I think I might have been the “someone else” referred to above. I am also the Union projectionist that replaced Mike Bridgham in 1996. I stayed for less than a year before I also quit in disgust. When I had worked in this theatre under the previous ownership in the early and mid 1980’s; it was a spotlessly clean, well run showplace. Good management, good projection booth operation, and ownership that was willing to pay what it cost for a first class operation. All this changed in December of 1985 when the theatre was sold to a large chain by the family owned circuit that had built it. When I returned in 1996, it was a completly different operation. Cheapness ruled in every aspect of the operation, and it was not a nice place to work.
I am an IATSE Local 15 Union projectionist and stagehand in Seattle, WA. As I did not start in this business till 1975, I doubt that any of my personal stories would be of interest, but I can relate one told to me by a now deceased member of our Union Local; his name was Ash Bridgham. Ash worked at the Roxy Theatre in Renton, WA (just South of Seattle) from it’s opening in 1929 till 1948. Several other old timers confirmed this story, and I have little doubt that it is true. This event happened just a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The Roxy was a grand small city movie palace of about 800 seats, built in Art Deco style with a massive vertical neon sign and neon chasers. The Roxy was owned and managed by Mr. Irwin Fey. When war was declared; Mr. Fey, being a patriotic man, volunteered for duty as an air raid warden. He was assigned to a lookout post on a hill overlooking the city. There was great fear that this area might be attacked by the Japanese, the Roxy was less than one mile from the Boeing plant that built the B-29 bomber. For this reason a blackout was declared and all exterior lighting was banned. As Mr. Fey’s duties would prevent him from being at the theatre in the evening, he turned management of the Roxy over to his mother. One evening, after the show had ended for the night Ash was coming down the stairs from the booth and the telephone rang. Mrs. Fey asked Ash to answer it as she was busy at the moment. He did so and had to hold it away from his ear as the man on the other end of the line was cursing and shouting at the top of his lungs. It was the normally polite and soft spoken Mr. Fey. No one could ever remember him swearing before. It would seem that his mother, instead of turning off the few lights that were on, had instead turned on the huge marquee in all of it’s neon glory. It was the only thing that could be seen in the entire blacked out valley.
I worked at the Roxy in the early 1980’s; it was a decrepit second run house at the time. The building still stands at the corner of S.3rd. St. and Morris Ave. in Renton. It is a church now, and all traces of it’s lovely neon sign are long gone.
I think I might have been the “someone else” referred to above. I am also the Union projectionist that replaced Mike Bridgham in 1996. I stayed for less than a year before I also quit in disgust. When I had worked in this theatre under the previous ownership in the early and mid 1980’s; it was a spotlessly clean, well run showplace. Good management, good projection booth operation, and ownership that was willing to pay what it cost for a first class operation. All this changed in December of 1985 when the theatre was sold to a large chain by the family owned circuit that had built it. When I returned in 1996, it was a completly different operation. Cheapness ruled in every aspect of the operation, and it was not a nice place to work.
I am an IATSE Local 15 Union projectionist and stagehand in Seattle, WA. As I did not start in this business till 1975, I doubt that any of my personal stories would be of interest, but I can relate one told to me by a now deceased member of our Union Local; his name was Ash Bridgham. Ash worked at the Roxy Theatre in Renton, WA (just South of Seattle) from it’s opening in 1929 till 1948. Several other old timers confirmed this story, and I have little doubt that it is true. This event happened just a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The Roxy was a grand small city movie palace of about 800 seats, built in Art Deco style with a massive vertical neon sign and neon chasers. The Roxy was owned and managed by Mr. Irwin Fey. When war was declared; Mr. Fey, being a patriotic man, volunteered for duty as an air raid warden. He was assigned to a lookout post on a hill overlooking the city. There was great fear that this area might be attacked by the Japanese, the Roxy was less than one mile from the Boeing plant that built the B-29 bomber. For this reason a blackout was declared and all exterior lighting was banned. As Mr. Fey’s duties would prevent him from being at the theatre in the evening, he turned management of the Roxy over to his mother. One evening, after the show had ended for the night Ash was coming down the stairs from the booth and the telephone rang. Mrs. Fey asked Ash to answer it as she was busy at the moment. He did so and had to hold it away from his ear as the man on the other end of the line was cursing and shouting at the top of his lungs. It was the normally polite and soft spoken Mr. Fey. No one could ever remember him swearing before. It would seem that his mother, instead of turning off the few lights that were on, had instead turned on the huge marquee in all of it’s neon glory. It was the only thing that could be seen in the entire blacked out valley.
I worked at the Roxy in the early 1980’s; it was a decrepit second run house at the time. The building still stands at the corner of S.3rd. St. and Morris Ave. in Renton. It is a church now, and all traces of it’s lovely neon sign are long gone.
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Larry V. Price