Yes outaframe, we are the lucky ones as we are only one generation away from the pioneers of the industry. My first theatre job was that of an usher in a fairly large 1,800 seat atmospheric downtown picture palace. Atmospheric, for those who don't know, was a theatre designed to give the impression of being in an outdoor theatre while in fact you were indoors. It was like sitting in an Italian garden, a Persian court, a Spanish patio or a mystic Egyptian temple under glorious moonlite, where stars twinkled and lazy clouds drifted overhead on a deep blue plaster sky. The theatre I worked at was of the Spanish variety. As a kid it was always my favorite, and when I learned about a staff position being open there, I went directly from school to the theatre to try and obtain it.
I was hired on the spot by Mr. Walter Boyd, manager of the Boyd theatre. I had only worked there for several weeks when I realized that a career in theatre management looked very attractive to me. Walter became my mentor. He realized my interest from the beginning, and proceeded to teach me all that I wanted to know.
Walter had started working in theatres during the teens at the 4,000+ seat Philadelphia Met (Metropolitan Opera House) that was built by Oscar Hammerstein in 1908. His first job was to fill the water glasses for the orchestra members and to see that their sheet music was in place on the music stands. He also was responsible for hailing cabs for the performers as they left the theatre. On several occasions he was used as an extra in various stage productions, usually dressed as a girl as he was small. After Hammerstein's opera company failed, the Met featured vaudeville, movies and legit. It was taken over by the Stanley Company of American in 1928 as a combination stage show and film house. The Stanley company was bought out by Warner brothers, but they retained the Stanley name for a number of years, eventually becoming the Stanley-Warner theatre chain which continued to operate well into the mid 70s.
Meanwhile, throughout the 20s Walter worked his way up into management and in 1929 he was awarded the managing directors position for the new 4,200 seat atmospheric Warner theatre on the boardwalk in Atlantic City New Jersey. The Stanley Co. only operated the theatre for four years as it was much to big for Atlantic City which had 31 theatres in all, 10 of them on the boadwalk. Stanley then leased the theatre to other operators, and Walter packed off to Easton, Pa. in 1934 to take over management of the Seville theatre which was promptly renamed the Boyd.
Having been manager of one of Americas largest movie palaces from mid 29 through early 34, the pinnacle of the movie palace era, and then manager of the beautiful Boyd in Easton for the next 40 years, certainly established Walter as a first rate showman. I had the fortunate privilege to learn theatre management firsthand from one of the best. Later while going to school in Reading Pa. I befriended Mr.Eugene Plank, manager of the 2,900 seat Embassy theatre, another great oldtime showman who had come up through the ranks throughout the 30's, 40s and 50s. Again I had the opportunity to learn much more about the biz from another perspective. Later, I also befriended Jack Beck who ran the Lyric Burlesque theatre in Allentown, Pa. This was one of the very last of the great oldtime Minsky style Burlesque theatres with the live comics, pit band, and chorus line of (somewhat) beautiful girls, and of course the "peelers", or what we today would call the strippers. Jack would give me box seat tickets for his shows and I would take a date and we would have a great time. As I was in my early 20s at that time, my date and I would often be the youngest patrons in the theatre. The audience was made up of almost all couples and was middle aged or older for the most part. Old time burlesque was a fun entertainment, and not what most people today would think it was. In fact it was more or less an adult version of vaudeville. A little off color, but not gross.
These were the people that influenced my theatrical enlightenment. As I look back, I realize how lucky I was to have known and learned from those folks. It's a shame that those going into the business today have no one to learn the roots of the biz from. The managers, district managers and even owners for the most part have no direct connection to the days of true showmanship.
Today they think that if the preshow advertisements and trailers are placed correctly and the show goes through uninterrupted, the theatre is clean, and the temperture is comfortable, that they have truly entertained their patrons. In fact, their {younger} patrons do feel fulfilled and satisfied.
The real shame is that they don't know what they are missing.
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