Cruising

The Neptune had been showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show for a few years, but we still didn't get good movies very often. The big chains would bid more for the better films, so we mostly got the b-list stuff. Then Al Pacino did Cruising, a movie with gay sex and S&M and public orgies that had the homosexual community in an uproar.

The local chains didn't want to offend an important element of their customers and critics, so they didn't bid or didn't bid much. The Neptune got the rights to show Cruising and the circus began.

The Neptune was already a bit ahead of the curve on queer culture: we were showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which included a gay wedding between Frank N. Furter (in bustier and skimpy briefs) and Rocky Horror (his creation, a tall tanned blond muscular dude with half of Eddie the biker's brain) followed by Frank then seducing both Brad and Janet on the night they got engaged to each other. Our manager was Doug Dutton, a funny shorter dude who always wore a mustache and was totally gay.

After a quick huddle with the Burns, who ran the Neptune at the time, Doug held a press conference and acknowledged the controversy behind the movie. Doug felt that he could not condemn a movie unseen, and therefore invited the Seattle press to stay and watch the movie with him so that they could form their own opinions about it.

We got to stay and watch the movie too, which was actually kind of cool. When you were working you rarely got to see more than 10 minutes of a movie at a time, and you only came on your day off if at was a good movie - and the Neptune didn't get too many of those. For once we saw a movie together, the whole staff, which was an interesting experienced - binding with my coworkers through the movie and then after as Doug addressed the press again. As homosexual identity politics, commercial and artistic interests all tugged and stressed against each other we sipped our free soft drinks and ate the nasty popcorn.

The movie was well made and somewhat difficult. Someone was brutally murdering members of the gay S&M club fringe, so a cop had to enter the scene undercover as they try to crack the case. No explicit horribly nasty stuff, but lots of implicit horribly nasty sexual stuff if you had any imagination: guys greasing up their fist and arm, followed by guys on saddles squirming as the angles change and the camera cuts from here to there. Our hero ending up tied up in bed with a man he just picked up in an S&M bar, and of course a sadistic serial killer with all kinds of kinks and twists that may be tied up in his sexual identity.

Doug told the assembled reporters "this movie is about a fringe group that does exist. Their behavior doesn't represent anything like the spectrum of behavior in homosexual society today, but this movie doesn't try to claim that. I believe in freedom of expression and I will do my job normally as the Neptune Theater shows Cruising."

With all of the additional publicity it was packed on Friday, opening night. Doug's boss Rayleh Burns was there, normally we didn't see her much. I was the fastest ticket seller by far, but Rayleh didn't like the way I looked. I was over weight and long haired and not well groomed. She had them send out Mark a more acceptable choice. He sucked at selling tickets, though, and after using up 40 minutes he had sold maybe 120 tickets. With 30 minutes to go until showtime he was only going to get 200 in. Rayleh finally cracked and sent me out to sell tickets. Hah! Victory tasted sweet! I had the remaining 700 tickets sold and the customers in the house before the previews were over. There were cameras for a couple of TV broadcasts and some protesters. Across the street was the most stereotypically over the top homosexual - feminized, wearing mesh hose and something frilly and lacy, maybe a bustier, high heeld black leather shoes - holding a sign and marching back and forth. Across the street from him were a bunch of soused frat boys yelling "Faggot!" and other equally brilliant epithets at him. Across the street from both were TV mobile crews filming brief bits and background bits. I sat in my little glass booth on 45th selling tIckets and taking it all in.

Once I got the crowd into the theater and the TV crews left it got quieter, and by the start of second show the last of the protesters drifted away. It was already an unusually good day for the Neptune - 2 sellouts with full ticket prices and we still had the Rocky Horror Picture Show to go. I took the cash and the tickets in, balanced the books and kept the better part of $4,000 in the locked drawer in the office and headed back out to sell out Rocky. No queer vs. straight tension, no glare of the TV cameras, just a young hedonistic crowd out looking for a good time. At $2 a pop I was happy to give it to them. It was a BYOB or maybe BYOD affair. By showing up at 11 you could buy a ticket and crowd in under the marquee by the entrance. You now have about 45 minutes before the doors open to finish off all the beer, smoke your weed, and do whatever else you have lined up.

The doors open and the crowd shuffles forward, pausing to get patted down by officer Bob. A pile of rice, cards, and beer soon builds up next to Bob.

I finish selling out my 800 tickets, lock the front slot and gather the money and tickets, hitting the buzzer. Once the door to the lobby opens I unlock the booth, let myself out, and lock it behind me with my key. I zip through the door into the lobby, down the ramp past the crowded concession stand and into the office.

Taking the prime seat behind the desk in the empty office I set down the money and tickets and get out the paperwork. I slow down a little, hoping that officer Bob will show up soon and stock up the fridge with confiscated beer. It's no wonder I'm overweight, I get all the free beer I can drink every Friday and Saturday.

The Neptune didn't manage to sustain the good luck of Cruising so we went back to b-list movies and revivals and let the Rocky Horror Picture Show carry the load.