Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Sneaking Snacks Into The Cinema

This is topic Sneaking Snacks Into The Cinema in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-24-2019, 05:55 PM:

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-24-2019, 06:01 PM:

Years ago, I picked up an (empty) case of beer on the auditorium floor after the show. Case and all.

I still don't know how someone managed to carry a box that big past me at the door. One or two bottles or cans, sure, but a whole case?

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 03-25-2019, 07:47 AM:

Did they have the decency to put the empties in the case? You have to at least respect those people in a way. We get a lot less than you'd think at the drive-in. Occasionally, sure, we'll find a dozen crushed king-cans of "Keystone Lite" or some other swill, but other than that, maybe a couple Corona bottles with lime slices propped up against a speaker post respectfully. Empty nesters on a date likely.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 03-25-2019, 09:17 AM:

Frank, You DO have an alarm on the exit doors don't you?

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-25-2019, 11:31 AM:

Actually, I don't. At one point when I had someone tell me that there were teenagers sneaking into a show through that door (after the show so it was too late to deal with it) I did install a doorbell on it so it would ring whenever that door was opened. However, I discovered that it almost never rang (which is good) but the one or two occasions when it did ring was always during a really busy show and there wasn't anything that I could do at that point. When there's thirty people in the lobby buying tickets and popcorn and more coming in every minute I can't just drop everything and say "I'll be back in five or ten minutes" and run into the auditorium to sort out the issue.

Ultimately when the alarm switch that I had on the door quit (I think it got brittle and broke during a cold snap) I just never bothered to replace it and when I repainted the lobby I removed the doorbell too.

Posted by James Wyrembelski (Member # 9037) on 03-26-2019, 11:21 AM:

I need to put an alarm on my rear doors as well. However, placing a fake "Emergency Exit Only: Alarm will sound" sign on the door actually worked to keep people from using them. Hah.

I KNOW people are going to sneak stuff in...but at least throw it in the garbage, that's all I ask.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-26-2019, 02:15 PM:

When I first made my theatre, I had the fire exit door installed flush with the floor (and the ground outside). That turned out to be a mistake since water tended to flow in under the door when it rained. So I had the fire exit door raised about a foot and had a sloped sidewalk installed outside and a "slope" built into the floor inside (kind of a ramp but it's flush with the floor on all exposed sides so you can walk up it from any angle) to get up to the level of the door.

When the door was at floor level people opened it to exit after the show almost every night. Now that there's that one foot of height, nobody (and I mean nobody) uses that door to leave when the show is over. That door isn't opened by any customer after the show, ever.

There's something about that foot of height that keeps people away from the door.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-26-2019, 10:06 PM:

We have an exit door next to the screen which has a ramp leading up to it. There's even an exit sign over it. In 40+ years we have had exactly one guy use that door. I think they all just figure they need to go out the way they came in... plus the locals know the door opens into a creepy alley, so they'd rather go out the front anyway.

Posted by Bruce Cloutier (Member # 9615) on 03-27-2019, 03:15 PM:

I'll confess that I have entered a theater through the side door for a free show or two. Actually it was a long long time ago (in a place far far away). Um, around the time "Son of Flubber" or something along those lines came out. Like I said... long ago. The show wasn't 25 cents but wasn't a dollar either. One of us paid and then went to the side door and let the rest in. At that age I had no clue it wasn't an okay thing to do. Feel guilty now.

More than once the theater manager would have to stop the show and yell at us. I'm not sure why now. Maybe we were releasing moths or something.

Then much later my wife would take the boys to a show while I was at work. She would sneak everything including popcorn into the show using her purse. I had nothing to do with it and wasn't aware until she fessed up sometime later. I think for her it was a matter of convenience as opposed to trying to save money although we were on a tight budget at times back then.

Uh. Guess you can all hate me now. [Frown]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-28-2019, 10:32 AM:

quote: Bruce Cloutier
Uh. Guess you can all hate me now.

Better keep an eye out for the Flubber mobile above your house. No telling what can happen...

The Professor

Posted by Bruce Cloutier (Member # 9615) on 03-29-2019, 07:17 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
keep an eye out for the Flubber

My mother actually bought me the stuff.... Flubber. They probably used the same stuff to film the movie "The Blob". I remember it having an awful odor. It wasn't really useful for much. It disappeared unexpectedly and I think sometime later I heard maybe that it was toxic.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 03-29-2019, 01:14 PM:

There was a silicon material called "Silly Putty". It was mostly inert and much fun to squish through your fingers and toes.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-29-2019, 01:36 PM:

Silly Putty still exists. I saw some in a store a while back; I remember because I was surprised to see it there.

Slinkies - the big steel spring that walks down stairs - still exist too. A kid had one with him when he came to the show a few months ago. (I impounded it from him until the show was over, of course.)

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-29-2019, 05:22 PM:

Silly Putty was one of my earliest doses of "marketing reality." Mom bought me a container of it, which was shaped like a chicken egg, but the actual ball of putty was maybe an inch in diameter or so.

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 03-31-2019, 11:07 PM:

You could press Silly Putty onto newsprint or a comic book and lift it and it would capture the image. You could also roll it into a ball and it would bounce quite high.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-31-2019, 11:29 PM:

I think my first dose of "marketing reality" was when I got one of those "Super-High-Bounce" rubber balls.

The package said that it would bounce as high as a house.

I kept throwing it down on the sidewalk, harder and harder, but the ball eventually hit a crack in the sidewalk and bounced off into the bushes, never to be seen again.

Never did get the damned thing to bounce as high as my house!