Comments from radams

Showing 2 comments

radams
radams commented about Red Rock 11 Theaters on Jul 30, 2017 at 8:43 pm

I was so saddened to learn about the death of Boyd Moseley, the manager of the Red Rock. I had worked my way up from candy girl to cashier and remember Boyd bringing his wife and children in frequently. He was such a proud dad! I used to love to work in the plaza ice cream parlor, and Boyd would sit at a little table next to the parlor and the box office, smoking and carefully keeping track of everything that went on in the theater. He would chat with me, and I just thought he was the most wonderful boss!

I remember that, as a little girl, the original Red Rock, was only one theater—the huge Theater One, which was in the front of the theater. Moms could buy movie packages from the PTA and drop their kids off every Monday or Tuesday for a movie and a chance to be kid free for awhile. The theater would be packed with kids, and we’d watch old movies like “Tammy and the Professor.” It was incredibly noisy in the theater with all of the unattended, summer wild kids. It was during this time that I bought my very first package of Flicks—a long tube wrapped in foil that had chocolate chips inside.

Many years later at age 17 I got a job working in the newly expanded theater. People used to marvel that we had eleven theaters, and I think it was billed the largest multi-cinema movie theater in the world. When Bugsy Malone opened, Boyd asked two of the ushers, myself, and another girl to go to a thrift store and buy outfits from the gangster era. The four of us posed sitting in the plaza for a photo that was in the RJ newspaper advertising the movie. I would LOVE a copy of that photo if anyone has one!

Movies ran $4.00 for adults back then, and I remember how people used to grumble about the price. Then we ran “The Deerhunter” and the tickets were $5.00, and people thought THAT was insanely high, but they still paid. One Christmas, we ran “Animal House,” “Good bye Girl, and "The Turning Point” in the plaza, and the lines would be out the door. When a movie was sold out, the other cashier and I would holler, “‘Animal House is sold out!” People would then choose another movie.

It was great fun working there. Boyd intuitively knew how to hire and train the best kids in town. We were all great kids, and we all came from different high schools, but we all got along great! Rory was the projectionist back then, and he was such a handsome, sweet man with the most beautiful Irish accent. Boyd truly gave all of us teenagers such a great first job and an excellent training ground for future jobs. When a customer was rude to me once, he actually said to the man, “I don’t allow people to treat the kids that work here like that. I hire good kids, and their parents expect me to look after them while they are here.” The customer apologized, and I was so impressed that Boyd would stick up for a skinny seventeen year old.

Still married for 35 years to the handsome usher who worked tearing tickets when we met in high school at the Red Rock. We’ve raised two great sons, still have wonderful memories of the kids we worked with and our wonderful first boss. All that remains of the Red Rock are a brick and a piece of the red curtain that my husband managed to pull out of the rubble when they tore it down.

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of the RJ photo with the Bugsy Malone picture, please let me know. To Boyd’s son and daughters, you father was a wonderful boss and very kind behind his facade gruff exterior.

radams
radams commented about Red Rock 11 Theaters on Dec 26, 2011 at 11:39 am

I worked as a “candy girl/cashier” at the Red Rock from 1976 until 1979. It was the best job that a teenager could have in Las Vegas at the time! My first job, and it was there that I met a cute usher, who I would later marry. We’ve been married for 30 years now and have two children! Boyd Mosley was the manager, and he was a fabulous man! He was tough, expected a lot from the teenagers that worked there, and was a wonderfully kind man! The plaza theaters had an old time popcorn wagon that I loved to work in. We served freshly popped popcorn from this wagon and REAL butter on the popcorn! It was THE place to come to see a movie! When it was being torn down, my husband went and got a brick from the rubble, so that we could remember all of the wonderful kids we worked with and THE place that we fell in love at!