My career in movies began while I was still in the Marine Corps in September 1994.  I was months from getting out and was not participating in any training.  Since I would be getting out of the USMC prior to the unit's next deployment, there was no sense in me being involved with the training.  Because of this, I was able to take a part time job on nights and weekends at a movie theatre in Laguna Niguel.  It was, in fact, at the time, a theatre I didn't even know existed.  I went to a little five-plex in San Juan Capistrano where I had seen a few movies previously and inquired with the manager as to whether or not they were hiring.  Norm, the GM, and a man in his 60s, was very kind when he stated that their theatre was fully staffed, but there was a theatre 15 minutes from there that was hiring.  I made my way over there and was pretty much offered a job on the spot.  This theatre was the Ocean Ranch 7 in Laguna Niguel, California.  Relatively new at the time, this theatre was quite nice to look at.  Every now and again, celebrities would make their way to this theatre (as a number of them lived in the area).  My sightings would be limited, but there would be a few during the time that I was there.

Since this was just a part-time job for me (even though it was probably 30 hours a week), I was happy to do whatever was asked.  So I did everything that could be done outside of projection.  I worked the box office, the concession stand, and even cleaned the theatres.  Whatever was needed, I was happy to do.  It was very interesting being one of the only adults on staff (with exception to SOME managers and the general manager), but it was fun.  I made a lot of friends while I worked for Edwards Cinemas out in California, and I would spend some of free time with these people.  Sometimes, when the movies finally let out after midnight on the weekends, we would go to a local diner and eat at 1 in the morning.  There would be anywhere from 3 to 8 of us, depending who decided to come along.  The gathering got larger as other Marine friends decided they wanted a second income, as well.  (There were three or four other Marines working with before all was said and done.  I seemed to start something.)  After a few months at Ocean Ranch, the GM of the theatre in San Juan Capistrano, where I originally applied, was tasked with managing the Ocean Ranch while the GM was out on assignment or vacation, I forget which.  He was impressed enough with me to bring me back to his theatre when his brief stint at Ocean Ranch was over.  I would continue to work there until around the time of my discharge.

I mentioned in my USMC section that when I was discharged on 21 June 1995, I had no idea what I was going to do on the very next day.  I had put myself up for hire on administrative positions through a temp agency, and I was working the movie theatre, as well.  I had done a couple of odd jobs through the temp agency, but it was nothing more than entering records into a database, and I was miserable doing it.  No brains required, and no interaction involved.  It was more than I could take.  They had found a job that would run a number of months, but at the last minute, it fell through, and as I exited the Corps, all I had was the movie theatre.

It wasn't long after this that the theatre's general manager, Jeremy, was also the district manager for about 8 other theatres, got word of my dilemma and asked me whether I had considered management in the movie business.  I told him that it sounded great, but there was one problem.  Mr. Edwards was 80-something years old, and he didn't believe in paying assistant managers worth a flip.  To be truthful, assistant managers still made the same wage as everyone else...minimum.  And I wasn't going to be able to make it on that type of income.  So I explained this to Jeremy and told him that I will give it a go and prove to him that I can run a theatre.  If I could get a theatre to manage before I completely ran out of money, then great.  Otherwise, I would have to figure something else out.  Jeremy told me that there was another theatre in Laguna Niguel called the Rancho Niguel 8, and that theatre had been having problems forever.  He told me that his GM there could use some help, and that this would be a good trial by fire for me to show what I was made of.  I happily accepted, and it was around the beginning of July 1995 when my movie theatre management career began. 

From what I recall, the Rancho Niguel had been through a number of managers, and the current manager, James Blake (great guy), was having a go of it getting that theatre back on track.  The customers were prudes, for the most part, and were constantly looking for any reason to entitle themselves to a refund.  This was Southern California, and most everyone acted as if they had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Well, it seemed that way anyway.  Why they all came to the older Rancho Niguel theatre instead of one of the newer theatres was a mystery to me, but Rancho got its share of complainers.  And this made for its fair share of challenges.  To complicate things further, the theatre sat on top of a sewer, and let's just say that the theatre had more patrons than just the ones that paid to see a movie.  One other clue...if they were people, they would order everything with cheese on it.  So I started my career in management at the Rancho Niguel 8.  Right up front, James made me aware of the challenges in this theatre...inventory problems, a semi-reliable projectionist that covered multiple theatres and had little urgency during a crisis, young inexperienced assistant managers, difficult customers, and vermin.  Little did I know that I would be running this theatre as the general manager in a matter of months, but as I started my job at the Rancho, I had much to learn before I would be ready to run a theatre of my own.  This theatre was indeed a good proving ground for me.  Club Med it was not, so there probably wouldn't be many other theatres that I could work and have more challenges than this one.  I would experience being there until 5:30 in the morning, when we should be done and in bed at 12:30, on a number of occasions, counting and recounting inventory, trying to figure out where the $3000 shortage was.  In the theatre world, 1 missing popcorn bucket equates to the price of said bucket, so when a sleeve of 50 popcorn buckets goes uncounted or miscounted at a price of $5 per bucket, there's a $250 shortage right there.  And when a box of buckets (6 sleeves, I believe) goes missing, now we are talking $1500 in shortages.  Of course, what is really missing is a $15 box of empty popcorn buckets, but one must report a $1500 shortage when a box goes "missing".  I cannot begin to tell you how many times such simple miscounts took place.  And it happened quite a bit at Rancho Niguel, and many hours of sleep were forfeited for this very cause.  However, we would endure, and it would only be about 6 weeks after I assumed an assistant manager's role at Rancho that a temporary GM position at the Franciscan in San Juan Capistrano, where I was once an usher, concessionist, box office attendant, and projectionist, would present itself.

In the six weeks that I was at Rancho Niguel, I would get a taste of everything, doing everything that I general manager would do.  The theatre was always busy, and there was always something going on.  To be able to manage this theatre is a testament to any general manager that does it.  The customers demand a lot, as does the theatre itself.  To make things even more challenging, the company's 70+ year old policies throw yet another curve ball into the mix.  But these six weeks could not have been more beneficial anywhere else because of these reasons.