Maybe off topic for the mall theatre, but I did sell the last tickets for the Drive-in. The last car admitted came a bit late, after the show had been running for a while, I let them in free.
Those aren’t questions for a little kid playing around a construction site. Kelly’s Heroes was a current release film at the time with the “star studded cast”. I remember posters for Boatniks then.
This may have been in 1970, but you will need to ask a grown-up.
Z
commented about
Argo Theateron
Feb 4, 2005 at 3:52 pm
A joke from Joe
Joe Martinez: A woman calls me and asks “what time is Crimes of the Heart
on?” I tell her, “lady, you don’t need to talk dirty to me.”
When the Mini Cinema was being constructed, us kids used to play
on the on the beams. I didn’t know that this was to be my
introduction to the form of the theatersphere.
I could be wrong, but when it was completed, it may have opened to
the public for viewing prior to the grand opening run.
We did not see the opening show, but shortly afterwards
we did see “Kelly’s Heroes”. Everybody loved “Oddball”!
I guess the same way Ronald McDonald recruits children to
be his future employees, Oddball recruited me.
Poster snapolit points out the unmistakeable sound of the beer
bottle, which bounces and then rolls down the auditorium.
I don’t see any irony with the theater being a church.
A movie theater can be considered as being a kind of church.
The Movies at Sunrise Mall introduced me to a new concept
in theater design, no slope/pitch in the auditoriums, this added a nice
touch, your movie going experience now included having to look through the heads in front to see the film.
The manager had to count the cups because once you were sent a box of cups, it was valued as if it was sold at the overpriced candystand rate. The manager was held responsible for this, so if you lost a box of let’s say 1,000 cups that could have been used to hold drinks that might have sold for $1.50, you owed UA $1,500 of your candy commission. You were “carrying a shortage.” The same held true for all the other concessions items. Theater employees usually were instructed to bring in their own cups and did not use the ones that were sold. Movie patrons did not understand why they couldn’t ever get an extra cup.
Sometimes, maintenance workers or a relief projectionist would unawarely take some cups. Nothing could ruin you more than a few pennies worth of missing cups. You were compensated for your labors in the same manner as a donkey with a carrot on a stick dangling in front.
Employees were required to periodically sloicit donations from movie patrons. When it came donation time, the chain got the recognition
for such a charitable effort when it was movie patrons who paid, and the theater staff who took on the added tasks of begging and then processing.
Yes, It is quite possible that some of the collected money was taken,
but that might happen with all organized charities.
As for being one of the worst run, besides the design, in those
days going to the shopping mall was exploding into being a huge part of youth culture and recreation. Those youths in the mall went to the Movies at Sunrise Mall. One can only control kids so much when they are out
on their own having fun. Too much life force.
I can’t speak for the entire history of the drive-in, only from 1978 to it’s destruction and of the site presently.
I don’t remember the exact date the indoor closed. I will iterate, UA did not like the clientele of the indoor, but closing the whole drive-in for winter led to increased costs in springtime due to brake-ins and vandalism occuring on the unattended grounds. After that, the drive-in remained open over the winter. Then, after that, the buildings were boarded up over the winter and we took the panels down for spring. The flea market continued to operate on Sundays and Wednesdays when the drive-in was closed. Open or closed for the winter? it went back and forth.
UA did not like the clientele of the indoor.
One winter, I put up “Closed for Season please
visit Movies at Sunrise Mall” on the marquee.
I was told to take it down. I am glad to have
been present for that last great joyful night of the
indoor. Dolefully, I sold the very last tickets for the Drive-in. I let last carload in free.
Z
commented about
Pequa Theatreon
Feb 1, 2005 at 10:53 am
On the night of November 27th, 1985 the Pequa theatre is swarmed for the opening of Rocky IV. Another cinemateasures poster, BobT attempts to open the doors to let the crowd in, but the hype is too much and the wait too long to endure for even a second more. Upon seeing this opening there is a mad rush forward. The wood door frame bends in an arc around poor BobT who only wished to make it easy for them to enter.
A group of young adults are horsing around outside, hoping to get a seat for the next show. Apparently ,one of them gets pushed and is sent through the plate glass wall of the theatre. Incredibly, he is unharmed by his encounter with the massive shards of glass and when EMS arrives he can’t be found, he had fled into the darkened auditorium because didn’t want to miss the movie.
The police commander arrives and says we have cars all over the place, traffic is blocked and we have created a mob scene. If we don’t do something about it he might have to close us down. If we wanted to,
we could have ran the last (midnight) show, but I decided that closing
down was really a great idea, so I say close us down. The police then dispersed everyone outside.
In Rocky IV, the heathen atheist Commies make Rocky fight on Christmas day for free, in Moscow, to avenge the death of Apollo Creed who died from punches measured at 2,000 lbs because Americans might not
know what a kg is. The American boy trains in nature by dragging rocks and running around in snow while Ivan gets all the high tech cheating. The Soviet people are then all converted from a life of evil robothood by the example of the Italian American Rocky rising from Russian Ivan’s slogging. The audience goes insane and they all throw their popcorn in the air at the same time when Rocky is finally winning. He beats down the Russian goliath and ends the cold war. Audience cheers like mad.
I was certainly there, but who could pooeye be?
A difference of 250 seems to be a lot. When the
rocking chairs were added the seat count must have
come down some
The seat count listed is innacurate.
It was more like 599-600
Maybe one of my posts about the indoor is now missing? It was a pleasure to be present for the
last great night of the indoor theatre at the
Drive-in.
Maybe off topic for the mall theatre, but I did sell the last tickets for the Drive-in. The last car admitted came a bit late, after the show had been running for a while, I let them in free.
All Weather Roll ‘N’ Ice
Those aren’t questions for a little kid playing around a construction site. Kelly’s Heroes was a current release film at the time with the “star studded cast”. I remember posters for Boatniks then.
This may have been in 1970, but you will need to ask a grown-up.
A joke from Joe
Joe Martinez: A woman calls me and asks “what time is Crimes of the Heart
on?” I tell her, “lady, you don’t need to talk dirty to me.”
When the Mini Cinema was being constructed, us kids used to play
on the on the beams. I didn’t know that this was to be my
introduction to the form of the theatersphere.
I could be wrong, but when it was completed, it may have opened to
the public for viewing prior to the grand opening run.
We did not see the opening show, but shortly afterwards
we did see “Kelly’s Heroes”. Everybody loved “Oddball”!
I guess the same way Ronald McDonald recruits children to
be his future employees, Oddball recruited me.
Poster snapolit points out the unmistakeable sound of the beer
bottle, which bounces and then rolls down the auditorium.
I don’t see any irony with the theater being a church.
A movie theater can be considered as being a kind of church.
The Movies at Sunrise Mall introduced me to a new concept
in theater design, no slope/pitch in the auditoriums, this added a nice
touch, your movie going experience now included having to look through the heads in front to see the film.
The manager had to count the cups because once you were sent a box of cups, it was valued as if it was sold at the overpriced candystand rate. The manager was held responsible for this, so if you lost a box of let’s say 1,000 cups that could have been used to hold drinks that might have sold for $1.50, you owed UA $1,500 of your candy commission. You were “carrying a shortage.” The same held true for all the other concessions items. Theater employees usually were instructed to bring in their own cups and did not use the ones that were sold. Movie patrons did not understand why they couldn’t ever get an extra cup.
Sometimes, maintenance workers or a relief projectionist would unawarely take some cups. Nothing could ruin you more than a few pennies worth of missing cups. You were compensated for your labors in the same manner as a donkey with a carrot on a stick dangling in front.
Employees were required to periodically sloicit donations from movie patrons. When it came donation time, the chain got the recognition
for such a charitable effort when it was movie patrons who paid, and the theater staff who took on the added tasks of begging and then processing.
Yes, It is quite possible that some of the collected money was taken,
but that might happen with all organized charities.
As for being one of the worst run, besides the design, in those
days going to the shopping mall was exploding into being a huge part of youth culture and recreation. Those youths in the mall went to the Movies at Sunrise Mall. One can only control kids so much when they are out
on their own having fun. Too much life force.
I can’t speak for the entire history of the drive-in, only from 1978 to it’s destruction and of the site presently.
I don’t remember the exact date the indoor closed. I will iterate, UA did not like the clientele of the indoor, but closing the whole drive-in for winter led to increased costs in springtime due to brake-ins and vandalism occuring on the unattended grounds. After that, the drive-in remained open over the winter. Then, after that, the buildings were boarded up over the winter and we took the panels down for spring. The flea market continued to operate on Sundays and Wednesdays when the drive-in was closed. Open or closed for the winter? it went back and forth.
UA did not like the clientele of the indoor.
One winter, I put up “Closed for Season please
visit Movies at Sunrise Mall” on the marquee.
I was told to take it down. I am glad to have
been present for that last great joyful night of the
indoor. Dolefully, I sold the very last tickets for the Drive-in. I let last carload in free.
On the night of November 27th, 1985 the Pequa theatre is swarmed for the opening of Rocky IV. Another cinemateasures poster, BobT attempts to open the doors to let the crowd in, but the hype is too much and the wait too long to endure for even a second more. Upon seeing this opening there is a mad rush forward. The wood door frame bends in an arc around poor BobT who only wished to make it easy for them to enter.
A group of young adults are horsing around outside, hoping to get a seat for the next show. Apparently ,one of them gets pushed and is sent through the plate glass wall of the theatre. Incredibly, he is unharmed by his encounter with the massive shards of glass and when EMS arrives he can’t be found, he had fled into the darkened auditorium because didn’t want to miss the movie.
The police commander arrives and says we have cars all over the place, traffic is blocked and we have created a mob scene. If we don’t do something about it he might have to close us down. If we wanted to,
we could have ran the last (midnight) show, but I decided that closing
down was really a great idea, so I say close us down. The police then dispersed everyone outside.
In Rocky IV, the heathen atheist Commies make Rocky fight on Christmas day for free, in Moscow, to avenge the death of Apollo Creed who died from punches measured at 2,000 lbs because Americans might not
know what a kg is. The American boy trains in nature by dragging rocks and running around in snow while Ivan gets all the high tech cheating. The Soviet people are then all converted from a life of evil robothood by the example of the Italian American Rocky rising from Russian Ivan’s slogging. The audience goes insane and they all throw their popcorn in the air at the same time when Rocky is finally winning. He beats down the Russian goliath and ends the cold war. Audience cheers like mad.
This really needs to move to the proper place, the Pequa page. You always looked overworked back then.
BobT, the “Stop Making Sense” night was great. People were having a huge dance party in front of the screen during the showing.
Still remember how the door you held was bending from the rush of the crowd for Rocky IV in Massapequa.