Liz Chandler – Love for The Arts (Movies, Theatre & Music, too)

MY LOVE OF THE ARTS …

LISTENING TO THE RADIO AT HOME and GOING OUT TO THE MOVIES 

 It all started in my childhood. My family had a great love of movies. That must have helped them relish what little leisure time … they could squeeze out of their work week. For them … “the cheapest of all babysitters” … was the local neighborhood theatre.

So we sat … watching movies … in the dark … all day long … and … into the night, too.

In the language of the trade … “movies on the grind”. To explain … they ran the feature film … “on the grind” … at 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 pm. My brother Phil and I sat through them all. 
While our parents worked … we were spending their dime and our time … at the movies. When we thought of our parents …working through sometimes … double shifts … doing double duty … we figured the least we could do was sit through … double features.
 
It was our JOB … we had to do it … and … we LOVED it.
That love affair continued. Time first spent in those old movie palaces … was as a youthful fanatic. Then as a high-schooler … I really haunted them. I was “hired help”.     
After graduating from John Adams High School, I continued part-time.
 
Also part-time was the work I did as a model. Serving mini fashion shows at some of Cleveland’s most popular department stores. The upscale Bonwit Teller, Halle Brothers and Sterling Lindner Davis.
At the last store listed … I rose from the ranks of part-timer.  I worked my way up to … the role of a manager. Some areas located inside the department store … were leased … to outside corporations. As a sales trainee … I was transferred. I felt up to the challenge. My knowledge about all things that glitter … was learned when I was assigned to the “Better Jewelry Department”.
 
Then I was made Manager … promoted to the “Portrait Studio”. My photographer’s eye was put to use as “Portrait Photographer”. It was … at the time … “my happy place” … until … it was not. (Sterling Lindner Department Store was no more. It closed … )
 

Sterling Lindner Department Store Closes 

My start of a career in Leased Retail … was jeopardized with the closing of the store. But, I was fortunate to segue into a job … that had me incorporating much of what I had learned previously. The time was pre Women’s Lib. What was that? For the Uniformed go to … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_liberation_movement

For those times … a good trophy-type-secretary … meant it was man-datory … to look more than … presentable. Fortunately for that role … I had it covered (pardon the puns).

Nice attire helped … along with good jewelry … albeit … it was good costume jewelry. Yes, Sterling’s “Better Dresses” and “Better Jewelry” Departments … got the better of me, so to speak. Weekly, I left most of paycheck at work. But, I was able to do OK … when they had their big sales. How did I scoop the bargain hunters? Because I got the lowdown … on … upcoming markdowns. Plus, it helped when … a sympathetic elevator operator would holdback her liftoff … while I beat it up the stairs .. to where? “3rd floor”.  

But, I believe it was … a convergence of vibrations … that got me … a dream job. After my interview it was hinted… “it worked!” What worked? That cliché … “clothes makes the man … err … woman”). What about me expressing my love for the arts … movies … theatre … music … plus me having a photographer’s eye? My penchant for promotion got me the gig. I became the secretary to the then-manager of The Colony Theatre. 

This is also about … how our little COLLECTION OF ALL THINGS, MOVIES … grew in the late 1960s.
To explain … it happened when my boss … then-manager Bill Lanese … left for Hollywood to seek his fortune. (He did find it when he became the biggest press agent in the biz!)
But, back to my GOOD FORTUNE … I was NAMED MANAGER of the COLONY THEATRE.

So I started to get great gifts from “our gang” on the square. Some of whom liked making deals. For example … with the owner of a little but prestigious bookstore on Shaker Square.
Yes, it was via Bookmeister Richard Gildenmeister … that many books came my way. Plus news of all the latest happenings … (his shoppe was just across the square).
Among my theatre staff? Assistant Managers … Sylvia Sheer … Morrie Zryl and Michael Murphy. They always offered to cross over the square for any pick ups, (so to speak).
Plus many an usher … who wanted to win over “the new boss”. Perhaps to continue the tradition of currying favor for more work? I had long ago learned … it was not just for bucks earned … but … for prestige won. Peeps loved comps. (Can you spell … f-r-e-e … m-o-v-i-e … p-a-s-s-e-s?)

What fun we had … and what books.

2024 … the gifts that keep on giving … thanks to the gang. 

Back to the mid-’60s …

My Love for Learning Continues at The Movies 

It was while working for Bill Lanese, that I learned more about movies and how they were marketed at the theater level. Plus, I got to dress up for all those opening nights, benefits, galas, etc.  

Then Lanese left Cleveland to relocate to the west coast. He wanted to work in the related field of movie promotion, this time on his own. Word came back that he did do just that. Bill made it BIG … as a publicist. How big? Bill Lanese Advertising became one of the biggest and most respected P.R. firms. He was handling all the major studios. So well thought of was he, that the studios funded the startup of his firm. That’s the kind of impact … some can only hope to make. Bill did it. What a Light. 

At the time … a motion picture exhibitor company called Stanley Warner Theatres owned the following Cleveland movie houses. The  Allen downtown. In Shaker Heights … the Vogue on Van Blvd and The Colony in Cleveland. The latter was located on landmark Shaker Square. That was home turf for me … so to speak. Why? It’s where we went as youngsters to … watch the movies. Now I got to “work” the movies. All because Boss Bill recommended me … to be … promoted. I went from secretary to manager. It seemed I was destined to go back … “on the grind” … again. 



Then the chain merged with RKO to become RKO/Stanley Warner Theatres. The regional manager Joe Alexander along with district manager Dick Wright gave me a new assignment. I was to manage both the Colony … along with the Vogue. It was located not too far out from Shaker Square. Thank goodness. Why? When we had a hit movie playing at both theatres … we had to run one reel at a time … right off the first theatre’s projector … hit the road … to take it to the next theatre’s projector. To use old movie-theatre-exhibitor-speak … it was called .. “Bicycling”. But, I had a VW Beetle to do it in.   
BTW … I was awarded that role … after being recommended by the Vogue’s longtime and well-respected manager … upon his retirement. Frank Wheatley deserves KUDOS … for also  … not being anti-Women’s Lib. What a Light.  



Told then by RKO’s Joe Alexander that I was one of their first female movie theatre managers (obstinately to get me to say yes, no doubt). I did take on the challenge of running both theaters, splitting my time between them. When they had the blockbusting premiere of “The Exorcist” at the Vogue, I knew I had to have more help. I already had it in the form of two now-famous or in-famous … (depending on who one talks to) … movie maniacs, Morrie Zryl and Sylvia Sheer, both now of Blessed memory.

Mention is made of these fine folks because many old film-industry-friends have come out of the woodwork (read: retired with time on their hands) Without giving away timelines, here’s a hint how long ago this all was … and for those who know all these players … it is a sort of “don’t-remind-me-it-makes-me-feel-old department”, too.

Morrie often used to remind me that I gave him his first full time job (in this country). Sylvia would share how she schlepped her … then-infant son Jerry … on her inventory rounds (for Berlo Vending). These two worker-bees went on … to be the perfect choice of others, too. Morrie grew up to run numerous theatres … while Sylvia stayed at one theatre, the Center-Mayfield, for decades. 

Later in the ’80s … a couple of reunions …



















BACK TO 1969 … HOW THE WEDDING WENT 
The wedding reception. What an event. It was to be a small surprise done by my assistant managers, Morrie and Sylvia. It became much bigger than planned. The reception guests who came early … got a free movie. The regular Colony patrons who also came in early … got a free nosh. Not just free popcorn … but special party trays were circulated amongst the movie going crowd. 

The free movie? “Funny Girl” staring Dennis’ other heart throb, Barbra Streisand.



 
LIZ GETS TO WORK IN THE MOVIES, SORTA.
Here’s the backstory that explains why I was so excited to meet these movie legends.  Ann Blyth, Janet Leigh, Jane Powell, Jane Russell, Ann Jeffries, Rhonda Fleming, and Celeste Holm.









I was tickled to get to be a movie extra … more than a couple of times. Like when Hollywood came to film in Cleveland i.e.,  “Welcome to Collinwood” … Journalist Scott Lax’s novel-turned-into-movie titled … “The Year That Trembled”. 


Bill Taggart. A very-much-in-demand STAGEHAND / PROJECTIONIST / SOUNDMAN 

So who is BT … to … DC and me? A friend from MY days working and managing movie theatres … (mid-’60s- ’70s). “Tag” taught me a lot. So grateful, Teacher Taggart.
Bill’s also a friend to hubby Den … from when they both worked … WRESTLING MATCHES.
It was back in the ’80s … when DC did lots of MC work (acting as RING ANNOUNCER). Stagehand Bill was always asked for … by promoters. He “worked the ring”. What a team. A “Tag Team”.

Ring announcer Dennis Chandler first met stagehand Bill Taggart while they were both working the mat, so to speak.

Bill’s popularity earned him some cool accolades. A consummate professional … he always knew how to act … (and still does today in 2024). Even in what I would call difficult roles. One role comes to mind here … when he was elected PRESIDENT of IATSE LOCAL 160. He also did duty at IATSE Local 27, Theatrical Stagehands
https://www.facebook.com/IATSE27

DOUBLE DARES …

No “double dog dare” needed. Why? A fellow Union-Bro … never says, ‘No'”.

Why do I put it like that? 
FYI … Dennis Chandler is a LIFETIME MEMBER of Cleveland LOCAL 4 of AFM – American Federation of Musicians … (and a former Vice President … member of the Board of Directors named Emeritus upon retirement).

They all said “Yes” …  for what? Items needed for the WVIZ PBS Armchair Auction. We asked … and … Taggart-the-Teamster tapped Theatre Manager Sean Patterson.
 
It pays to have friends in high places … especially in the BOOTH …     

2024 SUMMER HIATUS …

To be continued … see you … in the movies … on the Internet …

Liz Chandler aka Archivist 

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