I was the second manager of the NorthStar. The first, longtime and legendary manager was Mr. Ted Waggoner. (Ted insisted on being addressed as “Mr.”) Ted ruled his house with an iron fist. No one, including customers, dared challenge his authority. A projectionist told me of a night when Ted didn’t take kindly to the behavior of a particular customer. He ordered the film stopped and the house lights brought up. Ted marched down to the front of the auditorium and announced who he was and that he ruled the theatre and if anyone didn’t like it, they could leave. Half the audience got up and left!
During my tenure, I had the opportunity to screen “The Sting” for George Roy Hill, Robert Redford and the essential crew of “The Great Waldo Pepper.” They were in San Antonio filming “Pepper.” “The Sting” – which had not been released yet – had just been completed and Hill, et al had not yet seen the released version. So, they came in on a Saturday morning before opening for a screening.
After a couple of years, I was moved on to open the Greenspoint Five in Houston – GCC’s first five screen theatre. It was an abomination of a theatre! Five center aisle shoebox sized auditoriums lined up in a dead-end hall. First new theatre in NW Houston and, despite being an awful place to watch a movie, was packed every weekend, pretty much regardless of what was showing! Those were boom days in Houston!
The Holiday and The Palafox were two distinct and different drive-ins. The Holiday was north of the Palafox on Hwy 29. (I know because I was a ticket boy at all of the Gulf States theatres in Pensacola during the mid-50’s until 1960.)
I was the second manager of the NorthStar. The first, longtime and legendary manager was Mr. Ted Waggoner. (Ted insisted on being addressed as “Mr.”) Ted ruled his house with an iron fist. No one, including customers, dared challenge his authority. A projectionist told me of a night when Ted didn’t take kindly to the behavior of a particular customer. He ordered the film stopped and the house lights brought up. Ted marched down to the front of the auditorium and announced who he was and that he ruled the theatre and if anyone didn’t like it, they could leave. Half the audience got up and left!
During my tenure, I had the opportunity to screen “The Sting” for George Roy Hill, Robert Redford and the essential crew of “The Great Waldo Pepper.” They were in San Antonio filming “Pepper.” “The Sting” – which had not been released yet – had just been completed and Hill, et al had not yet seen the released version. So, they came in on a Saturday morning before opening for a screening.
After a couple of years, I was moved on to open the Greenspoint Five in Houston – GCC’s first five screen theatre. It was an abomination of a theatre! Five center aisle shoebox sized auditoriums lined up in a dead-end hall. First new theatre in NW Houston and, despite being an awful place to watch a movie, was packed every weekend, pretty much regardless of what was showing! Those were boom days in Houston!
The Holiday and The Palafox were two distinct and different drive-ins. The Holiday was north of the Palafox on Hwy 29. (I know because I was a ticket boy at all of the Gulf States theatres in Pensacola during the mid-50’s until 1960.)