Behind The Screens - Chapter One

Chapter One: Judgement Day

There are moments in your life when you are riding high and you feel the world is ready to be plucked. These moments, as we all know by now, are fleeting and illusionary. The feeling of euphoria quickly dissipates and we are left with disappointment and ash.

I left the Navy about a month after the end of the first Gulf War. During the war, I had distinguished myself and made a nuisance at the same time. I had excelled at my job, but I really sucked at the Navy part of it. I looked forward to civilian life - sure of great things to come.

The sorting out period after returning to San Francisco saw me enter college, move into an apartment in San Francisco, and try to reconnect with my fiancee. Some aspects of this were succesful, others did not quite live up to the billing in my mind. After a month of living the good life, I could see the writing on the walls and the red ink quickly filling up my checkbook - it was time to find a job.

I was looking for gainful employment of the type I had enjoyed in the Navy - cutting edge, important, lives hanging in the balance on my intellect and skill. Unfortunately, those jobs don't exist in the real world. I quickly realized that anything I did was bound to be a letdown from the frenetic pace and importance of war time Intelligence.

I interviewed first with the Emporium for a security guard. It was a good way to hone my interview skills as they'd become rusty in my Navy years. I thought the interview went well, but ultimately I was glad that I wasn't selected for this job as I had no real passion for chasing down teenage thieves. Nor did I really want to spy on my co-workers.

My second interview ended with a job with an Environmental Law Firm concerned with the water quality in the Bay Area. They needed me to go door to door asking for contributions in order to help get this act enforced. After one dubious day of walking and talking in fair Ross, I quickly surmised that this job held no immediate prospects for success.

The next day, I looked through the newspaper and saw an add for an Assistant Manager at my local movie theater. This theater, we'll call it the Imperial, had been my childhood theater. When my sister had been sick with the stomach flu one summer, I had gone there every single day for two weeks to watch Star Wars. I had been going to movies there my entire life. Since my Dad had once owned a movie theater, I was familiar with the behind the scenes workings of a movie house. Assistant Manager was also more in keeping with the kind of job I had been doing in the Navy. I threw on my best suit and headed down to apply.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day had opened the week before. There were long lines around the block. I moved past the large crowd and asked for an application, then walked into the lobby to fill out the form. As I sat in the lobby of this theater, dressed resplendently in a three piece suit, I attracted some attention. Another man in a suit walked up to me just as I was finishing the application and asked me whether I was applying for the Assistant Manager's job. I nodded and when he told me he was the manager, I handed him the application.

"Do you have time for an interview?"

"Yes, of course."

He took me into the cramped office and interviewed me and then hired me on the spot. As far as I know, I was the only person ever interviewed for the position. He explained rather quickly that he was short one manager and that with Terminator 2, he was short handed. Point blank he told me that I probably would only last the summer and that when the fall came, I would lose the job. Secretly, I wasn't worried. He told me to come back on Friday for my first day of work.

On my way out the door, I bought a ticket to T2 and then headed home to change. When I got to the apartment, my roommates best friend from home was waiting for me. He'd dropped in to town to see my roommate. I told him that I had just got a job and that I was going back to see the movie and he asked me if he could tag along. We went back to the theater and bought another ticket, then went to get lunch at Round Table pizza and ordered a pitcher of beer. By the time the beer and pizza arrived, we only had ten minutes until the film started. We wolfed down the pizza and guzzled the beer, and then, drunkenly ran up the street to the theater. And so, on the day I got hired, I saw my first film at the Imperial while being very tipsy.

On Friday, I walked into the theater, resplendent once again, ready to begin my job as an Assistant Manager. My Manager, who I'll call Bert, looked harried. He handed me the keys to the building and then said, "Look, my boss, Dominick, is coming to the theater in about ten minutes. He's going to want to meet you and ask you a million questions about the job. You just started, but he won't let that be an excuse. If he thinks you don't know anything and he doesn't like you, I'll be forced to fire you. So, instead, why don't you go into one of the theaters and wait until he's gone, and then I'll come find you and put you to work." I shrugged my shoulders and went to watch Point Break which had just opened that day. Ten minutes before the film ended, Bert came and got me.

That was my first exposure to the man known as Dominick and little did I know, it was going to be a sign of things to come.

Next Time:

Chapter Two - How Things Actually Work