Reply With QuoteI was thinking the same. Yet it is easy to become a cynic when so many people seem so uncouth and obtuse, even punkish. I suppose the best one can do is try to be a gentleman.You always seem to be an old grouch.
Well, I can say the seats are more comfy nowadays.
Hey Paddy, and the other UK peeps, do y'all have stadium seating over there as well as comfy seats whose armrests raise up?
Oh I had to wear a bow tie and tuxedo polyester pants back in the 1990s when I worked in the concession stand. Oh and a polyester vest with white shirt.
I was thinking the same. Yet it is easy to become a cynic when so many people seem so uncouth and obtuse, even punkish. I suppose the best one can do is try to be a gentleman.You always seem to be an old grouch.
Maybe where you are...Originally Posted by ITG
Over here they have hard plastic armrests and no leg room. You have to sit up like a paranoid debutante or the corners dig into your ribs or elbows. Plus, the curve of the seat is at the wrong height, and my neck cricks (but that may just be me at 5' 4").
The cinema I used to attend as a kid still had the old padded red leather seats from the 30s? or so. They were super comfy, unless you got one whose springs had collapsed.They've since mostly-gutted it and turned into a nightclub/mini casino. Damned real estate developer mayor twit...
Yup, that's about what we wore when I worked in one here in the mid/late 90s. Or at least the box office staff & ushers did. I was most often stuck in the overpriced neon candy bar, wearing a teal green polo shirt and unflattering navy blue business skirt with my school gym shoes.Oh I had to wear a bow tie and tuxedo polyester pants back in the 1990s when I worked in the concession stand. Oh and a polyester vest with white shirt.
Ray Bradbury did a great short story about this called "The Anthem Sprinters" about people who tried to get out of the theatre before the Anthem started. Check it out if you get a chance.
A while back when working for an army newspaper in Germany I went to see a James Bond film in the on-base theater. Everyone stood as they played the National Anthem BEFORE the film started. You'd think they would play God Save the Queen for 007.
Anyway... bring 'em back.
Speaking as a former movie theater usher, the pits were soft drink
congealed popcorn stuck to the floor, patrons who insisted on
being obnoxious, and this idiot teenager who brought a toy cap pistol
with him and began pointing it at customers prior to start time.
The theater emptied out, and we locked the kid in the manager's office
until the police arrived---to protect the kid.
Today the theater owner & theater manager would be sued into oblivion for restraining the brat, and the parents would be whining to all the papers about their child being denied his right to freely express himself and so forth. Oh for the good old days where people took responsibility for their and their children's actions...Speaking as a former movie theater usher, the pits were soft drink
congealed popcorn stuck to the floor, patrons who insisted on
being obnoxious, and this idiot teenager who brought a toy cap pistol
with him and began pointing it at customers prior to start time.
The theater emptied out, and we locked the kid in the manager's office
until the police arrived---to protect the kid.
We hardly ever have trouble with kids at the theatre where I work -- but then, we don't show the kind of films that attract the kind of kids who make trouble. But adults can be pretty obnoxious sometimes too -- I really get tired of telling grown men (it's mostly men who do it) to please take their filthy muddy shoes off the balcony rail. And then there's the pigs of both genders who spill popcorn and drinks all over the floor and make no effort to clean any of it up and wouldn't even think to take their trash with them and drop it in the bins after the show. Most of our patrons aren't like this -- but it makes those who are all the more aggravating.
As for the original subject, we *do* usher for shows where there's reserved seating -- with flashlights even -- but for regular shows, we usher by request only, usually for elderly folks who have limited mobility. It's a matter of having the staffing to do it -- there's nights when I'm selling tickets, taking tickets, ushering, and then going upstairs to run the show, and it gets a bit hectic...
The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. -- William Jennings Bryan
I can recall having to tear the admittance ticket in half, returning a half
to the customer, and sticking the other end inside a plastic bag, then
running inside the theater to quell a disturbance, run upstairs for more
popcorn (a real money maker food staple), run back down to the usher's
podium, then grab some stuff for the projectionist (there was a projection
union sign inside the room: No Finks Allowed-loved that sign,
and running back downstairs to cover my gluteusmaximus at the door.
Meanwhile, the manager just sat on his keister all day or flirted with the
girls. But I love movies, and I gained a real appreciation for the tail-end
of the film biz: getting people into a theater, and having them return.
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