To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:45:30 -0500
From: puppetpro-AT-aol.com
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Bad Audiences/El Monte life


What a great story!
Thanks, Alan
Reminds me of my first job out of college -- I signed with Kelly Girls (yes, it was called that back then). They looked at my very theatrical resume and said "we have a job for you!"
It was to play the Gorilla that jumps on American Tourister luggage in a local department store window. Yes, you guessed it!  I was a Kelly Gorilla. 
Gorilla Theatre. 
Rolande



-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Cook <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Sent: Sat, Jan 2, 2010 4:39 pm
Subject: [Puptcrit] Bad Audiences/El Monte life


I am afraid there IS such a thing as "Bad Audiences"---they are not somethng I 
have sat in or encountered frequently, but I have seen it. People with NO 
RESPECT for anyone else, remarkably IGNORANT & proud of it.

There ARE basic expectations that an audience knows how to sit, not to compete 
with the performer, not to get drunk or drugged before the show, and such.

Those El Monte school teachers were hardly good teachers if they left the 
auditorium---part of the job is to supervise their own classes behavior DURING 
SCHOOL HOURS, including Assemby Time.

Well, El Monte, California,  got its name from a gambling card game known to 
foment violence and killing. It was outlawed in Los Angeles, so you might have 
travelled eastward to a barn in what is now El Monte if you wanted to play the 
game.

I worked at a Sears store in El Monte in the early 1960s, when the store stiil 
had a "Display Department" and display windows. The head of our department was 
seldom seen except at Lunchtime when he ate in the store's cafeteria. Somehow he 
collected a salary anyway, though basically his assitant did his job for him.

Our elusive display department manager was always given permission to send 
single shoes (not pairs) to his church rummage sales. One month he'd send a 
dozen left shoes to the church. The next month, surprisingly he would donate a 
dozen shoes for right feet. 

The Assistant Display Manager took note of this. Then the Assstant was arrested 
and jailed for "shoplifting" old display props which probably would have been 
thrown away otherwise.

There was a tall wooden door in the display department which was shown to me 
when I was hired. Inside the door were the names of all my department 
predecessors who had been fired over a few years. Talk about writing on the wall 
delivering a  message or warning. Well, like many others, I lasted three surreal 
months.
Then I added my name to the door.

In the plumbing department there was an elevated square platform on which there 
were 4 triangle-shaped areas for displaying bathroom cabinets, washbowls & 
toilets in a "bathroom setup". Needless to say, these were NOT for public use, 
but in El Monte, EVERY DAY around lunchtime, the plumbing sales staff would call 
the janitorial staff to clean out a toilet bowl. Kids would have to climb up on 
the platform to access the toilet. A toilet paper supply was not provded.

I tried to discourage this daily event by putting a cardboard circle under the 
toilet seat lid, but the sales staff dumped that the first day, but somehow they 
were not alert enough to send the kid to a store's operating restroom.

The janitorial response was limited to delaying tactics, not responding 
immediately to the request for cleanup.

It was a weird place to work. Shoddy management. Much pointless activity such as 
changing price tickets for sales aisle displays, raising or lowering the posted 
prices by a penny or two on a weekly basis---it did not increase purchases, was 
strictly busy work.

Several young kids were dropped off at the store every morning, being left by 
parents until the end of the day when they'd be picked up. I don't know to this 
day if the "manager" of the store realized that Sears was providing free 
longterm babysitting services.

While I was there, the basement merchandise storage area caught fire, filling 
the store with heavy black smoke, which damaged more merchandise than the fire 
itself did. For a month the smokey smell lingered, but they had a long running 
"fire sale" with steep price cuts. My job required a shirt & tie in those days, 
but with the employee discount plus the firesale discount a smoke-smelling shirt 
cost $2, and I could wear it to work (but not to anywhere else).

Oh yeah. The fire began when insulated winter or hunting jackets sponteniously 
combusted. Whatever the "down subsitute" insulation was made of was of 
questionable quality, of unstable chemical origin.

Not too much later the store closed. The amazing thing was that it lasted that 
long.


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