Hi,

My name is Larry Gainey. I was a graduate of Elma High School in the class of 1976. I came across your webpage and saw where you were interested in former employees.

 

I now work for a medical software company in central New York State. Starting about September of 1977 I spent approximately one year as a projectionist there. My younger brother and I also cleaned on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. That was the only cleaning needed because we only showed movies on Friday and Saturday nights. There were only three movies I remember showing during that time. We had Walt Disney’s “The Rescuers” as a new release. We showed “Capricorn One”, with Elliott Gould, about a faked mission to Mars. And we showed the original “Fun with Dick and Jane” starring George Segal and Jane Fonda. This was recently remade starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni. I know we showed more movies but those were the only ones I remember.

 

There were several other things I remember about working there. My brother and I would get there at least an hour early to start the heating system. There was one cassette tape that we would play while finishing any last minute floor cleaning, cleaning and oiling the projectors, setting up the tickets and doing any film splicing that needed to be done. This tape was a compilation that was put together by a former employee and had been left there. Recently I was scanning through the radio while driving and came across a song that was from that tape. I immediately felt cold even though it was the middle of summer, and I could smell popcorn. That was the way I remember the theater. It was always cold.

 

The popcorn we used was pre-popped. It was brought in by the owner and stored in a closet. It was often in there for weeks before any new popcorn was brought in to replace it. Before anybody customers came in we would fill up the large popcorn container and turn the heat lamps on to warm it up. There were two different containers available for popcorn. There was a small bag, and a larger box that you could add the butter to. I was helping at the concession stand when a customer ordered a small. I got that then they changed their mind and went with the large instead. Instead of setting the small down and filling a large container I made the mistake of dumping the bag into the box. I turned out that the small bag was actually a little bit bigger than the big box. After that if somebody changed their mind I would put the bag down and fill the box with the loose popcorn.

 

The owner once framed a dollar bill and hung it on the wall behind the concession stand. Usually this might be the first dollar made, but not this time. No, this one was a counterfeit that somebody used to buy their ticket to get in to see a show. They had taken a dollar bill (not even a five or a twenty) and copied both sides on a copy machine. Then they took the two sides and pasted them together with what looked like Elmer’s Glue. This gave it about the same feel as the side of a cardboard box. When they glued the two halves together it had slipped, so the two parts were out of alignment. Also, back then copies were black and white, there was no green. So here was this black and white dollar bill that didn’t line up correctly if you compared one side to the other and it felt like a piece of cardboard when you handled it. And our cashier had accepted that without question. It was so bad of a forgery that the owner framed it and hung it on the wall. I’m not sure if it was to show the nerve of the person using it, or the stupidity of the person that accepted it.

 

There were two carbon arc projectors we were using at that time. One of them had problems with the drive motor that controlled the arc so it had to be moved manually. When that projector was in use the movie was show as real bright then gradually get dimmer and dimmer. Then we would move the rod closer and the movie would get real bright again.

 

I was also involved in our senior play that happened the fall of 1975, Cheaper by the Dozen.

I played Fred, one of the sons.

 

I still have family that lives in Malone, and from what I understand, my nephew Deane, has been involved in the theater there.

 

Thanks for bringing back memories,

Larry