I managed one of Cinema North’s theaters in NY back in 2004. They were nothing more than slumlords. A prime example of this is having only 1 service technician to service equipment in 12 theaters spread across New England. They refused to use independent contractors for service and we often had to wait weeks for service on our projection equipment.I was a licensed projectionist in NYC back in the mid-seventies, and not having a service contract was unheard of. How utterly disrespectful to both staff and paying customers! To boot, when they opened the theater I managed, they used old, antiquated projectors kludged together from spare and often obsolete parts. Then they would train concession staffers to be projectionists (thread the film and push this button) and pay them $6.50 per hour. A real joke. The sad thing is that so many good, dedicated, and hard working people are now out of work as a result of their demise. I cannot think of anything good to say about this company, their utter disregard for their employees, or their lack of concern for the safety and comfort of their customers. One of the owners would visit each of the 12 theaters once per year around Christmas time, do a walk-through, and pick up the cash accumulated from gift certificate sales, and then move on to the next facility. A real class act.
Yes, there were many slackers in 306 taking advantage of their fellow workers, as there are in every union. It is an inherent problem with unions; whether you work hard and try to excel, or you do the minimum and ride on the backs of others, everyone gets equalized. It is not really compatible with our free market economy; work hard and succeed; slack off and fall behind. My point, and I know I’m guilty of straying from it at times, is that some sort of regulation or liscensing for projectionists is a good thing. Another point I failed to address in my previous posting is with regard to licensing by fire departments. In NYC back in the 1970’s, many, if not most theaters were still using fuses in their main electrical panels. Many of them actually had nails bridging those fuses in clear violation of all city fire codes, electrical codes, and just plain common sense. Yet every theater had it’s duly signed and posted fire safety inspection certificate right there in the booth for all to see. There was obviously corruption going on at the expense of public safety. Bringing these types of issues up for discussion at union meetings was not in one’s best interest.
I was a Local 306 member in NYC back in the 1970’s. I, as all of the other projectionists I knew and associated with, took great pride in my work. The license requirement in NYC ensured that all operators had at least a basic understanding of the mechanical and electrical functions of the equipment. All of the theaters I worked in the city had service contracts, and the theater owners were adamant about daily maintenance of the booths and projection equipment. As a result, the quality of projection was very high, and allowed for ever higher contracted wages for the projectionists. A few years back I found myself between jobs and took a position as a manager at the Carmel Movieplex 8 in Carmel, NY. My projection background was key to landing this job, and my number 1 challenge was projection. The staff were mostly minimally trained high school students. They were taught how to thread-up a projector, and push the show-start button. They were paid not much more than the concession stand workers and could not even put a show together. There was no service contract. The company that owned the theater owned 12 other theaters spread out across New York State, Connecticut, Mass,and Vermont, with 1 service person headquartered in Vermont. The “philosophy” of this company and most modern multiplexes is to have the management staff cover projection duties as much as possible. Why not? They’re salaried employees. Anyone who has ever managed a theater knows the impracticality of this, as the manager is required to deal with public relations, facility maintenance, housekeeping, staffing, payroll, purchasing, inventory, and various other responsibilities too nemerous to mention. While my experience enabled me to train and assist the projection staff, it was not logistically possible to cover projection shifts on any but the quietest of midweek shifts when less than 8 theaters had shows running. Without a service contract, and with infrequent overhauling of the projection equipment, there were numerous breakdowns, and shows often had to be cancelled. The big chains train their managers to be projectionists to get around the unions, but they know where their bread is buttered and keep the projection equipment in tip-top shape. Routine maintenance is key, but projectionists need training and should be paid a salary comensurate with the responsibilities of the position. A state license requirement might help, but the theater owners would fight it tooth and nail. If a concession stand worker doesn’t show up for work, the line at the concession stand may be a little longer. If the projectionist doesn’t show up, there’s no show.
I am a former NYC projectionist and more recently managed a theater for a mom & pop chain in lower New York State, so I’ve spent quite a few hours in movie theaters. I am also an avid movie-goer and do not approve of rolling stock commercial trailers. I believe the pre-film slide shows which advertise local businesses are a good compromise. They provide much needed extra revenue which is essential in today’s competetive climate, particularly in the smaller privately owned venues. Movie theater overhead is staggering, and payroll is one of the biggest items. I would have to put as many as 6 to 8 extra concession staff on duty on weekends JUST FOR CLEANING THEATER AUDITORIUMS BETWEEN SHOWS! It is absolutely apalling the condition that theaters are left in after each show, and that simple fact relates directly to ticket prices. If customers clean up after themselves, they will be lowering the payroll costs of the theater, and would then remove a formidable arguement that management uses to defend it’s use of commercials. The big theater chains are hugely profitable because they also make films, so they keep 100% of gross revenues on box office take of their own films. They also have multi-billion dollar bargaining power with the soda and candy companies they use, increasing their profit potential at the concession stand to boot. It’s double dipping at it’s finest! As huge media and entertainment conglomerates, they see their per screen investments as prime opportunities to sell to a captive audience. In essence, it’s triple dipping, and it’s just wrong!
I was a projectionist at The Thalia from 1975 through 1977 and although it had it’s peculiarities, I have fond memmories of the place. At that time, The Thalia had no real focus (no pun intended). We showed everything from mainstream first run films like Woody Allen’s “Love and Death,” to the more obscure indies like “The Night Porter.” Unfortunately, the ticket buying public had lost it’s enthusiasm for this tired old art house, with most weekdays barely seeing a handful of characters, I mean customers. Some of the more interesting entertainment often took place in the back rows where many of our regulars seemed to not realize (or care) that their antics were clearly visible to whomever was in the booth! My biggest pet peeve was the postage stamp screen. My friend Steve worked upstairs at the Symphony at that time (see his post from March 2004) and found an old pair of lenses that he thought might work at The Thalia. I cut new apertures and installed the lenses and voila, we had about a 30% larger screen image on flat format films; (although I sometimes had to chop peoples heads off to squeeze the subtitles into frame.) Man, those were great times!
I managed one of Cinema North’s theaters in NY back in 2004. They were nothing more than slumlords. A prime example of this is having only 1 service technician to service equipment in 12 theaters spread across New England. They refused to use independent contractors for service and we often had to wait weeks for service on our projection equipment.I was a licensed projectionist in NYC back in the mid-seventies, and not having a service contract was unheard of. How utterly disrespectful to both staff and paying customers! To boot, when they opened the theater I managed, they used old, antiquated projectors kludged together from spare and often obsolete parts. Then they would train concession staffers to be projectionists (thread the film and push this button) and pay them $6.50 per hour. A real joke. The sad thing is that so many good, dedicated, and hard working people are now out of work as a result of their demise. I cannot think of anything good to say about this company, their utter disregard for their employees, or their lack of concern for the safety and comfort of their customers. One of the owners would visit each of the 12 theaters once per year around Christmas time, do a walk-through, and pick up the cash accumulated from gift certificate sales, and then move on to the next facility. A real class act.
Yes, there were many slackers in 306 taking advantage of their fellow workers, as there are in every union. It is an inherent problem with unions; whether you work hard and try to excel, or you do the minimum and ride on the backs of others, everyone gets equalized. It is not really compatible with our free market economy; work hard and succeed; slack off and fall behind. My point, and I know I’m guilty of straying from it at times, is that some sort of regulation or liscensing for projectionists is a good thing. Another point I failed to address in my previous posting is with regard to licensing by fire departments. In NYC back in the 1970’s, many, if not most theaters were still using fuses in their main electrical panels. Many of them actually had nails bridging those fuses in clear violation of all city fire codes, electrical codes, and just plain common sense. Yet every theater had it’s duly signed and posted fire safety inspection certificate right there in the booth for all to see. There was obviously corruption going on at the expense of public safety. Bringing these types of issues up for discussion at union meetings was not in one’s best interest.
I was a Local 306 member in NYC back in the 1970’s. I, as all of the other projectionists I knew and associated with, took great pride in my work. The license requirement in NYC ensured that all operators had at least a basic understanding of the mechanical and electrical functions of the equipment. All of the theaters I worked in the city had service contracts, and the theater owners were adamant about daily maintenance of the booths and projection equipment. As a result, the quality of projection was very high, and allowed for ever higher contracted wages for the projectionists. A few years back I found myself between jobs and took a position as a manager at the Carmel Movieplex 8 in Carmel, NY. My projection background was key to landing this job, and my number 1 challenge was projection. The staff were mostly minimally trained high school students. They were taught how to thread-up a projector, and push the show-start button. They were paid not much more than the concession stand workers and could not even put a show together. There was no service contract. The company that owned the theater owned 12 other theaters spread out across New York State, Connecticut, Mass,and Vermont, with 1 service person headquartered in Vermont. The “philosophy” of this company and most modern multiplexes is to have the management staff cover projection duties as much as possible. Why not? They’re salaried employees. Anyone who has ever managed a theater knows the impracticality of this, as the manager is required to deal with public relations, facility maintenance, housekeeping, staffing, payroll, purchasing, inventory, and various other responsibilities too nemerous to mention. While my experience enabled me to train and assist the projection staff, it was not logistically possible to cover projection shifts on any but the quietest of midweek shifts when less than 8 theaters had shows running. Without a service contract, and with infrequent overhauling of the projection equipment, there were numerous breakdowns, and shows often had to be cancelled. The big chains train their managers to be projectionists to get around the unions, but they know where their bread is buttered and keep the projection equipment in tip-top shape. Routine maintenance is key, but projectionists need training and should be paid a salary comensurate with the responsibilities of the position. A state license requirement might help, but the theater owners would fight it tooth and nail. If a concession stand worker doesn’t show up for work, the line at the concession stand may be a little longer. If the projectionist doesn’t show up, there’s no show.
I am a former NYC projectionist and more recently managed a theater for a mom & pop chain in lower New York State, so I’ve spent quite a few hours in movie theaters. I am also an avid movie-goer and do not approve of rolling stock commercial trailers. I believe the pre-film slide shows which advertise local businesses are a good compromise. They provide much needed extra revenue which is essential in today’s competetive climate, particularly in the smaller privately owned venues. Movie theater overhead is staggering, and payroll is one of the biggest items. I would have to put as many as 6 to 8 extra concession staff on duty on weekends JUST FOR CLEANING THEATER AUDITORIUMS BETWEEN SHOWS! It is absolutely apalling the condition that theaters are left in after each show, and that simple fact relates directly to ticket prices. If customers clean up after themselves, they will be lowering the payroll costs of the theater, and would then remove a formidable arguement that management uses to defend it’s use of commercials. The big theater chains are hugely profitable because they also make films, so they keep 100% of gross revenues on box office take of their own films. They also have multi-billion dollar bargaining power with the soda and candy companies they use, increasing their profit potential at the concession stand to boot. It’s double dipping at it’s finest! As huge media and entertainment conglomerates, they see their per screen investments as prime opportunities to sell to a captive audience. In essence, it’s triple dipping, and it’s just wrong!
I was a projectionist at The Thalia from 1975 through 1977 and although it had it’s peculiarities, I have fond memmories of the place. At that time, The Thalia had no real focus (no pun intended). We showed everything from mainstream first run films like Woody Allen’s “Love and Death,” to the more obscure indies like “The Night Porter.” Unfortunately, the ticket buying public had lost it’s enthusiasm for this tired old art house, with most weekdays barely seeing a handful of characters, I mean customers. Some of the more interesting entertainment often took place in the back rows where many of our regulars seemed to not realize (or care) that their antics were clearly visible to whomever was in the booth! My biggest pet peeve was the postage stamp screen. My friend Steve worked upstairs at the Symphony at that time (see his post from March 2004) and found an old pair of lenses that he thought might work at The Thalia. I cut new apertures and installed the lenses and voila, we had about a 30% larger screen image on flat format films; (although I sometimes had to chop peoples heads off to squeeze the subtitles into frame.) Man, those were great times!