Comments from Rebstock

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Rebstock
Rebstock commented about Gulfgate Cinema 4 on Jan 18, 2012 at 12:26 am

Hi, My name is Philip Rebstock , I worked for General Cinema as a manager from the beginning of 1973 to 1980. I was hired as a manager trainee at Gulfgate in 1973 , for the life of me, I can’t remember the Managers name. I was transfered to Meyerland the next week. The Gulfgate manager developed a heart condition and later transfered to the Austin Twin cinema, which was the duplicate to the Quail Creek Cinema I later ran. Fred Riley ran the Meyerland and was from Florida and came with WJ Wilson, the district manager. They came at the time the original three theaters were being built. Fred was very talented and later left GCC and started an advertising agency in Houston. WJ Wilson, had been in the theater business all his life. He started in Florida as an usher, I believe in the late 1920’s or early 1930,s barely in the teens.He was gruff, but I liked and respected him. I was only 24 at the time I started at Gulfgate. Clay Flueker was at Northline. He was in charge of newspaper advertising for the city. I went there to train. On the wall of his office were picture after picture of him with Movie stars of the 1940’s and 1950’s. When I got into the business , it was at the tail end of actors promoting their movies away from Hollywood. Clay was responsibele for arranging any of these promotions. I later became Assistant at Galleria under John Foster. Clay arranged with Fox to bring in the “Soylent Green” girls to promote the film. He could’t get Charlton Heston. Later when I returned to Manage Galleria during Star Wars, there was another film with Burt Lancaster, that Clay arranged for him to come to town. Clay arranged some promotion and had a sit down dinner where all the GCC managers would attend up by his Northline cinema. Clay talked about how common place it was for Stars to travel the movie circuit in the 1940’s and even 1950’s. Even in smaller places ,like Shreveport, La. What a great time that would have been to live thru.

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Rebstock commented about Alexandria Cinema 6 on Jan 17, 2012 at 11:14 pm

Hi Again from Philip Rebstock, I forgot to mention. In 1973 when I took over Quail Creek Cinema in Shreveport , Mr. Wilson , the district manager had me going to Alexandria quite often as the building of the theater was underway and seating, projectors and the like were being shipped there. I was the closest GCC operation and at the time and I was scheduled to be its first Manager after it opened. I remember seeing it for the first time when the concrete for the seating area was being poured. I was given the choice to remain at Quail or go to Alexandria . I decided to stay. The assistant manager from Gulfgate in Houston, I believe his name to be Rameriz was the first manager of the Alexandria theater 1&2

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Rebstock commented about Alexandria Cinema 6 on Jan 17, 2012 at 10:50 pm

Hi Everyone, I notice a lot of activity on this. Any way, I was Manager of of the Alexandria Cinema I&II at the Mall Alexandria, La in 1978 to 1979. I had managed General Cinema Theaters (Galleria-Houston, Galvez Triple-Galveston, Quail Creek Cinema -Shreveport, . Mr. WJ Wilson was the division manager based out of Houston. The Alexandria theater was the smallest GCC in this division, but was a fun theater for me . I was only 30 years old at the time. I remember getting the movie Superman (you will believe a man can fly) near Christmas in 1978. We got the print in as usual a couple a days ahead and the projectionist had already spliced it up and was ready to go. So as a present to all the employees(on Thursday after the last movie played and we cleared the auditorium). I had the projectionist play just for us the feature. We all loved it. In our business , we didn’t get to see a lot of complete movies. A lot of beginnings and a lot of just endings. This was a big no no(film companies do not approve) but I did it anyway. Just didn’t tell and the projectionist was true friend. He even helped rebuild my MG Motor). At this time AMC was trying to get in to the Act , while GCC was still the number one theater chain.

They were trying out this new “Platter” system that would allow them to get one print and play it in several auditoriums with only a slight lag in time. It also allowed them to go non-union with the projectionist guild. General cinema was against the megaplex idea, but it appeared that AMC was starting to be successful. General Cinema was still using the 2 projector system with 1 hr reels with a changeover que at the end of the 1st reel. They decided to try this multiplex in a theater in Baton Rouge. They would also incorporate the new “Platter System” I was invited to see this in action, although I was still at Alexandria. When I visited the Baton Rouge Cinema in 1979 , I become aware of some of the problems(later worked out). The platter was 2 large aluminum circular plates that would hold 1 entire film spliced together. It could be run thru 1 or several projectors before returning in a long loop to the take up platter. Eliminating changeovers and a projectionist to watch. Theory -it could be played unattended-saving a whole lot of labor cost. The downside-As static electricity would build up it would literally float into the air and sometimes shoot of the platter tearing the film into lots of pieces. General Cinema wasn’t happy with that . AMC persisted and eventually took over market areas because of this edge. Sorry about all the extra talk-but it is possible that the later expansion to a multiplex was part of a design that GCC moved to. They did heavy expansion in splitting 2 screens into multiples and adding extra screens during this period. I managed in Shreveport and know they did that there on visiting early in the 1980’s. After 1980 I did not get a chance to return to Alexandria. If I can find a business card of mine (possible) from Alex cinema I can verify that it is the same address. The address above is the one I remembered for Alexandria Cinema I&II

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Rebstock commented about Quail Creek Cinema on Jan 17, 2012 at 9:58 pm

Hi My name is Philip Rebstock I was Quail Creek Cinema Manager for General Cinema Corporation from 1973 to the end of 1976. I was only 24 years old when I took over this theater. I was the youngest in the GCC Houston Division. Some of my fondest memories are of this theater . The little id pic I chose is in the lobby of quail creek 1973 or 1974. I uploaded a lobby pic with my employees behind the concession stand when “The Man With the Golden Gun Was Playing” I had the best employees of all , with this group of kids.

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Rebstock commented about Galleria Cinema IV on Jan 17, 2012 at 9:28 pm

Hi, My name is Philip Rebstock .When Star Wars came out in 1977 I was the Manager of both the Cinema in the main complex but also the Galleria II cinema. WJ Wilson was the division manager and had his offices in the galleria when I was hired in 1973. I worked as a trainee at Gulfgate then was transfered to Meyerland and on to the Galleria in April of 1973. I became the Assistant Manager under John Foster who was then the manager. Fred Riley was the Manager at Meyerland, and Clay Flueker was the manager of Northline. John Foster was a retired TWA pilot who’s family had owned a small chain of theaters in west Texas. He managed for them when he was in his early twenties. He returned to the theater business as a retirement job because he said he had always enjoyed being around theaters as a kid. He did it for fun. He definitely did not need the money. I found out as time went by, that it gets into your blood. I was only 24 years old at that time. John was extremely good teacher. I was on the shy side and he told me I had to grow thicker skin. This was of particular importance in learning to work the lines from the ticket booth as they would go down the skating rink and block other stores. I learned how to control crowds and people. With Mr. Wilson, district manager, having offices there , most assistants and trainee’s didn’t want to work there. He was a gruff, but fair man. I liked him. He was straightforward and I wasn’t afraid to make it or break it , under his watchful eye. I was there 6 months and a Manager of Quail Creek Cinema in Shreveport, La was leaving. Wilson came to me and asked I could go there and manage the theater until he could get a manager there. After leaving me there for month he said he very pleased with my work and I could stay on as manager if I felt up to it. I did. I stayed there and became City manager for Shreveports 2 theaters. I was the youngest manager in the South texas/Louisianna Division but was doing extremely well. At the end of 1976 he offered me a promotion to become the manager of the Galleria(our flagship theater in his division). I agreed. As a favor he asked me stop at Galvez Triple in Galveston to straighten out the operation(lots of theft) before coming to Houston. After a couple of months I got it back on track. In early 1977 before Star Wars I moved in to Galleria as manager. I had 3 Asst. Manager Dwayne Nicklen and Kurt Von Riechthoven (yes he claimed to be related to the Red Baroon) I had a chief of staff and asst. that I don’t recall and about 100 (believe it)employees in both units. As Star Wars time drew near I found we were going to have the exclusive grand opening for not only Texas but several surrounding states. Not even our GCC theater in Dallas was getting it. Only one location in California on a day earlier would get the Official Priemer Grand Opening. Only 2 other location in the USA would open on the same day as us. One was in New York and I don’t recall the other. Needless to say there was a lot of publicity. I believe(not sure) it was Ch 13 that contacted me about an interview. I declined-too busy and a question of GCC policy. However, I said they could come to the theater and speak to one of my not as busy assistants about things releated to what was happening with the film. They did come back after the film started and he did a pretty good job, as I latter noticed when I had time to watch TV. I was very busy with the lines that formed many hours in advanced wrapping itself around and down the skating rink. Counting the cash money(only form of payment ) was a task that was almost impossible. We were selling out every performance and would have500-1000 people left who wait for the next performance. This went on for weeks. Everyday my asst. & I were counting up to $25,000 in small bills(lots of ones). Turning over a new crowd every two hours was not a small feat. Somewhere at the beginning of the Star Wars run, we got in a second copy of Star Wars to run in Galleria II. I had Dwayne Nicklen, takeover in running the second unit. To Digress:The reason for the second print was GCC did not use the platter system that AMC was to develope later, they still used the 2 projectors on one screen(splicing the small reels onto 2 larger reels of about 1 hour each) and using a changeover que. Any way, things were starting to get stretched rather thin with staff. Unfortunately an unsavory character had been watching how we handled the money. All the money came to me upstairs beside the concession stand. You needed to use a key to enter and had to identify yourself at the door to my office. During one of very busy times, at the end of the day on Sunday, this character catches the downstairs door after the cashier enters, and follows her upstairs. There was a hall area going to the projectionist booth that he slips behind and hides until the cashier indentifies herself and starts to come in the room. He quickly comes in behind her with a gun. He had no mask and held the gun in a palming manner. Kurt, my assistant and Louanna McWhorter, the cashier were in the office with me. He points the gun at Kurt and tells him to “face the wall”. He tells Louanne to “sit still in the chair”. He has gloves on and reaches inside his Jacket and pulls out a white cloth bag and tells me to open and empty the safe. He points the gun at my head. I open the safe and start filling the bag. I start to put rolled quarters in and he stops me and tells me"no coin". He is very calm and collected. Not the least bit in a hurry. After he collects his money he pulls out a pair of wire cutters and cuts the office phone line. He then tells us “don’t leave this office for 10 minutes or you might get hurt” He exits and I wait maybe a minute then run down the hall to the 2nd office and call the police. He was already long gone. He had exited into the theater and went out the doors at the rear of the screen. Later the detectives told me he was probably a pro and likely an ex-cop. They said we were very lucky. He was never caught. It was about $14,000 in cash. Yes I got into trouble for it. Wilson went to bat for me. Stan Worthman advertising director at GCC Boston went to bat. My wife put her foot down and wanted me to quit.
Later , I believe a couple of weeks, the Windsor, that was south of the Galleria( a beautiful old theater with over a thousand seats) was robbed. They think by the same person. The manager had a gun in his safe and tried to shoot it out. He died. After a short while my wife convinces me to take a break from the theater. I am only 28 years old with 2 children. I agree but return to GCC for a couple more years at Lakeside in New orleans, Alexandria Cinema-Alexandria, La. I hope you enjoyed this. I have lots of fond memories of those General Cinema Years!