Sleazy experiences working in movie theaters

Maybe a year after I left working at the theater the big shots fr the corporate office came in and fired everybody who worked there. I do recall that they paid the managers very poorly. With a little overtime I made as much as the manager and I was a 17 year old usher. I’ve always thought the low pay led to stealing. I saw it in several of the chain’s theaters where I had worked.

 

That happened at one theatre I worked in, before I was a manager... I was away for Thanksgiving and when I got back the manager, most of the ushers and concession staff had been fired over the weekend by the District Manager. She just walked in and cleaned the place out.

I later worked part time as an assistant manager at that same theatre and I found some discrepancies in accounting, and some very shoddy reporting practices, and reported them to the manager. He fired me, because I had caught him fiddling the books (he got fired a few weeks later). The company we worked for was ruthless (Loewes) and theft was very hard to get away with (and I've been honest in jobs where I dealt with $).

 

Sounds like a "real" Dump!

 

I looked up info on that theater after reading your post. I don't recall the theater I was talking about having a large overhead marquee in front like The Rivoli but it's been 40 years and that was a one-time visit so who knows. The one thing I do recall was a parking in a decent sized almost dirt parking lot on the corner to the right of the theater.

Most of my late 70's to early 90's movie theater going experiences was at The Cinedome in Orange. What a great place that was to see big "event" movies. Stadium seating in the biggest theaters and incredible surround sound. I saw Jaws, Star Wars, Close Encounters, Apocalypse Now, Alien, ....a ton of first run now-classic films there.

 

I think we have a winner for the Most Horrifying Movie Theater Story for today.

 

I can't recall what was next to the theater, as you said it was 40 years ago!
Another theater it possibly may have been was the Art Theatre, it was just down the street from my Aunt's house, just off Cherry Avenue, though I don't recall that one being especially run down. I remember seeing Diamonds are Forever there.
I've been to Cinedome, it was about 6 or 7 miles from where we used to live in Anaheim. I recall seeing Black Sunday and The Deep there, back in '77 or '78.

 

I worked in two different movie theaters from 1994 to 1998 while in college. Started out as an usher and was eventually promoted to projectionist, which was probably the most fun I've ever had in any job. We used to find all kinds of different empty alcohol bottles while cleaning up after the feature ended. I remember finding six empty cans of Miller High Life once in the front row after a showing of Toy Story. We used to find all kinds of things while cleaning...jewelry, cash, and wallets accidentally left behind. The best was when I'd find a box of candy still wrapped up in cellophane or an unwrapped candy bar.

One time, myself and two other ushers were cleaning our (at the time) stadium theater and a customer came back in looking for his wallet. Without even checking the area he'd been sitting in, he started accusing us of stealing his wallet. He said something to the effect of: "Okay, guys, where is it? Hand it back right now!" We asked him where he'd been sitting and we ended up finding his wallet untouched with everything intact. He actually felt bad afterwards and gave us each a twenty dollar bill. This was an affluent area and a lot of the people who went to this theater had money.

Probably the most disgusting thing I've ever found was a used condom in the back parking lot of the building one late night while taking out the trash to the compactor. Good times!

 

I can attest.

I lost my virginity at the Bijou Theater in Kansas City during The Rocky Horror Picture Show. No, I'm not talking about what we called people who had never seen the movie, I'm talking about the first time I'd ever had sex.

 

You' d find jewellery and cash and the " best " thing was finding an unwrapped candy bar?

 

Maybe it was this brand of candy bar?

 

This just screams for elaboration.

 

The bathrooms were in the basement of the theater, reached by a staircase behind the screen. A young woman named Samantha dragged me downstairs declaring "I want the guy in the pizza shirt!" and proceeded to have her way with me on the stairs.

Honesty compels me to say that I did not exactly cover myself in glory (maybe the stress of possibly being discovered by someone needing to use the restroom coming down the stairs) but we did get together a day or two later and I performed much more satisfactorily.

It was a rather short-lived relationship. I have run into her a few times at World Science Fiction conventions.

The Westport neighborhood in Kansas City in the late 70s was a wild place. I met my wife of more than 37 years at a record store one block away.

 

Well, we could draw you pictures and such, but it is probably easier to visit a porn website for the best viewing education.

 

Despite Rule 37 I've never actually seen this scenario in a piece of adult entertainment.

 

I think the "educational" perspective revolving around such actions does not require literal intrepretation to be effective.

 

Well, at least my experience involves Pizza.

 

Yet another thing to add to the list of why Pizza is the perfect food.

 

For some reason customers liked to dump popcorn in the urinals. It was a regular thing.

 

I worked at a theater (Beacon Mall 4 Theaters-Alexandria Va, no longer there) in the mid seventies. It actually paid less than minimum wage ($1.85 hr/$2.50 was mw) because the theater was exempt from paying minimum wage. The story given was the theater didn't clear the minimum gross profit required to pay a minimum wage. Funny how it didn't seem to matter.

All I can say it was the most fun I've ever had at a job. Our life started after the last show ended, around midnight. We'd either party at the theater and exit the back door (the mall would be closed), or hit someone's basement. Tuesdays' were especially memorable because that's when the prints would be dropped off for the "new" (always second run, unless it was a low budget film)) showings that started Wednesdays; back then. We'd hit the projection booth, load the reels onto the platters (with a platter system you only needed one projector per theater). The ushers, concession and box office girls, etc. would settle into one of the theaters, have a case of beer on hand, and watch a "new" film and leave out of the back door around 3am.

Sorry no sleaze, just great memories.

 

Hopefully you'll have it again some time. There's always hope.

 

As my wife and I live in different cities most of the time, it happens far less often than I'd like.

 

I never kept any of the cash or jewelry that I found. The cash would go to a donation box for Shriners Children’s Hospital and the jewelry would go to the lost and found box in the management office. It seemed okay from an ethics perspective to eat an unwrapped candy bar that was left behind.

 

Wow -- working in a theater was quite an occupation in the '70s!

My only hijinks as a customer was sneaking in small bottles of booze -- it always had to be rum because that mixed the best with coke and it's what the girls always wanted.

 

Good thing you didn't work at a drive in theater like I did.

 

sorry i had bad Kidney stones often ,that was not popcorn