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Dated 5/23/96

This evening my family went out to Century Theatres in Pinole, California to see "Once Upon A Time... When We Were Colored," a film by Tim Reid (shown at left), African-American filmmaker and producer and star of "Frank's Place," a classic television series. "Once Upon A Time... When We Were Colored" is a gentle film which follows the life of a man from his birth on a Southern sharecropping plantation in the mid-40's, through his school years and up to the Civil Rights era. Most perturbing, however, was the theatre's delivery of the film. At first, the wrong movie was started. Once the correct film was underway, an object in the projector room blocked part of the picture, but was cleared after patrons complained. Roaring music from the adjacent theatre many times threatened to drown out the diminished soundtrack of the film we were trying to watch.

When the film was over, a group of disgruntled viewers gathered in the lobby to discuss their grievances with management. My mother had noticed that the tickets we were sold bore the name "The Great White Hype," the movie which played previously and was billed as a "double-feature." My father pursued this matter and quickly found that many other patrons at that showing had also been sold these incorrectly-marked tickets. One gentleman said the same thing had happened to him previously at the same theatre, when he went to see Spike Lee's epic film, "Malcolm X"; indeed, one may recall that when "Malcolm X" was released there was a great controversy regarding box office "mistakes" of this sort.

It is important to note that the markings on your ticket stub are recorded in the theatre's computer and dictate who receives the monetary proceeds for the sale of that ticket. Hence, when a ticket is marked for a movie other than the one you go to see, the filmmaker you wish to support loses out.

In short, please check your ticket stubs when you go to the movies, particularly those produced by independent or low-budget filmmakers, and help keep the money flowing to the people who have earned it.

5/24/96: Richard Dickerson of KBLX Radio (kblx@ccnet.com) in the East San Francisco Bay Area says via Usenet:

"Quite interesting! I have had the very same experiences at the EmeryBay theater complex in Emeryville Ca.
It's all becoming quite clear to me. I will be on he look out with my trusty video camera the next time..."

5/24/96: Willie Atterberry of Afronet (www.afronet.com) says the problem is one that "does exist often."

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