BoxOffice® Pro - May 2012

One Pop feature is a great safety feature because
it will shut itself off and possibly prevent a fire.
Charlie: It’s like a toaster. It toasts the bread
and it’s off.
You mentioned Shelly Olesen, and I want
to congratulate the whole company for her
receiving the Bert Nathan Memorial Award
this year.
Charlie: We’re very pleased. I am particularly.
You should be. And I was just really interested
to see that your 125th anniversary
was tied into a philanthropic cause, and you
raised $35,000 for the Chicago Arts Partnerships
in Education. Why was it important
that that celebration of your company also
give back to your community?
Andrew: That’s really what any responsible entity
should be doing, be it a for-profit company
to even nonprofit organizations. I think it’s important
to give back to the community because,
quite frankly, if it weren’t for the people going
to the movie theaters and buying the popcorn,
we’d probably be doing something different.
We’ve got an amazing legacy of 127 years, and I
think every once in awhile, it’s important to step
back, reflect, and do what you can to give back
and show thanks.
Charlie: The city of Chicago, people talk about
how expensive it is, but we have benefited from
an awful lot of grant money in our company
mainly directed at education of our people and
education of students. And we will get students
in and grants of the city are paying for the students’
time and giving them a job to do. Well,
we give them real work. We don’t put them at
the front desk and say, “Answer the phone.” We
give them things to do—everything from the
factory to the office—and as a consequence,
we have found a number of first-class, real
good employees out of those programs. And
so it’s nice to be able to go the other way for a
change.
Have you started planning your 150th anniversary
celebration?
Charlie: I don’t think I’ll be around. I’m 70
years old. Andrew will deal with that.
Andrew: It’s funny, the organization that we
benefited is called CAPE, which is Chicago Arts
Partnerships in Education. They were so excited
and pleased with the results of that event that
they wanted us to celebrate our 126th anniversary.
We haven’t started planning it for sure, but
I think it’s going to be a tough show to improve
upon.
Charlie: When I start talking about the original
wagons and things, 1885 was peanut roasters,
but in 1893 when my great-grandfather
took a little popcorn machine to the Columbia
Exposition, this was one of the first instances
of a mobile concession stand. Until then, you
had street vendors that sold waffles or sold ice
cream. They all sold one thing, but the Cretors
popcorn wagon sold peanuts and popcorn and a
couple of other little things that they could put
in there. This was a mobile concession stand,
and this was how our birthday party—if you
want to call it that—morphed into the concession
industry. The concession industry began
from the popcorn and the peanuts and all of
these other things coming together from a single
vendor, whereas before it was never a single
vendor: it was always this guy, this guy and that
guy. We brought it into one place. So, yes, it
was our birthday party, but it was also the whole
concession industry’s birthday party.
Do you have any advice for concessionaires
looking to stay in the business as long as
you have?
Charlie: I don’t do that kind of stuff. [Laughs]
Deliver a good product at a good price, and
you’re going to stay in business. As long as you
have people walking past seeing what you’re doing.
If you’re at the end of a dead-end street and
nobody sees you, you can have the best thing in
the world and you’re not going to sell it. But if
you’re in the right place with the right product,
you’re going to do fine. Provide a service that
people like, and they’re going to do it for you.
Be honest and straightforward.
MARCH 2012 BOXOFFICE PRO 63