Whereas we have been placing collectively this difficulty of The Stranger, and considering all of the methods by which we might cowl the upcoming Seattle Worldwide Movie Competition now that we’re again in print, we began to suppose again to the previous days, when The Stranger would pilfer the SIFF workplaces for weeks on finish, grabbing all of the VHS tapes and DVDs we might get our grasping palms on.
I labored at The Stranger via many a SIFF season (my first stint on the paper was between 2000–2013) and I beloved SIFF season. I beloved how leaping from one SIFF present to the following was an annual springtime custom. I beloved taking an opportunity on a film I knew nothing about, save for the 100 or so works in a snarky alt-weekly. I beloved attending to eat popcorn each day for 2 weeks.
Whereas SIFF has continued going sturdy—51 years operating!—it’s simple that issues have modified. COVID-19, after all, had a profound affect on cinema. In 2023, the Nationwide Cinema Basis reported that greater than 2,000 film theaters closed throughout the US in the course of the pandemic. However even earlier than that, Seattle was dropping its treasures. Harvard Exit closed in 2015, the Seven Gables Theatre and Guild forty fifth closed in 2017, and extra not too long ago, we’ve misplaced AMC 10 (previously the Metro). Whereas each the Grand Phantasm and the Egyptian haven’t closed, neither org is working full-time—Grand Phantasm was pressured to relocate in February and the Egyptian continues to be below building following final yr’s busted pipe and flooding.
So many motion pictures, so many reminiscences… Fin.
So we began asking round. Who else was wistfully recalling the times when there was an indie film home on each block within the U-District, the Guild forty fifth brightened up commutes with their punny marquee, and the again pages of The Stranger have been filled with printed weekly showtimes (obtained by way of fax!)?
It seems, so lots of you probably did. Native artists, musicians, and Stranger writers previous and new did stints at theaters throughout city within the ’90s and 2000s, they usually all and had humorous, bizarre, heartwarming, and even scary tales to share about ghosts, native celebrities, attendees fucking within the cry rooms (for individuals who don’t know, we’ll clarify what a cry room is in a second), and workers discovering the weirdest shit on theater flooring.
Brandy Rettig, who labored on the Metro within the mid ’90s, says, “I discovered wads of money, orthodontic gadgets together with dentures and retainers, jewellery, beepers, and numerous unlawful substances from joints to drugs to unknown powders. The worst was bodily fluids—vomit was extra frequent than you would possibly suppose. One time a girl dropped her drawers and peed within the aisle—it was pre-cell cellphone, so there was no RunPee app, I assume.” [Editor’s note: the RunPee app tells you the best times to run and pee during a movie; isn’t technology incredible?]
This month, as you (hopefully) file into a neighborhood movie show—whether or not you’re seeing Sinners for the fifth time or moving into blind to a group of SIFF shorts—take a second to understand that the theaters now we have now exist in any respect. Thank the parents working there, for giving us all a darkish and butter-scented area to flee to, even whether it is for simply a few hours. And please, silence your cell telephones… and don’t piss on the ground.
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Brandy Rettig, the Metro, 1994–1997
Do you keep in mind the “cry room” on the Metro? Just one theater had it, and it was meant for fogeys with infants. Individuals used to sneak in there and do every kind of stuff, from smoking pot to in all probability conceiving new infants. I used to be by no means one to wanna interrupt one other’s good time, however there have been others on employees who lived to bust in on that.
What I keep in mind most was the employees camaraderie. We have been all principally broke, punk-rock faculty children in perpetually butter-stained uniforms, surviving on leftover popcorn, the occasional few greenback payments we’d discover on the ground between showings, and the information that we’d by no means need to pay for a film once more as long as we confirmed up and did absolutely the minimal.
To today, the theater tagline nonetheless floats via my thoughts each time I am going to a film, “Sit again and benefit from the present. The most effective movies on this planet have a house at Landmark Cinemas—your year-round movie pageant.”
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Clyde Petersen, Guild forty fifth, 1994
It was 2004. I had simply returned to Seattle and began a job on the Guild forty fifth. I used to be working concessions and tearing tickets in Theater 2 on the day I noticed the ghost. The film was A Very Lengthy Engagement, which I recall having low ticket gross sales. There have been just a few individuals on the screening, so I used to be shocked when somebody got here out to concessions mid-film. I used to be counting soda cups and taking stock of sweet. Out of the nook of my eye, I noticed an individual enter the room, and I mentioned out loud, “What can I get for you?” As my gaze settled upon them, I noticed they weren’t flesh and blood, however a clear human-shaped apparition, awaiting my help on the counter. As I made eye contact and walked in direction of the ghost, it disappeared.
That constructing was actually haunted, and workers would hear all kinds of spooky noises all through screenings. Generally these noises turned out to be individuals having intercourse within the crying room, however there was a basic consensus that it was primarily ghosts.
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Bree McKenna, the Egyptian, mid-2000s
Once I labored on the Egyptian within the mid-2000s, after I was perhaps 20 years previous, they have been intense concerning the popcorn baggage. They made us rely in popcorn baggage for every shift, like they have been fabricated from gold—and to ensure nobody was stealing the popcorn cash! However I used to be additionally sneaking in tons buddies, additionally of their early 20s, and to hook up the popcorn, I’d inform individuals they might usher in no matter random container—like an empty cereal field, or an enormous brown paper grocery-store bag—and I might fill no matter vessel they might scrounge up with the free popcorn as a result of there was no method to rely the precise popcorn itself. Simply the silly baggage.”
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Nathalie Graham, Cinerama, 2016-2018
The Cinerama [SIFF Cinema Downtown] was in its golden age again when Paul Allen had flesh and bones and a bottomless pocketbook. Allen, and his firm Vulcan, owned the Cinerama. He would rotate his assortment of film memorabilia (Chewbacca costumes, R2D2s, an alien go well with from Alien) within the theater’s foyer show circumstances. The Cinerama, it appeared, wasn’t meant to be a moneymaker for Allen, not less than that’s what it felt like working there within the late 2010s. Workers might have free snacks, meals, and drinks. We have been in a position to print complimentary film tickets for ourselves and buddies. In all probability this was meant to be carried out with a supervisor’s permission, however that rule quietly eroded the longer I labored there.
On one of many uncommon events I used to be working field workplace, I discovered we’d be displaying a 70mm model of La La Land the following month—round three months after the movie was launched. I figured there wouldn’t be an enormous crowd for this. We hadn’t bought any tickets but. I texted the group chat of my eight faculty housemates: “Who needs to see La La Land on the ‘rama subsequent month?” Everybody mentioned they wished to. Everybody with a boyfriend requested if they might convey their boyfriend. Excited to supply this clutch service, I printed off 17 free tickets to La La Land for our opening evening. In prime seating. I didn’t suppose something of it till the entire La La Land run, particularly on that opening Friday evening, began to promote out. When my horde of freeloaders and I confirmed up very, very excessive to the screening, I saved my head down and solely allowed my buddies to get one free concession merchandise every from my coworkers.
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Ernie Collins, Guild forty fifth, 2001-2004
Earlier than there was digital, motion pictures got here in [to the theater] on, like, 12 reels of movie that wanted to be spliced collectively. It was much less, however Mulholland Drive and Apocalypse Now Redux, these ones have been not less than 12. The movie show firms had to purchase the precise movie, in order that they owned the movie at that time, however they needed to pay the studio again for the primary three weeks. After that, they’ll truly make respectable cash off ticket gross sales. So Mulholland Drive got here in, my good friend Jolene spliced it collectively, and it wanted to be moved from G1, the pink constructing, to G2, the blue constructing. I weigh perhaps 130 kilos, and it is a good three or 4 ft throughout—12 reels of taped cellulite on a platter, and the factor felt prefer it was not less than 70 kilos. It’s important to decide it up, maintain it within the middle, and check out to ensure your arm goes all the way in which round it, but additionally make sure that it doesn’t fall off the platter. So I’m having to stroll down the Twenties-era stairs, as a result of Guild was a vaudeville theater, so the steps are tiny. It’s the identical space the place the ladies’s toilet was, the place sewage as soon as leaked into the field workplace. [Laughs] I needed to stroll that down after which go outdoors to ensure it wasn’t raining, since you don’t need the movie to get ruined. That was a heavy freaking movie. And also you couldn’t have two individuals carry it. It at all times needed to be one individual. We had that sort of movie for a loooooooong time. There have been sure coworkers who knew at what minute sure scenes would present up, so they might make sure that to go verify the theaters at the moment.”
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Siobhán Doyle, the Metro, 1994–1997
In all probability one of many strangest occasions to occur on the Metro is the thriller pooper. Each occasionally, throughout a few of the busiest occasions in our foyer, when the crowds lastly died down, there can be a log of poo sitting in the midst of the foyer. To today, there have been no witnesses, and amazingly sufficient, nobody ever stepped in it.
I additionally keep in mind one evening we have been closing up, and the supervisor on the Netpune needed to name us for some backup. Apparently, Courtney Love had proven up late to a film and was banging on the doorways screaming to be let in. The supervisor had stepped out to see what the commotion was, and upon letting Love know that it was too late to be allowed in, Love threw her up towards the doorways and screamed at her.
A number of the different characters I keep in mind from the Metro: Invoice Nye was a frequent buyer and would at all times order a sizzling chocolate, and as a substitute of claiming thanks, he would say, “Yay, science!” Tom Skerrit would at all times attempt to use his celeb to get in without cost. And Invoice Gates got here in from time to time, and I keep in mind somebody telling me he complained concerning the worth of water.
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Frankie Bear, Guild forty fifth, mid-2000s
I moved to Seattle after I was nearly 16. My buddies labored on the Guild. I sat on the foyer ground by the tiny closet of a field workplace, and received them in bother for having the door open to speak to me whereas they bought tickets. They handed me the worker log to learn as a substitute. Finally, one of many managers gave me a job. I feel somebody had gotten fired for sleeping on the foyer sofa whereas a film was moving into.
Chicago opened on the Guild—that soundtrack was simple. One evening, as the tip credit performed, my coworker and I made our method down the aisle, previous people heading out, up onto the stage in entrance of the display screen. She might dance, I attempted to observe alongside. Arm in arm, we saved our chins up, smiling, and singing. Nearly everybody rotated and got here again into the theater. The music ended to applause, we bowed.
When Grizzly Man opened, I tore tickets sporting the bear costume I’d made for Halloween the yr earlier than. One buyer mentioned, “Good cat costume.” One other buyer requested, “Let me guess, low man on the ladder?” “I’ve seniority,” I corrected. They frowned and walked into the foyer. My supervisor, the identical one who employed me and who I had not consulted, got here up later and mentioned, “Properly carried out.”
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Tony, Cinerama, mid-2000s–current
So outdoors of lightsaber preventing a buyer throughout our Star Wars marathon, a drunk buyer insisting that he used so far “Jason Mimosa,” watching motion pictures after hours, and seeing the New Years fireworks from the roof, one in every of my core Cinerama reminiscences was an previous man needing the paramedics throughout a film as a result of he had an edible for the primary time. Equally, at SIFF Uptown, it was serving to a dude who got here to see Misplaced Freeway on mushrooms attempt to chill out earlier than he ripped the exit signal down and ran down the road.
