I worked at the RKO Kenmore in the late 1960s, while a student across the street at Erasmus (and living around the corner on Ocean Avenue), initially as an usher (complete with heavy wool suit and epaulets), and eventually was promoted to a desk job, answering potential patrons questions, to give the place a more personal feel rather than just listening to the then popular recorded messages that other theaters used. But still a part-time usher, and responsible for opening and closing the curtain in-between films, and adjusting the screen size for widescreen films (some nights I was too busy on the phone, talking to friends, and failed to open or widen the screen as needed, until patrons started yelling. Everything was manual, so you had to be backstage whenever a movie was beginning or ending or listen to the audience yell ((fix the screen!). On weekends we sold loge seats upstairs for 25 cents each, and all the ushers pocketed those extra quarters (no one noticed that all the loge seats had been filled but no extra income).
It gets worse. The assistant manager would relieve the cashier for her dinner break, send the patron to the doorman (one of the ushers who was relieving the doorman) and telll us not to tear their tickets. We then returned them to the assistant manager, who proceeded to sell the same tickets again and pocket the money (the usher got a cut). We’re probably the reason the theater went under….
My late father, Sam Lesiger, worked for Rugoff & Becker throughout the 1950s, until they sold their three Brooklyn theaters in the late 1950s to Century. Compared to the Oceana and Tuxedo, both of which he managed during that same period, the Sheepshead was the largest and most luxurious of the three.
I worked at the RKO Kenmore in the late 1960s, while a student across the street at Erasmus (and living around the corner on Ocean Avenue), initially as an usher (complete with heavy wool suit and epaulets), and eventually was promoted to a desk job, answering potential patrons questions, to give the place a more personal feel rather than just listening to the then popular recorded messages that other theaters used. But still a part-time usher, and responsible for opening and closing the curtain in-between films, and adjusting the screen size for widescreen films (some nights I was too busy on the phone, talking to friends, and failed to open or widen the screen as needed, until patrons started yelling. Everything was manual, so you had to be backstage whenever a movie was beginning or ending or listen to the audience yell ((fix the screen!). On weekends we sold loge seats upstairs for 25 cents each, and all the ushers pocketed those extra quarters (no one noticed that all the loge seats had been filled but no extra income). It gets worse. The assistant manager would relieve the cashier for her dinner break, send the patron to the doorman (one of the ushers who was relieving the doorman) and telll us not to tear their tickets. We then returned them to the assistant manager, who proceeded to sell the same tickets again and pocket the money (the usher got a cut). We’re probably the reason the theater went under….
My late father, Sam Lesiger, worked for Rugoff & Becker throughout the 1950s, until they sold their three Brooklyn theaters in the late 1950s to Century. Compared to the Oceana and Tuxedo, both of which he managed during that same period, the Sheepshead was the largest and most luxurious of the three.
My dad managed the Granada in the early 70s, after working at the Century circuit all over Brooklyn for 15 years. He died suddenly in 1974.