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In those days the tickets that were issued were
simply coloured tickets ripped from a roll.
There were no computers in cinema box
offices at that time. Each cinema had a
different coloured ticket. One day a lady came
up to me with the wrong ticket for the cinema
I was ushering. I asked her which film she
wanted to see. "This one", she replied, pointing
at my cinema. "Are you sure you don't want to
see Smokey and the Bandit Part 3?" I asked.
(Her ticket was actually for that film). "No",
she said. "I don't smoke." Who can understand
the reasoning behind this answer? Perhaps she
did not understand my question. A fellow
usher, Leonard, once encountered an Indian
lady who had a very strong accent, and found
her very hard to understand. "Could you please
tell me where de boot is?" she asked. Leon told
Village 4 Cinemas, Westfield Shoppingtown, Parramatta
her that he was not sure of her meaning. After
then ran up and down the reasonably crowded The film Poltergeist contained a lot of flashing getting quite frustrated and repeating the
foyer pretending to fly. lights. Once when checking the theatre, I saw question several times, she finally said, "You
a girl sitting in the back row wearing know. De telephone boot." I admit that I could
sunglasses. I thought this was very strange at not keep a straight face after Leonard told me
When dealing with the general public one can
always expect silly things to happen. Since the the time. I later found out that she was that story.
theatre attracted such a wide variety of people epileptic, and that the flashing lights could As I continued to work in other cinemas, I
from all over Sydney, I experienced a huge have triggered a fit. Village is the only theatre
number of silly questions, strange events and where I have seen an epileptic fit. One was real found that patrons at Parramatta were quite
surprising audience reactions. Some that I and the other was fake. The fake one happened sensible compared with the patrons of the other
cinemas. However, it was not only the patrons
recall happened during Mad Max 2. The first in the foyer and the person was so believable
was when I was sitting in the audience with that we called an ambulance. The ambulance that did silly things. The staff were just as silly.
officers recognised him and told us that he The first person in this category is me. The
some friends. Early in the film there is a scene
designed to make the audience jump. It performed this stunt all over Parramatta. The ushers were taught to stand with their torch in
certainly made one young lady sitting near us real fit was drug induced, due to a reaction certain positions. For example, when ripping
from something the person had taken. It was tickets in the dark we were told to place the
jump. She was about to have a drink when the
quite a scary experience. torch under our arms in a way that it would
shine onto the tickets and not in the patron's
eyes. The torch eventually felt part of our body,
Checking ages for R-rated films was the
usher's responsibility. This often caused some and we did not even notice it was there. One
heated arguments. My favourite patron was day I spent about fifteen minutes looking for
my torch. I checked the staff room, the candy
about sixteen years old. He wanted to see
Halloween 2. I asked for proof of age, but he bar, the box office and even the projection
did not have any. I then asked his date of birth room. I then checked on the shelf in each
theatre and could not find it anywhere. I gave
and his reply would have made him about 48
years old. He could not understand why I did up my search and stood outside a cinema. It
not allow him in. During the early to mid- was then that I discovered my torch. It had
been under my arm the whole time. I felt like
1980s, there was a period of ultra-violent,
R-rated gang films. One of these was Class Of a real idiot.
1984. It caused huge problems for us. The The most embarrassing thing an usher could
biggest problem was that the kids who were do was to fall down the stairs whilst seating
turned away at the door would often seek people in the cinema. I slipped a few times.
revenge, their favourite being to go to the The usherettes had a difficult time because of
nearest telephone and tell us they had placed their uniform. They wore a long wrap around
a bomb in the theatre. This meant that all four dress that flowed down to their ankles. To seat
cinemas had to be evacuated and the Police people, they had to hitch up their dress and try
Bomb Squad brought in. I had to evacuate a to march up the staircase whilst holding the
completely full theatre one Saturday night. The dress. I must admit that I would laugh if they
film had been screening for about 45 minutes tripped. I will include projectionists under this
when it stopped, and I gave the instruction to category, as they did a number of silly things.
quickly and calmly leave the theatre. Instead
scene happened. The drink was about halfway of leaving, the audience began laughing. The One classic event was when the film First
up to her mouth when she jumped. Her arms film being screened that night was Monty Blood arrived. The reels were joined together
flew out, away from her body and so did the Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The
in the wrong order. This meant that the film
drink. It splashed all over two of my friends. audience thought that I was a paid actor, and did not make any sense. What was even more
A dry friend and I kept laughing throughout that the break was a part of the show. amazing was that not one patron complained
the rest of the film every time we thought about Eventually they believed me and left. We all
that the film did not make sense, or seemed out
the incident. My two other friends were had to wait outside for about 30 minutes whilst of order. I guess they thought it was just a bad
soaked. At the climax of Mad Max 2, there is the police checked the theatres. The patrons film.
another scary scene where the villain appears then went back to their cinemas and continued
over the front of a truck. It is a real shocker. In watching their film. I am sure that there was a Some of the projectionists thought they were
fact it shocked one lady so much that when she group of delighted young men across the road God. If you told them that the film was out of
jumped she threw her handbag. She was sitting from the theatre that night who thought this focus, the response was often that it was the
towards the front of the theatre but her handbag was very funny. The Complex had to be print and that nothing could be done about it.
landed towards the back of the theatre. evacuated a number of times during this era. I have spent many hours inspecting theatres

16 CINEMARECORD # 88