Speaking of Pizza Hut, I remember how Zacker made a trade-out deal with the manager of the Pizza Hut across the street from the mall. After the regular shows on the weekend (before Midnight Shows), we’d sometimes take a good-sized group over there and eat a TON of pizza and drink beer..it was alot of fun! I think Zack got the better end of the deal because he’d take several pizzas home to his family in exchange for the P.H. manager walking in to the theater…and the guy would still have to buy his own popcorn and coke!! Saw a picture earlier on here of the marquee. Regency had 2 along the road, both by highways. From what I remember, we had to use 2 ladders to get up there…one to go from the ground to the platform, and then a shorter one to use from the platform to the Cinema 1 portion of the marquee. Man, it got HIGH off the ground up there!! I hated doing the marquee because you had to sit there and figure out what letters you needed to get, and figure in the letters that were already being used up there, and then load all those letters in plastic bags, and then get your arms and hands all cut up because these letters had metal prongs on the back of them that affixed them to the signs! Aaaaaargggggh!! And then, once you’re up there, you then realize that you forgot 1 stinking letter, and had to go back and get it!! Yeah, sometimes the sign went up without that letter…just blamed it on the wind! Mike, you had mentioned Barry working at the theater. I remember when we were showing Star Trek, we’d get into the mall’s elevator and Barry would ALWAYS order “Bridge” (in his best deadpan Capt Kirk voice) to the elevator “computer”, as the doors closed! I also remember Barry and I, when we were ushers, putting one of the Doorman, named Al Hernandez, up on some sort of pedestal because we just thought he was the coolest guy. Well, he wasn’t at all, it turned out. I remember going in to Zacker’s office one day to get my paycheck, and after handing it to me and me just taking it without saying a word (thought I was being cool, like Al!), Zacker just lit into me!!! I’ll never forget it…he told me that I had changed for the worst and I was going down the wrong road. He yelled for quite awhile, me not saying a word. It hit me that he was right. For whatever reason, I truly believe that Zacker changed my life that afternoon, or the way I was going anyway. And I truly believe it was because he cared for me, like a son. Zack was a great man, a great boss. He was so intuitive about the theater business. He knew how to make money in the theater business, how to treat his employees, how to interact with the public. And he was a kid at heart! I remember one time, he was actually wrestling with me and Barry…Zack was a HUGE man! I escaped his office and ran into Cinema 1, taking a seat, thinking that I was free! Nope. Here comes Zacker down the aisle, and with a small weekday afternoon crowd in the theater, he bends down and says “I need a word with you.”, proceeds to pull me up out of my seat by my hair and lead me up the aisle and back upstairs to his office!! If he had been about a foot shorter and 100 pounds lighter, I think I would’ve kicked his butt for that one!!
Mike, I forgot that that was the way you left General Cinema! Man, don’t know what must’ve been going on in your head to just leave without telling anyone. I mean, knowing you, you must’ve really been in some turmoil over that…before and after. Oh, well, we all make mistakes, and life goes on. Not like you killed anyone, right? Now, if you had told him that you were leaving because of Pileggi, then I’m sure he would’ve understood that! LOL! I remember coming to visit y'all during football season. Coming over to see the theater on Friday night, staying and sleeping over in the freezing trailer (thanks to Pileggi not paying the power bill!),and then going to the Georgia game the next day. Didn’t Zacker have a waterbed…with no heat?!? You’re right, Mike, Zacker was a helluva manager and a helluva friend! He taught me so much and I will always remember him as a lifelong mentor, even though he passed away many years ago. If you other theater guys will allow me one more non-theater memory to share…a memory from Zack’s funeral. Craig was a “bigger than life” character. He died of a sudden massive heart attack, and was able to be buried on his farm in Watkinsville. During his burial, there was a huge and violent rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightening! During the service, a huge, loud crack of thunder rattled all of us..obiliterating an old, dead tree close to the burial tent! Later, I remarked about it to Craig’s wife Linda, and she just smiled. I asked her why she smiled and she said that Craig had told her that he always hated that tree and wanted it cut down, but she had always refused him to do it! Well, Craig finally got what he wanted, didn’t he?
chris32, if you come back and read this, was the Mr. Brainerd the one (was his name “Web Brainerd”?) who later became a booker or “buyer” for General Cinema in the mid-to-late 80’s? Anyway, the only things that I remember about Perimeter, from my days working at Regency Mall and Regency Exchange, was that Perimeter always seemed to kick the Regency Mall’s butt in sales. The other thing I remember..and this is a bad memory…is that the manager there (won’t name him) was also the City Manager, and he got fired after it was found out that he would take his master-keys, go into other GCC theaters in the city, take new cups and buckets, and add them to Perimeter’s inventory, thereby covering up his shortages. Not sure how he was found out, but heard they canned him for it.
Movie promotions! Man, that brought back a bunch of memories! Remember when we did “Sharkey’s Machine”, and we had 3 of the local models that had appeared in the movie with Burt Reynolds come up on opening night? April Reid was one of them…she was gorgeous, but kind of psycho, telling us she “LOVED Burt”, and meant it! “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and all I can remember (thanks for the memory jog, Mike) was when that one blonde concession girl wore that skimpy little “whore” outfit! WOW! I remember the loooooooong lines we had for Schwarzanegger (sp?) movie “Commando”, and I would go up and down the waiting lines giving away the military-type promo nametags if anyone could spell Arnold’s last name. “Empire Strikes Back” (when I first got hired) and I would dress up like Darth Vader, and get kicked by umpteen little brats out in the mall! I really wanted to smack them upside the head with the Force!! I remember doing a promo myself (when I was an asst) for Stallone’s movie “Cobra”, and I got a fake/stuffed cobra that someone had in a “strike” position. I entered the promotion in a contest and won! I lied and said that the cobra was “trained” to make that pose whenever the handler got it to, and of course the only picture I sent along with the entry was the cobra striking! Glad the division manager never learned the truth about that one! On Mother’s Day, we would give out free carnations to the moms, and also a free little apple pie that we traded-out with a local taco restaurant. Don’t remember the movie, but one of the prizes that we had on display was a nice 10-speed bike. I’d ride that bike everynight to the inside bank that was on the opposite side of the mall! Better than walking!! Mike, you mentioned Dixie Dooley doing magic tricks for some midnight shows….well, remember when Dixie would put up a display of some magic trick he was going to perform the following midnight show, and we’d have all week to check it out and figure out how he did it? Yeah…I guess I had a better time working at the theater than I had thought! LOL!
Actually, I think that having the theater over by Augusta Mall would’ve been a better location than North Augusta. The closest one to “that side of town” was the Daniel Village theater. Since those years, 2 of the biggest theaters in town are located over in West Augusta/Evans. North Augusta would’ve been great too, don’t get me wrong. But what did we know, right? Those yankees from Boston didn’t listen to the local-yokels!
Mike, I remember the grand opening of this place! We had great food, ice sculpture, door prizes, local celebrities, a live radio remote, and my favorite was those big search-lights out in the parking lot! Lot of work, that’s for sure. I had a great staff back in those days. For it to be in such a horrible part of town, we did alright, and with no incidents. However, I have to admit that I felt like I was going to be robbed everytime I drove the last deposit of the night over to the bank inside the mall! I remember doing all sorts of promotions on movies back then. You never see that nowadays. In fact, the other day, I went to a local theater to see if I could get some free movie passes donated to my daughter’s high school band, and they looked at me like I had 2 heads! I asked for the manager, and the assistant told me that he only came in on the weekend and that the rest of the time, during the week, the company (Georgia Theatre Co.) used him as their “computer-guy” going to all the other theaters in the division. The assistant said the company did that with all their managers! So, I guess the days of the manager always being there and actually running the place are long gone! Sad!
Mike, I spent many, many, many hours poppping popcorn up in that little closet of a room upstairs! I loved it! Give me a big old cup of coke, and all the popcorn I could shovel into my mouth, listening to the radio, and I was a happy guy! Spent a couple of years as an usher and doorman, before working my way up to chief-of-staff and then asst. mgr, well, and then years later became the manager. Funny how we all remember the good times, but seem to forget all the bad times there. I guess that’s a good thing, huh? Remember how we’d have our favorite concession girl or cashier to work with? I had a strict policy of hiring the prettiest girls we could…I guess that was to help us get over working those long hours. If I had to work, it might as well be while being surrounded by a bunch of pretty girls! I can honestly say that I NEVER hooked up with any of them though, not while they worked there anyway. Mike, I promise that I’ll try to be on here more often with some old memories.
I was transferred to this theater as an asst. mgr. They told me that they needed a “strong” assistant to help the new manager, whenever they’d find one that would agree to take it! I worked my butt off at that place. The District Manager at the time, not Anderson, was the worst. Since they never could find anyone to take it, they finally offered it to me. I took it, and I was so young…about 21? That’s way too young guys…you know it and I now know it! Oh, well. Because of my age, I let alot of things happen that I never would now. For example, we had 2 telephone lines, and the City Manager would call and talk to my cashier for HOURS…he was in his 30’s and she was about 17ish. He intimadated me at that time, so I never said anything against it. Well, while I was on the other line making work-related calls, the division manager would try to call and never could get on! He was furious about that and thought I was slacking off, but I wasn’t. I was getting the heat because of my jerk city mgr! Anyway, I remember I started hating it so much that I started praying to God to send me a sign! Well, the first weekend, a huge mirror in the men’s bathroom crashed on top of a customer, and all he got was a slightly cut finger! Wasn’t enough of a sign for me…the next weekend, we were cleaning and painting EVERYTHING because the General Cinema president (Paul Delrossi??) was coming in the very next morning to inspect the place, and one of my usher’s spilled a gallon of black paint on our red lobby carpet!!! Okay, believe it or not, that still wasn’t enough of a sign, and I prayed for another. The next weekend, a huge torrential rain came over us, caused the storm/drainage pipes to back up, and my lobby was flooded!! Water was literally 2 inches deep behind the concession stand and sparks were coming from the receptacles, so I closed it down. My division manager (the crazy one) heard about me closing the concession stand (the girls were scared to work behind there…imagine that!) and he blew a gasket and told me to open it up or I’d be fired. I told him to come get the keys because I was leaving! He said “HUH???”, and pleaded with me to stay. Well, the next week I went ahead and quit. Well, about 2 years later, a new division manager came in and asked me to come back and take over the theater at Regency Mall in Augusta, GA. BTW, the jerk City Manager ended up marrying the cashier, and then, from what I heard, he got fired because he would take his pass-keys, go into other theaters (after closing) that he was over, remove sleeves of drink and popcorn cups, and replace them into his own theater’s stock…stealing big bucks! Sorry that this is so long!! It was sort of cathartic to write it all out, though. LOL!
One more thing, Mike…where do you want to post general comments on stories about General Cinema? I haven’t had a chance to lurk around here much, so I don’t know where anything else is located.
I used to be the manager of this theater when it first opened. That picture sure brings back alot of memories! In fact, seeing the blue roof above the entrance reminds me of us putting signs up there when we did promotions. Also, just inside the lobby, the ceilings were exceptionally high and dark, and made a great place to position other props for promotions and holiday decorations. Mike, next time you travel over to the old place, let me know and I’ll go with you! Mike, I also remember us telling those “smart GCC Bostonians” that they needed to put up a theater around the Augusta Mall back then before the Exchange, but they didn’t listen to that either. Now, Regency has been closed for decades and Augusta Mall is still thriving. Oh, well..what do us country boys know?
Boy, Stan, are you lucky! I had this looooong diatribe typed out yesterday to post, and then when I submitted it, the site reminded me that I had to log-in first! Well, it was all erased at that point! LOL! Anyway, let’s see if I can condense it for you. I went to Atlanta back in 1980-something to be the asst manager at Northlake. When nobody else would take the vacant manager job, Dave “Psycho” Poland offered the job to me and I took it. I kept it for several months and was tired of Poland, Stu Hoffman, and the difficult time I had getting good help in Atlanta, compared with Augusta. One of the biggest problems I had, since you mentioned Stu Hoffman, was Stu calling every weekday and tieing (sp?) up one of my 2 phone lines for hours with talking to a particular 16-year old cashier. I’d be on the 2nd line doing busy calls. Poland would be trying to call me and kept getting busy signals and driving his already high blood pressure through the roof! He’d scream at me (literally!) and I wasn’t mature enough at the time to tell him about my City Manager. I learned from that mistake. I got screwed over. Another thing about Stu Hoffman…after I left, I found out that Stu had been entering into the other theaters in town, getting supplies (candy, cups, etc) from them, and taking them over to add to his inventories…making up for money lost or stolen! Anyway, after I left Northlake, I returned to Augusta and took a different job. When Larry Anderson took over as DM, he talked me into coming back and I ended up managing both theaters at Regency. After a few years, I was fired because they thought I was stealing from them! I guess I can see their point because I WAS falsyfing (sp?) receipts to pay for things we needed for the theater that we knew Anderson wouldn’t/couldn’t approve…lots of shelving that someone made for us, an old refridgerator and couch for our employee lounge, an extra desk for the Chief of Staff, etc.. I learned this stuff from Zacker. Anyway, I guess my constant denials and Zacker’s character references on my behalf, led them to “summon” me to Atlanta for a meeting with Anderson and Pittman. They offered me my job back, but I had to take a theater in Atlanta because the job in Augusta was already taken (Scott Nirenberg?). I turned them down because I felt like I was still being punished. Anyway, even though part of me still loves the theater business, I’m sure glad I turned them down. In retrospect, maybe word got out that what I had done was “taught” by Zacker (he never told me to do it, I just remembered seeing him do it and thought it was a smart way around that problem). If other managers had a hint that Zacker did something shady, maybe their opinions of him were affected, especially if he was coming down on them. Oh, well. Hey, did you ever know my assistand manager at Northlake, Mark Glaubitz (sp?)?? He was a great guy.
Stan, where did you work that you would know, or cross paths, with Craig Zacker and Larry Anderson? If you worked in Atlanta, did you also work around Stu Hoffman and David Poland?
Speaking of Pizza Hut, I remember how Zacker made a trade-out deal with the manager of the Pizza Hut across the street from the mall. After the regular shows on the weekend (before Midnight Shows), we’d sometimes take a good-sized group over there and eat a TON of pizza and drink beer..it was alot of fun! I think Zack got the better end of the deal because he’d take several pizzas home to his family in exchange for the P.H. manager walking in to the theater…and the guy would still have to buy his own popcorn and coke!! Saw a picture earlier on here of the marquee. Regency had 2 along the road, both by highways. From what I remember, we had to use 2 ladders to get up there…one to go from the ground to the platform, and then a shorter one to use from the platform to the Cinema 1 portion of the marquee. Man, it got HIGH off the ground up there!! I hated doing the marquee because you had to sit there and figure out what letters you needed to get, and figure in the letters that were already being used up there, and then load all those letters in plastic bags, and then get your arms and hands all cut up because these letters had metal prongs on the back of them that affixed them to the signs! Aaaaaargggggh!! And then, once you’re up there, you then realize that you forgot 1 stinking letter, and had to go back and get it!! Yeah, sometimes the sign went up without that letter…just blamed it on the wind! Mike, you had mentioned Barry working at the theater. I remember when we were showing Star Trek, we’d get into the mall’s elevator and Barry would ALWAYS order “Bridge” (in his best deadpan Capt Kirk voice) to the elevator “computer”, as the doors closed! I also remember Barry and I, when we were ushers, putting one of the Doorman, named Al Hernandez, up on some sort of pedestal because we just thought he was the coolest guy. Well, he wasn’t at all, it turned out. I remember going in to Zacker’s office one day to get my paycheck, and after handing it to me and me just taking it without saying a word (thought I was being cool, like Al!), Zacker just lit into me!!! I’ll never forget it…he told me that I had changed for the worst and I was going down the wrong road. He yelled for quite awhile, me not saying a word. It hit me that he was right. For whatever reason, I truly believe that Zacker changed my life that afternoon, or the way I was going anyway. And I truly believe it was because he cared for me, like a son. Zack was a great man, a great boss. He was so intuitive about the theater business. He knew how to make money in the theater business, how to treat his employees, how to interact with the public. And he was a kid at heart! I remember one time, he was actually wrestling with me and Barry…Zack was a HUGE man! I escaped his office and ran into Cinema 1, taking a seat, thinking that I was free! Nope. Here comes Zacker down the aisle, and with a small weekday afternoon crowd in the theater, he bends down and says “I need a word with you.”, proceeds to pull me up out of my seat by my hair and lead me up the aisle and back upstairs to his office!! If he had been about a foot shorter and 100 pounds lighter, I think I would’ve kicked his butt for that one!!
Mike, I forgot that that was the way you left General Cinema! Man, don’t know what must’ve been going on in your head to just leave without telling anyone. I mean, knowing you, you must’ve really been in some turmoil over that…before and after. Oh, well, we all make mistakes, and life goes on. Not like you killed anyone, right? Now, if you had told him that you were leaving because of Pileggi, then I’m sure he would’ve understood that! LOL! I remember coming to visit y'all during football season. Coming over to see the theater on Friday night, staying and sleeping over in the freezing trailer (thanks to Pileggi not paying the power bill!),and then going to the Georgia game the next day. Didn’t Zacker have a waterbed…with no heat?!? You’re right, Mike, Zacker was a helluva manager and a helluva friend! He taught me so much and I will always remember him as a lifelong mentor, even though he passed away many years ago. If you other theater guys will allow me one more non-theater memory to share…a memory from Zack’s funeral. Craig was a “bigger than life” character. He died of a sudden massive heart attack, and was able to be buried on his farm in Watkinsville. During his burial, there was a huge and violent rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightening! During the service, a huge, loud crack of thunder rattled all of us..obiliterating an old, dead tree close to the burial tent! Later, I remarked about it to Craig’s wife Linda, and she just smiled. I asked her why she smiled and she said that Craig had told her that he always hated that tree and wanted it cut down, but she had always refused him to do it! Well, Craig finally got what he wanted, didn’t he?
chris32, if you come back and read this, was the Mr. Brainerd the one (was his name “Web Brainerd”?) who later became a booker or “buyer” for General Cinema in the mid-to-late 80’s? Anyway, the only things that I remember about Perimeter, from my days working at Regency Mall and Regency Exchange, was that Perimeter always seemed to kick the Regency Mall’s butt in sales. The other thing I remember..and this is a bad memory…is that the manager there (won’t name him) was also the City Manager, and he got fired after it was found out that he would take his master-keys, go into other GCC theaters in the city, take new cups and buckets, and add them to Perimeter’s inventory, thereby covering up his shortages. Not sure how he was found out, but heard they canned him for it.
Movie promotions! Man, that brought back a bunch of memories! Remember when we did “Sharkey’s Machine”, and we had 3 of the local models that had appeared in the movie with Burt Reynolds come up on opening night? April Reid was one of them…she was gorgeous, but kind of psycho, telling us she “LOVED Burt”, and meant it! “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and all I can remember (thanks for the memory jog, Mike) was when that one blonde concession girl wore that skimpy little “whore” outfit! WOW! I remember the loooooooong lines we had for Schwarzanegger (sp?) movie “Commando”, and I would go up and down the waiting lines giving away the military-type promo nametags if anyone could spell Arnold’s last name. “Empire Strikes Back” (when I first got hired) and I would dress up like Darth Vader, and get kicked by umpteen little brats out in the mall! I really wanted to smack them upside the head with the Force!! I remember doing a promo myself (when I was an asst) for Stallone’s movie “Cobra”, and I got a fake/stuffed cobra that someone had in a “strike” position. I entered the promotion in a contest and won! I lied and said that the cobra was “trained” to make that pose whenever the handler got it to, and of course the only picture I sent along with the entry was the cobra striking! Glad the division manager never learned the truth about that one! On Mother’s Day, we would give out free carnations to the moms, and also a free little apple pie that we traded-out with a local taco restaurant. Don’t remember the movie, but one of the prizes that we had on display was a nice 10-speed bike. I’d ride that bike everynight to the inside bank that was on the opposite side of the mall! Better than walking!! Mike, you mentioned Dixie Dooley doing magic tricks for some midnight shows….well, remember when Dixie would put up a display of some magic trick he was going to perform the following midnight show, and we’d have all week to check it out and figure out how he did it? Yeah…I guess I had a better time working at the theater than I had thought! LOL!
Actually, I think that having the theater over by Augusta Mall would’ve been a better location than North Augusta. The closest one to “that side of town” was the Daniel Village theater. Since those years, 2 of the biggest theaters in town are located over in West Augusta/Evans. North Augusta would’ve been great too, don’t get me wrong. But what did we know, right? Those yankees from Boston didn’t listen to the local-yokels!
Mike, I remember the grand opening of this place! We had great food, ice sculpture, door prizes, local celebrities, a live radio remote, and my favorite was those big search-lights out in the parking lot! Lot of work, that’s for sure. I had a great staff back in those days. For it to be in such a horrible part of town, we did alright, and with no incidents. However, I have to admit that I felt like I was going to be robbed everytime I drove the last deposit of the night over to the bank inside the mall! I remember doing all sorts of promotions on movies back then. You never see that nowadays. In fact, the other day, I went to a local theater to see if I could get some free movie passes donated to my daughter’s high school band, and they looked at me like I had 2 heads! I asked for the manager, and the assistant told me that he only came in on the weekend and that the rest of the time, during the week, the company (Georgia Theatre Co.) used him as their “computer-guy” going to all the other theaters in the division. The assistant said the company did that with all their managers! So, I guess the days of the manager always being there and actually running the place are long gone! Sad!
Mike, I spent many, many, many hours poppping popcorn up in that little closet of a room upstairs! I loved it! Give me a big old cup of coke, and all the popcorn I could shovel into my mouth, listening to the radio, and I was a happy guy! Spent a couple of years as an usher and doorman, before working my way up to chief-of-staff and then asst. mgr, well, and then years later became the manager. Funny how we all remember the good times, but seem to forget all the bad times there. I guess that’s a good thing, huh? Remember how we’d have our favorite concession girl or cashier to work with? I had a strict policy of hiring the prettiest girls we could…I guess that was to help us get over working those long hours. If I had to work, it might as well be while being surrounded by a bunch of pretty girls! I can honestly say that I NEVER hooked up with any of them though, not while they worked there anyway. Mike, I promise that I’ll try to be on here more often with some old memories.
I was transferred to this theater as an asst. mgr. They told me that they needed a “strong” assistant to help the new manager, whenever they’d find one that would agree to take it! I worked my butt off at that place. The District Manager at the time, not Anderson, was the worst. Since they never could find anyone to take it, they finally offered it to me. I took it, and I was so young…about 21? That’s way too young guys…you know it and I now know it! Oh, well. Because of my age, I let alot of things happen that I never would now. For example, we had 2 telephone lines, and the City Manager would call and talk to my cashier for HOURS…he was in his 30’s and she was about 17ish. He intimadated me at that time, so I never said anything against it. Well, while I was on the other line making work-related calls, the division manager would try to call and never could get on! He was furious about that and thought I was slacking off, but I wasn’t. I was getting the heat because of my jerk city mgr! Anyway, I remember I started hating it so much that I started praying to God to send me a sign! Well, the first weekend, a huge mirror in the men’s bathroom crashed on top of a customer, and all he got was a slightly cut finger! Wasn’t enough of a sign for me…the next weekend, we were cleaning and painting EVERYTHING because the General Cinema president (Paul Delrossi??) was coming in the very next morning to inspect the place, and one of my usher’s spilled a gallon of black paint on our red lobby carpet!!! Okay, believe it or not, that still wasn’t enough of a sign, and I prayed for another. The next weekend, a huge torrential rain came over us, caused the storm/drainage pipes to back up, and my lobby was flooded!! Water was literally 2 inches deep behind the concession stand and sparks were coming from the receptacles, so I closed it down. My division manager (the crazy one) heard about me closing the concession stand (the girls were scared to work behind there…imagine that!) and he blew a gasket and told me to open it up or I’d be fired. I told him to come get the keys because I was leaving! He said “HUH???”, and pleaded with me to stay. Well, the next week I went ahead and quit. Well, about 2 years later, a new division manager came in and asked me to come back and take over the theater at Regency Mall in Augusta, GA. BTW, the jerk City Manager ended up marrying the cashier, and then, from what I heard, he got fired because he would take his pass-keys, go into other theaters (after closing) that he was over, remove sleeves of drink and popcorn cups, and replace them into his own theater’s stock…stealing big bucks! Sorry that this is so long!! It was sort of cathartic to write it all out, though. LOL!
One more thing, Mike…where do you want to post general comments on stories about General Cinema? I haven’t had a chance to lurk around here much, so I don’t know where anything else is located.
I used to be the manager of this theater when it first opened. That picture sure brings back alot of memories! In fact, seeing the blue roof above the entrance reminds me of us putting signs up there when we did promotions. Also, just inside the lobby, the ceilings were exceptionally high and dark, and made a great place to position other props for promotions and holiday decorations. Mike, next time you travel over to the old place, let me know and I’ll go with you! Mike, I also remember us telling those “smart GCC Bostonians” that they needed to put up a theater around the Augusta Mall back then before the Exchange, but they didn’t listen to that either. Now, Regency has been closed for decades and Augusta Mall is still thriving. Oh, well..what do us country boys know?
Boy, Stan, are you lucky! I had this looooong diatribe typed out yesterday to post, and then when I submitted it, the site reminded me that I had to log-in first! Well, it was all erased at that point! LOL! Anyway, let’s see if I can condense it for you. I went to Atlanta back in 1980-something to be the asst manager at Northlake. When nobody else would take the vacant manager job, Dave “Psycho” Poland offered the job to me and I took it. I kept it for several months and was tired of Poland, Stu Hoffman, and the difficult time I had getting good help in Atlanta, compared with Augusta. One of the biggest problems I had, since you mentioned Stu Hoffman, was Stu calling every weekday and tieing (sp?) up one of my 2 phone lines for hours with talking to a particular 16-year old cashier. I’d be on the 2nd line doing busy calls. Poland would be trying to call me and kept getting busy signals and driving his already high blood pressure through the roof! He’d scream at me (literally!) and I wasn’t mature enough at the time to tell him about my City Manager. I learned from that mistake. I got screwed over. Another thing about Stu Hoffman…after I left, I found out that Stu had been entering into the other theaters in town, getting supplies (candy, cups, etc) from them, and taking them over to add to his inventories…making up for money lost or stolen! Anyway, after I left Northlake, I returned to Augusta and took a different job. When Larry Anderson took over as DM, he talked me into coming back and I ended up managing both theaters at Regency. After a few years, I was fired because they thought I was stealing from them! I guess I can see their point because I WAS falsyfing (sp?) receipts to pay for things we needed for the theater that we knew Anderson wouldn’t/couldn’t approve…lots of shelving that someone made for us, an old refridgerator and couch for our employee lounge, an extra desk for the Chief of Staff, etc.. I learned this stuff from Zacker. Anyway, I guess my constant denials and Zacker’s character references on my behalf, led them to “summon” me to Atlanta for a meeting with Anderson and Pittman. They offered me my job back, but I had to take a theater in Atlanta because the job in Augusta was already taken (Scott Nirenberg?). I turned them down because I felt like I was still being punished. Anyway, even though part of me still loves the theater business, I’m sure glad I turned them down. In retrospect, maybe word got out that what I had done was “taught” by Zacker (he never told me to do it, I just remembered seeing him do it and thought it was a smart way around that problem). If other managers had a hint that Zacker did something shady, maybe their opinions of him were affected, especially if he was coming down on them. Oh, well. Hey, did you ever know my assistand manager at Northlake, Mark Glaubitz (sp?)?? He was a great guy.
Stan, where did you work that you would know, or cross paths, with Craig Zacker and Larry Anderson? If you worked in Atlanta, did you also work around Stu Hoffman and David Poland?