Bright lights of Lake Avenue

I had a big response to my column last week, “Scooping the loop,” from my high school days in the 1960s.

I had a good vantage point to watch loop scoopers. Twice a week I perched high above Lake Avenue, changing the marquee at the downtown landmark Vista Theatre.

When I was 14 I got a job changing the marquee at the Corral Drive In Theatre east of Lakeside. That was easy — a wooden sign about six feet off the ground with a catwalk that made it easy to change the letters. I did such a good job — or maybe it was because I was tall and stupid — that I was offered the opportunity to work the big time downtown: The Vista.

While the Corral was easy, the Vista was a challenge. Its marquee was large, maybe 15 feet tall and eight feet wide, hanging out perpendicular from the building over the sidewalk.

Theatre owner Del Farrell would write out on a small piece of paper exactly how he wanted the letters placed. And he wanted the letters, which were various sizes ranging from five or six inches up to around 12 inches, spaced just so.

The letters were metal with hooks on the back, and they hung on rails across the lighted screen of the marquee. As soon as the second show began its run, usually just after 9 p.m., I’d turn off the lights of the marquee, haul out the aluminum extension ladder, climb up to the very top and attach the ladder with a chain and padlock to a rail that ran across the top of the marquee about 30 feet up. That prevented wind from blowing the ladder out from under me. And it was frequently windy and cold, especially in winter. On rare occasions when weather made it dangerous, we’d wait until the next morning to make the changes.

I’m not good with heights, but I got used to this job. After I chained the ladder to the top of the marquee, I climbed back down and gathered the letters from the storeroom and put them in a bucket, then crawled back up the ladder and hung the letters starting from the top.

You didn’t dare drop a letter. Not only could they be dangerous if they conked a pedestrian, but they’d also break on the sidewalk and Mr. Farrell didn’t like that. Since the work was done after the second show was underway, there was no foot traffic underneath.

It only took about an hour to change both sides of the marquee.

In later years, after I was gone, a long mechanical arm with pincers on the end was used to change the letters by a person standing on the sidewalk. It was a lot easier, but you dropped and broke a lot more letters.

When I worked there the Vista had only one auditorium and the movies changed twice a week, I think on Sundays and Thursdays unless it was a special engagement like “The Sound of Music.” Now with three auditoriums the movies play for a week or more, and the marquees are much smaller, flush on the front of the building. You can probably change them with a stepladder.

After changing the marquees I graduated into running the projectors through high school and college, along with three brothers: Art, Bill and Jim. Working at the theaters was a great experience.

And it all started with the bright lights of Lake Avenue.