I missed out on the theater’s “beautiful” years and instead saw its slide into ignominy firsthand. I worked there during summer vacation in 1996 and have memories of the opening day line for Independence Day wrapping all the way around the building, Twister being shown on an impossibly small screen, and that infectiously awful Eric Clapton/Babyface song from Phenomenon being piped into the lobby on a seeming loop. The idea that the area, and by extension the theater, was in decline is probably best illustrated by the fact that we had two ushers who sold crack out of the bathrooms. I wish I were joking.
It had a lone pinball machine in the lobby, which always struck me as random but charming. So, in one trip you could see Bill Pullman give a monumental speech to a ragtag group of fighter pilots, eat some Junior Mints, play a game of pinball, and enjoy some freshly purchased crack in the parking lot after the show.
I missed out on the theater’s “beautiful” years and instead saw its slide into ignominy firsthand. I worked there during summer vacation in 1996 and have memories of the opening day line for Independence Day wrapping all the way around the building, Twister being shown on an impossibly small screen, and that infectiously awful Eric Clapton/Babyface song from Phenomenon being piped into the lobby on a seeming loop. The idea that the area, and by extension the theater, was in decline is probably best illustrated by the fact that we had two ushers who sold crack out of the bathrooms. I wish I were joking.
It had a lone pinball machine in the lobby, which always struck me as random but charming. So, in one trip you could see Bill Pullman give a monumental speech to a ragtag group of fighter pilots, eat some Junior Mints, play a game of pinball, and enjoy some freshly purchased crack in the parking lot after the show.