You Can't Get Good Help
Movie theater managers complained that ever since the beginning of the war it was hard for them to find and keep qualified employees. During the Depression, bright, young, presentable men and women were happy to find work as ushers even at minimum wage. But during the war most of the young men were in the armed services and the ones who weren't could find defense and other jobs that paid higher wages. Even white-collar jobs in wartime were more available. Meantime many people had more money in their pockets, swelling the size of movie audiences. In fact, 1946 would set the record in movie attendance with a sharp drop off beginning soon after. Theaters sometimes had to rely on drifters, drop outs, fly-by-nights, snot-nosed kids and wiseacres to round out their staff. Now that the boys were back, they weren't jumping at a chance to don another uniform and wield a flashlight to show patrons to their seats and hush rowdy patrons.
Some moviegoers complained about the resulting decline in courtesy. On the other hand, according to a New York Times Sunday magazine article, ushers had to deal with some dumb bunnies among the patrons. One usher said he got fired over an incident when the theater in which he was working was showing a double feature revival of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" paired with "Gunga Din." The features were advertised on the marquee and on lobby cards yet a customer who was already in the theater asked him what movie was playing on the screen. The usher looked up and there was Snow White. There were the Seven Dwarfs. He couldn't resist telling the patron it was "Gunga Din."
The difficulty finding qualified help was a complaint echoed throughout the service industries. Nobody wanted to be a soda jerk other than the otherwise unemployable. And the upper classes whined that the New Deal and the war had made it impossible to find a decent servant. What use was it to be rich if one did not have decent servants? And even African Americans could find work in the defense plants during the war. One hoped for a return to the natural order now that the war was over.
With the war's end, the situation had not gotten a lot better immediately for low-end employers. A returning serviceman could get $20 a week for a year while he looked for a good job and the GI Bill would pay for his education or training if he so chose and provide a stipend. Jobs were not too hard to find and unions were winning wage concessions that drove bottom-feeding employers livid.
Meantime some returning veterans were among the rowdiest audience members, according to theater managers. Variety reported that some theater owners were looking to hire veterans in the hope that they could control their peers.