I worked at The Cento Cedar during its' brief revival in the 80s. Cool art/foreign programming.Cozy little theater, but no parking, and entrance was in an alley frequented by street people and hustlers, which eventually killed the business. I talked the owner into booking Michael Powell’s neglected classic Peeping Tom. The film was forgotten, unseen for years, we even had the director there, who was very gratified that somebody finally liked his movie, even 20-someting years later. I believe that started the critical re-evaluation of this film.
As one of my first teenage jobs about 1978-79, I worked at the Burlingame Drive-In Concession stand, which was a huge high-ceilinged “bubble” in the middle of the property, with large windows. It was pretty rough and tumble, even then. The teens would invade the place on the weekends and there would always be drunken kids starting fights. The security guard (intimidating but a sweetheart)would confiscate the booze and weed from the patrons and split it with the employees! We didn’t feel bad about it, since the spoiled suburban customers were generally stupid and abusive to the employees. One night, some obnoxious drunk kid thought we’d shorted him on change, so after much yelling, and with a horribly loud crash, put his arm through one of the thick pane windows. He’d wrapped his arm in A DOWN JACKET, which of course offers NO protection, so he messed his arm up bad. No one was arrested, though—I was told the kid was the local Sherriff’s son!
I worked at The Cento Cedar during its' brief revival in the 80s. Cool art/foreign programming.Cozy little theater, but no parking, and entrance was in an alley frequented by street people and hustlers, which eventually killed the business. I talked the owner into booking Michael Powell’s neglected classic Peeping Tom. The film was forgotten, unseen for years, we even had the director there, who was very gratified that somebody finally liked his movie, even 20-someting years later. I believe that started the critical re-evaluation of this film.
As one of my first teenage jobs about 1978-79, I worked at the Burlingame Drive-In Concession stand, which was a huge high-ceilinged “bubble” in the middle of the property, with large windows. It was pretty rough and tumble, even then. The teens would invade the place on the weekends and there would always be drunken kids starting fights. The security guard (intimidating but a sweetheart)would confiscate the booze and weed from the patrons and split it with the employees! We didn’t feel bad about it, since the spoiled suburban customers were generally stupid and abusive to the employees. One night, some obnoxious drunk kid thought we’d shorted him on change, so after much yelling, and with a horribly loud crash, put his arm through one of the thick pane windows. He’d wrapped his arm in A DOWN JACKET, which of course offers NO protection, so he messed his arm up bad. No one was arrested, though—I was told the kid was the local Sherriff’s son!