I’m gonna tell my best Arclight employee story.

First you need to know Arclight employees had name tags with their favorite movies in them. The thought was that when it was slow, this would be a great conversation starter with guests.

And it worked. So many of my best guest interactions started off with quotes from mine (Paper Moon, 1973) and would almost always spill over to The Last Picture Show debates.

But those conversations were for when it was slow.

The worst thing was when a fanboy would see a movie title on your name tag and decide that now was his (or her, but let’s be honest, his) time to shine despite having a million guests behind them waiting bro order their super expensive popcorn.

So one day we were SLAMMED. I think one of those Twilight movies was just opening or something so as you can imagine, we’re all barely surviving our shift.

And I’m on snack bar duty. The position that makes you doubt what “average intelligence” actually means.

I mean how do you wait in line for 20 minutes, get to the front, and still not have your mind made up?

Anyway this guy gets to the front and says his order, no frills kinda thing, no problems. But then he leans over to peer at my name tag and I get the sinking feeling...

I caught a fanboy.

Him: “Oh hey! Paper Moon!”

Me, plastering a smile on my face:
“Yes, sir. Is that all for your order, sir?”

Him: “You know who directed that, right?”

Me, face about to break with my fake smile: “Bogdanovich.”

Him: “That’s right!” https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="☺️" title="Lächelndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="☺️" title="Lächelndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="☺️" title="Lächelndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht">

Me: https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😁" title="Grinsendes Gesicht mit lächelnden Augen" aria-label="Emoji: Grinsendes Gesicht mit lächelnden Augen"> (https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤨" title="Gesicht mit hochgezogener Augenbraue" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit hochgezogener Augenbraue">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😠" title="Wütendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Wütendes Gesicht">)

You’re smart people so you’ve probably already guessed that the over worked, under paid 20 something was so task focused that she didn’t realize she was actually speaking with Peter Bogdanovich until he walked away.

It’s the best worst story I tell folks about how 1) I’m an idiot and 2) just how magical the Arclight is/ was.

Your filmmaker’s filmmaker loved that theater and it’s a tragedy that we’re losing it to the pandemic.

#RIPArclight and thank you for the memories.