I worked as a relief projectionist at this theatre, back in the mid-late 90’s. The place was a cool hodgepodge of different screening rooms, built at different times and with different seating capacities. They had a mix of old and very reliable Century and Strong 35mm projectors, mostly Strong platters and some older super-smooth Christie platters. I was brought in largely to give one of the 2 identical twin projectionists there a day off, which they hadn’t had for (not an exaggeration) 20 years.
Lloyd and Floyd Johnson: they alternated driving a local school bus as well, during the school year. So before I began spelling them, one brother would open the theatre in the morning while the other brother would drive the bus; then at 5 one would go home from the theatre and the one who’d driven the bus that day would work the night shift. When I came to do my little half-day shift, it would give one of them a day off. After the last show had let out, the other brother would come back in and they’d BOTH clean the theaters into the AM! At some point, one of their son’s would take the place of the other brother during the late night clean-up.
Unlike GCC up at the mall (which had been bought by Carmike by this time, but had been General Cinemas for most of the Johnson brothers' tenure at Beechwood) Beechwood was certainly a non-union shop, and nobody batted an eye at their working 7 days a week for two decades. I think there was a 3rd non-twin brother named Al Johnson who worked as a long-time custodian at the now-demolished Alps Cinema across the street. And as people have mentioned in the Alps listing here, during the short film salutation that preceded every feature at the Alps, thanking the patrons and listing the names of all employees at the theatre, the appearance of Al’s name as Janitor would always generate applause!
I worked as a relief projectionist at this theatre, back in the mid-late 90’s. The place was a cool hodgepodge of different screening rooms, built at different times and with different seating capacities. They had a mix of old and very reliable Century and Strong 35mm projectors, mostly Strong platters and some older super-smooth Christie platters. I was brought in largely to give one of the 2 identical twin projectionists there a day off, which they hadn’t had for (not an exaggeration) 20 years.
Lloyd and Floyd Johnson: they alternated driving a local school bus as well, during the school year. So before I began spelling them, one brother would open the theatre in the morning while the other brother would drive the bus; then at 5 one would go home from the theatre and the one who’d driven the bus that day would work the night shift. When I came to do my little half-day shift, it would give one of them a day off. After the last show had let out, the other brother would come back in and they’d BOTH clean the theaters into the AM! At some point, one of their son’s would take the place of the other brother during the late night clean-up.
Unlike GCC up at the mall (which had been bought by Carmike by this time, but had been General Cinemas for most of the Johnson brothers' tenure at Beechwood) Beechwood was certainly a non-union shop, and nobody batted an eye at their working 7 days a week for two decades. I think there was a 3rd non-twin brother named Al Johnson who worked as a long-time custodian at the now-demolished Alps Cinema across the street. And as people have mentioned in the Alps listing here, during the short film salutation that preceded every feature at the Alps, thanking the patrons and listing the names of all employees at the theatre, the appearance of Al’s name as Janitor would always generate applause!