I was the manager of the Trolley Corners in ‘95-'96. I hadn’t been back in that building until last month when I returned to take a GMAT exam in one of the suites. While waiting to take the test I wandered around and lamented the loss of this great movie house. The two smaller auditoriums downstairs were dumps, and mostly overflow from the grand theater upstairs.
While I was there I exhibited such films as Independence Day, Twister, Broken Arrow, Batman Forever, Mortal Kombat and The Usual Suspects.
I have so many special memories of that place that I could go on for days. And not all of my memories were pleasant. The air conditioning in that place invariably failed on the busiest weekend of the year, the 4th of July. Every night I would have to climb the scaffold behind the big screen to ensure that no bums were trying to sleep up there.
The projection booth had reel to reel projectors which I was instructed not to use. But we held press and trade screenings there, so to avoid the hassle of building up and breaking down the films for one showing I broke the rules and ran reel to reel without incident. I was spoiled forever because I was able to see all of the films before they came out, and I got to see them on the biggest screen in a nearly empty theater.
The place has so much charm it makes me sad to see it gone. The box office was completely surrounded by a cage and overlooked the concession stand on the lower theaters. The place had no storage for concession supplies, so during peak times we used the upper projection booth, which was enormous and had plenty of room. But the old projectionist had a fit every time we did it. The booth was so large that we had several couches in there and spent many late nights playing cards. The two lower projection booths also overlooked the lower concession stand, and when we would interlock the two, the film had to run right over the top of it all. Patrons frewuently asked me if the film passing over their heads was some kind of gimmick or if it was fake. They were always amazed when I told them that it was actually the film they were about to watch.
I was the manager of the Trolley Corners in ‘95-'96. I hadn’t been back in that building until last month when I returned to take a GMAT exam in one of the suites. While waiting to take the test I wandered around and lamented the loss of this great movie house. The two smaller auditoriums downstairs were dumps, and mostly overflow from the grand theater upstairs.
While I was there I exhibited such films as Independence Day, Twister, Broken Arrow, Batman Forever, Mortal Kombat and The Usual Suspects.
I have so many special memories of that place that I could go on for days. And not all of my memories were pleasant. The air conditioning in that place invariably failed on the busiest weekend of the year, the 4th of July. Every night I would have to climb the scaffold behind the big screen to ensure that no bums were trying to sleep up there.
The projection booth had reel to reel projectors which I was instructed not to use. But we held press and trade screenings there, so to avoid the hassle of building up and breaking down the films for one showing I broke the rules and ran reel to reel without incident. I was spoiled forever because I was able to see all of the films before they came out, and I got to see them on the biggest screen in a nearly empty theater.
The place has so much charm it makes me sad to see it gone. The box office was completely surrounded by a cage and overlooked the concession stand on the lower theaters. The place had no storage for concession supplies, so during peak times we used the upper projection booth, which was enormous and had plenty of room. But the old projectionist had a fit every time we did it. The booth was so large that we had several couches in there and spent many late nights playing cards. The two lower projection booths also overlooked the lower concession stand, and when we would interlock the two, the film had to run right over the top of it all. Patrons frewuently asked me if the film passing over their heads was some kind of gimmick or if it was fake. They were always amazed when I told them that it was actually the film they were about to watch.