The matinee on Saturday was a dress rehearsal <br />for the evening performance. The acrobats <br />and dogs on hind legs, comics in baggy pants <br />and an occasional singer ran through routines <br />before a lethargic audience waiting impatiently <br />for the black and white double feature <br />starring Humphrey Bogart or the Marx Brothers - <br />no easy laughs from this crowd! <br /> <br />I worked double shift from early afternoon <br />to midnight with six other ushers <br />patrolling the aisles with flashlight <br />and broom and dustpan until <br />the evening crowd converged <br />on a lights lit up West 63rd Street - <br />five theaters in a two block square <br />along with restaurants and bars <br />ablaze with neon signs!<br /><br />Michael Pruchnicki<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/stratford-theater-on-saturday/
