The Sacramento Inne Theatre

Standing by the exit and saying goodbye to the customers was great fun. The Sacramento Theatre was an Art House Theatre that some fool had put outside of downtown, next to the mall. The mix of mall culture and art house cinema made for some fun at the exit door. The audience was walking out of Pulp Fiction, which had enough cross over appeal to bring loads of folks into such a theatre as this for the first time, and probably the last.

As they exited I'd ask each patron how they liked the film.

"It was... interesting."
"Interesting."
"Well, it was different, interesting. Definately interesting."

I loved the movie, but it was an emporer's new cloths situation for these folks. They were afraid to say that they didn't like it. That a big black man getting analy raped was a bit much for them. So they said it was... um... well... interesting.

Finally a man came along who was willing to tell me the truth.

"How was the film sir?"

"Listen." He motioned me to the side, where we could speak in private. "Listen son, I don't want to get nobody in trouble, but, I think you're projectionist got the film all mixed up. It don't make any gosh darn sense the way you're showing it."

"That's how it came to us sir. The stories aren't all in chronological order."

"Yeah? Well, I think you ought to unmix it up then. Put it together right you might have a good film. Though I'd leave a couple of scenes out. I think people have heard enough of that nigger word."

I assured him I'd look into it.

Bryna's sister Erin had gotten me the job and I took it as a brainless way to get free movies and supplement my income from working at the aquarium. I popped popcorn, poured sodas and talked to folks about movies. I had some great co-workers.

Jake was a passionate young man who was looking for his place in the world. Like myself he was sure he was meant to play an important role but he hadn't found it yet. Jake brought a plastic water gun in and he was playing with it between films. Carly, the 19 year old assistant manager took it from him, much to his dismay. He was incensed at this injustice and he wouldn't take it sitting down. Jake made up a petition calling for the immediate return of his water gun along with an apology from Carly. He then went about gathering customer's signatures. The movie goers found him charming if a bit strange. They were more than happy to sign the petition and in no time at all Jake had a couple of pages full of signatures. Carly caught wind of this and her and Jake had a private meeting. I saw a put out looking Jake putting his water gun in his car and I never saw the petitions again.

There was a whole crew of characters beside Jake. Beth was an intelligent and adorable girl who developed a bit of a crush on me. I was flattered to know that girls could still crush on me. Ted was the manager, who I rarely worked with, though he did turn me on to the Wild Bunch, one of the greatest films ever made. On his advice I waited until I had a chance to see it on the big screen. The Tower Theater was The Sacramento Inne's sister theatre downtown and they featured the Wild Bunch double billed with Bonnie and Clyde. Now that was a movie night to remember. Michael was a young black guy, just a year or two older than me. He worked at the theatre before it was an art house theatre and when it was closed for renovation and change of ownership he hung around until he found someone to give him a job. He'd had pretty much the same job since he was 16. I found this amazing. The most fun of the group had to be Sandra, better known as the fancy lady. The Fancy Lady talked like pirate and swore she'd one day take over the theatre and show nothing but pirate movies. For Halloween one year she was the Rosarita the lady pictured on the label on every can of Rosarita beans. She had a tray of tortillas and everything and managed to maintain the proper pose and smile throughout the evening. Erin, practically my sister in law, former roommate was an extreme part timer so we rarely worked together. Finally there were the gaggle of guys who liked to play fantasy card games in the lobby between films, including one projectionist who spent more per week on Magic; The Gathering card than I made at my two jobs combined.

That summer was particularly gorgeous and particularly nostalgic for me. One sip of lemonade seemed to take me back to every sip of lemonade I'd ever had. One night The Fancy Lady and I were working the candy counter when a frog came walking matter of factly through the front door, passed us and headed into the theater where he stopped in the aisle facing the movie. I didn't want to see him squashed so I scooped him up, took him home and named him Doogie Howser. I meant to rent him the DVD of the film that I'd caused him to miss but I never got around to it.

My dad came to the theater a couple of times and I enjoyed taking him and his best pal, known to me as Uncle Harold, out to see free movies at other theatres as per the theater employees exchange program. I could not afford to pay when my dad and I went out so it felt good to be able to treat us to a flick.

Carly was generally the manger during the shifts I worked. I didn't figure there was much managing to do. I took money in exchange for popcorn, soda or candy and I had to have enough money to acount for all the popcorn cups, soda cups and candy that was gone at the end of my shift. But she was young and felt a responsibility to do some managing. She drove everyone nuts. Finally, when she bit my head off for putting the M&M's where the Snickers Bars went I told her that she could get what she needed from me without being a bitch.

The manager asked me to apologize and I said I'd rather not, though I understood that this would be unacceptable. I handed over my clip on tie and name tag and suggested the manager survey all of the employee's regarding Carly's managerial style. I quit or maybe I was fired. Either way, I was back down to one job.

I heard later that Carly went around asking everybody if they liked her after I'd left. I felt bad. She was just a young kid whose good work ethic had put her in charge of people she'd normally be shy about talking to. When I'd see her around town after that I'd say hello. I really should've apologized for calling her a bitch.

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