I stumbled across this site and thought I would add a little info. I worked at Eastgate during high school from 1981 to 1983 starting as a ticket taker with my cheap suit jacket and clip on tie and eventually ending up as assistant manager. Jackie Pope was my daily supervisor with Mr. Pope coming in mostly on Sunday or Monday nights to prepare the new movie ads for the newspaper on the upcoming Fridays. The Pope family also owned or had interest in of course Cinema 3 and the theater in the mall in West Monroe for which I can’t remember the name. Being assistant manager meant I would fill in on occasion at the other theaters if their managers were out. I also had the honor of changing the billboard in the Eastgate Shopping Center parking lot for the new movies starting most every Thursday night after the last movie started for the evening. Rain, cold, ice, wind or whatever the billboard had to be changed with that 10'-0 slick metal ladder at 10 to 11 pm hauled over with Jackie’s old beige Ford truck. Andy and Dale were the main projectionists at Eastgate. Great guys. I was working during that Soggy Bottom USA premiere day. Crazy crowds. The biggest draw in the summer of 1981 was Raiders of the Lost Ark. It started very slow but as people found out about it the crowds started rolling in. Conan the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarznegger was also showing at the same time. Without exaggeration there were times the line was over an eighth mile long on some days. I moved away after college and do remember on a visit back in the late 80’s/early90’s the big main theater being split into four theaters and the second largest theater being split in half with the smallest theater becoming the largest. If I remember correctly, in the original configuration the large middle theater was well over 600 seats, the second theater over 200 seats and the smallest theater around 200 seats. It was quite a crowd on those summer days when we would sell out all three shows 2 to 3 times a day. And back then there were no cash registers for concession stand workers. Calculating purchase totals were done mentally with maybe a pad of paper to calculate large orders. The Popes were great people and it was a valuable learning experience working with them.
I stumbled across this site and thought I would add a little info. I worked at Eastgate during high school from 1981 to 1983 starting as a ticket taker with my cheap suit jacket and clip on tie and eventually ending up as assistant manager. Jackie Pope was my daily supervisor with Mr. Pope coming in mostly on Sunday or Monday nights to prepare the new movie ads for the newspaper on the upcoming Fridays. The Pope family also owned or had interest in of course Cinema 3 and the theater in the mall in West Monroe for which I can’t remember the name. Being assistant manager meant I would fill in on occasion at the other theaters if their managers were out. I also had the honor of changing the billboard in the Eastgate Shopping Center parking lot for the new movies starting most every Thursday night after the last movie started for the evening. Rain, cold, ice, wind or whatever the billboard had to be changed with that 10'-0 slick metal ladder at 10 to 11 pm hauled over with Jackie’s old beige Ford truck. Andy and Dale were the main projectionists at Eastgate. Great guys. I was working during that Soggy Bottom USA premiere day. Crazy crowds. The biggest draw in the summer of 1981 was Raiders of the Lost Ark. It started very slow but as people found out about it the crowds started rolling in. Conan the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarznegger was also showing at the same time. Without exaggeration there were times the line was over an eighth mile long on some days. I moved away after college and do remember on a visit back in the late 80’s/early90’s the big main theater being split into four theaters and the second largest theater being split in half with the smallest theater becoming the largest. If I remember correctly, in the original configuration the large middle theater was well over 600 seats, the second theater over 200 seats and the smallest theater around 200 seats. It was quite a crowd on those summer days when we would sell out all three shows 2 to 3 times a day. And back then there were no cash registers for concession stand workers. Calculating purchase totals were done mentally with maybe a pad of paper to calculate large orders. The Popes were great people and it was a valuable learning experience working with them.