Usher

[Matt Deckard]

What ever happened to the movie theater Usher? He wore a bow tie and a jacket, collected you ticket at the door and if you showed up late he'd escort you to a seat using a flashlight with an amber cone on the end. Today they take the ticket and forget about you.

 

[Brad Bowers]

Yeah, and at the end of the film, they ask you to leave so they can clean the theater, while the credits are still rolling! I told the young punk that I paid good money to see the film, and I was going to sit in my seat until the entire film was finished. We had words after the film was over!

Moving-going is not the pleasant experience it used to be.

Brad

 

[Angelicious]

I agree completely. I used to work in a cinema (at that time a 4-screen multiplex), and even those of us who tried to enhance the movie-going experience were limited by rules and regulations laid down by management. We weren't allowed to perform services like that, because they "wasted time" and were seen as superfluous to the someone-walking-in-and-watching-a-movie-then-leaving transaction.

And as in any service job primarily staffed by bored teenagers, most of the staff just didn't give a brass razoo, as long as you went in and out with little fuss.

We have a local, private cinema that still has some of the old services. We also have one where you sit on old, donated sofas or chairs and eat whatever snacks or takeaway you've brought with you.

I love old cinemas. (Old architecture in general.) Here is a link to old cinemas & their preservation/history, and here is one to possibly NZ's most beautiful cinema experience, the Auckland Civic.

 

[jake_fink]

Q: What happened to the usher?

A: He(/she) is now frying chipped potatoes at the New York Fries concession in the foodcourt where the lobby should be. Anything to drink with that? That'll be $14.40." :rage:

 

[Wild Root]

They should bring the usher back! One that looks like he belongs there!

When they hold film events at some of the historic movie palaces down town LA, they have ushers that will show you to your seat. Flashlight too some times.

But, it's real sad how management and dumb laws have made employees restricted in what they can do. How bad does it look to get written up for showing a man or woman to their seat! Doing good is becoming against the law it seems. Back in the old days when a young man/woman went above the call of duty, he/she was rewarded! Now they get the shaft.

Bring back ushers and full service gas stations at no extra cost!

Root.

 

[PADDY]

At the movies, Northern Ireland style...

Up until a few years ago, we still had many privately run picture houses in Northern Ireland (maybe the Troubles over there held time back a bit?). It was still the old velvet clad wooden chairs with ushers and flashlights. Sometimes you had a break in between the film for ice-cream..etc. Names like The Astoria, The Empire, The Strand, The Ivy, The Coliseum...were all common names (I'm talking about into the 1990s guys!). At the end of the show, the National Anthem was always played and everyone stood to attention in silence until it finished. Those were the days. But even that little colony of British Imperialism is fast changing, and most of those things I have mentioned have died. Peace Processes come at a price, and that is one of the prices paid for peace in Ireland. Shame we had to give up the nice dark red velvet seats and that the big chains of cinemas like UCI have just about killed off the family owned picture houses. I'm a square peg living in a round hole of a world in this century guys... :cry:

 

[MudInYerEye]

Here in New York only the old Ziegfeld Theater remains to provide the old-timey bowtied-and-bejacketed usher service, but boy! is it a humdinger of a movie house! Mahogany and velvet all over the place. Anyone visiting the city owes it to themself to enjoy a flick there.

 

[Quigley Brown]

Yeah, and at the end of the film, they ask you to leave so they can clean the theater, while the credits are still rolling! I told the young punk that I paid good money to see the film, and I was going to sit in my seat until the entire film was finished. We had words after the film was over!

Moving-going is not the pleasant experience it used to be.

Brad

You always seem to be an old grouch about everything. I went to a 16-screen theater last night. The kids were nice as can be. There was a projector problem during the trailers and one of kids came down front to apologize for the problem...and he truely meant it. Sitting through the end credits they won't get in front of you to pick up trash. Is it Utah or something?

 

[Wild Root]

It has to do with the establishment. Some encourage customer service and some don't.

I haven't had any body tell me to take off in the middle of the credits. Then again, I hardly ever stick around that long after the movie.

We all have some bad experiences at places and well, it's easy to say they're all the same way.

I just see that most workers at these places don't care much about the customers because for the most part customers can be rude and such. This is coming from a guy who has worked in the food biz for a wile. I have seen nice people and rude ones. So, always have to give the employees the benefit of the doubt. They are people too and some patrons for get this. But, then again there are those employees who just couldn't care about the customers.

So, it's a catch 22 if you will.

Find a theater that you find nice and stick to it!

Root.

 

[Brad Bowers]

You always seem to be an old grouch about everything.

Alas, 'tis true. I don't generally like people, and hate going out in public. Whenever I'm out and about, I'm usually on edge, so it doesn't take much to push me over. Dealing with one or two people, I'm fine with it, more than that, get me out of there! If I had a way to make a living as a recluse, I would. I'm not very good at being social.

As for sitting through the credits, I've always sat through to the very end of them. Those folks worked hard on the movie, and the least I can do is read the credits to acknowledge their work.

Besides, you never know when I movie will stick a scene at the end of the credits.

 

[ITG]

Well, I can say the seats are more comfy nowadays.

Hey Paddy, and the other UK peeps, do y'all have stadium seating over there as well as comfy seats whose armrests raise up?

Oh I had to wear a bow tie and tuxedo polyester pants back in the 1990s when I worked in the concession stand. Oh and a polyester vest with white shirt.

 

[Thomas Walden]

You always seem to be an old grouch.

I was thinking the same. Yet it is easy to become a cynic when so many people seem so uncouth and obtuse, even punkish. I suppose the best one can do is try to be a gentleman.

 

[Angelicious]

Well, I can say the seats are more comfy nowadays.

Maybe where you are... Over here they have hard plastic armrests and no leg room. You have to sit up like a paranoid debutante or the corners dig into your ribs or elbows. Plus, the curve of the seat is at the wrong height, and my neck cricks (but that may just be me at 5' 4").

The cinema I used to attend as a kid still had the old padded red leather seats from the 30s? or so. They were super comfy, unless you got one whose springs had collapsed. They've since mostly-gutted it and turned into a nightclub/mini casino. Damned real estate developer mayor twit...

Oh I had to wear a bow tie and tuxedo polyester pants back in the 1990s when I worked in the concession stand. Oh and a polyester vest with white shirt.

Yup, that's about what we wore when I worked in one here in the mid/late 90s. Or at least the box office staff & ushers did. I was most often stuck in the overpriced neon candy bar, wearing a teal green polo shirt and unflattering navy blue business skirt with my school gym shoes.

 

[Kent Allard]

At the end of the show, the National Anthem was always played and everyone stood to attention in silence until it finished. Those were the days.:

Ray Bradbury did a great short story about this called "The Anthem Sprinters" about people who tried to get out of the theatre before the Anthem started. Check it out if you get a chance.

 

[Quigley Brown]

A while back when working for an army newspaper in Germany I went to see a James Bond film in the on-base theater. Everyone stood as they played the National Anthem BEFORE the film started. You'd think they would play God Save the Queen for 007.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Anyway... bring 'em back.

 

[Harp]

The Fall of the House Usher

Speaking as a former movie theater usher, the pits were soft drink
congealed popcorn stuck to the floor, patrons who insisted on
being obnoxious, and this idiot teenager who brought a toy cap pistol
with him and began pointing it at customers prior to start time.
The theater emptied out, and we locked the kid in the manager's office
until the police arrived---to protect the kid.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Speaking as a former movie theater usher, the pits were soft drink
congealed popcorn stuck to the floor, patrons who insisted on
being obnoxious, and this idiot teenager who brought a toy cap pistol
with him and began pointing it at customers prior to start time.
The theater emptied out, and we locked the kid in the manager's office
until the police arrived---to protect the kid.

Today the theater owner & theater manager would be sued into oblivion for restraining the brat, and the parents would be whining to all the papers about their child being denied his right to freely express himself and so forth. Oh for the good old days where people took responsibility for their and their children's actions...

 

[LizzieMaine]

We hardly ever have trouble with kids at the theatre where I work -- but then, we don't show the kind of films that attract the kind of kids who make trouble. But adults can be pretty obnoxious sometimes too -- I really get tired of telling grown men (it's mostly men who do it) to please take their filthy muddy shoes off the balcony rail. And then there's the pigs of both genders who spill popcorn and drinks all over the floor and make no effort to clean any of it up and wouldn't even think to take their trash with them and drop it in the bins after the show. Most of our patrons aren't like this -- but it makes those who are all the more aggravating.

As for the original subject, we *do* usher for shows where there's reserved seating -- with flashlights even -- but for regular shows, we usher by request only, usually for elderly folks who have limited mobility. It's a matter of having the staffing to do it -- there's nights when I'm selling tickets, taking tickets, ushering, and then going upstairs to run the show, and it gets a bit hectic...

 

[Harp]

Ticket

It's a matter of having the staffing to do it -- there's nights when I'm selling tickets, taking tickets, ushering, and then going upstairs to run the show, and it gets a bit hectic...

I can recall having to tear the admittance ticket in half, returning a half
to the customer, and sticking the other end inside a plastic bag, then
running inside the theater to quell a disturbance, run upstairs for more
popcorn (a real money maker food staple), run back down to the usher's
podium, then grab some stuff for the projectionist (there was a projection
union sign inside the room: No Finks Allowed-loved that sign,
and running back downstairs to cover my gluteusmaximus at the door.
Meanwhile, the manager just sat on his keister all day or flirted with the
girls. But I love movies, and I gained a real appreciation for the tail-end
of the film biz: getting people into a theater, and having them return.