon Television. The radio tower where the live broadcaster died in the line of duty shouting “Goodbye, everyone” is said to be modeled after the NHK Chiyoda Broadcasting Station in Kioicho, but NTV in Kojimachi, a little further down the road, also had a radio tower with a small observation deck. In “Rikidozan no tetsuwan kyojin,” which was released by Shin Toho about a month after “Godzilla,” Rikidozan, an ally of justice, shakes the radio tower and knocks a villain who has escaped to the observation deck… There is a scene featuring Godzilla.

泉麻人 (いずみあさと)
Asato Izumi

1956年、東京都生まれ。慶応義塾大学商学部卒業後、東京ニュース通信社に入社。テレビ雑誌の編集者を経てコラムニストに。主な著書に『銀ぶら百年』『泉麻人自選黄金の1980年代コラム』『昭和マンガ少年』『大東京のらりくらりバス案内』『東京23区物語』『シェーの時代――「おそ松くん」と昭和子供社会』『還暦シェアハウス』『大東京23区散歩』『冗談音楽の怪人・三木鶏郎:ラジオとCMソングの戦後史』などがある。

Born in Tokyo in 1956. After he graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at Keio University, he joined the Tokyo News Agency. He became a columnist after working as a TV magazine editor. His major publications include “Ginbura Hyakunen,” “Izumi Masato’s Self-Selected Golden 1980s Column,” “Showa Manga Boys,” “Great Tokyo Rari Kurari Bus Guide,” “Tokyo 23 Ward Story,” “The Era of Shea – “Osomatsu-kun” and Showa Children. His works include “Society,” “Kanreki Share House,” “A Walk in the 23 Wards of Greater Tokyo,” and “Koriro Miki, the Phantom of Joke Music: Postwar History of Radio and CM Songs.”

Source: ゴジラ&東宝特撮 Official Mook, vol 2, p 19