Boxoffice-March.1988

noise levels are very, very low. You
don't hear a guy puff puffing on a
motorcycle through a back exit, you
don't hear the helicopter above the
auditorium. And all of our heating and
air conditioning systems are done
through ductwork away from the auditorium
In other words, there's no holes
in the roof and no noise coming down.
"Maybe we can't guarantee the quality
of the product you're going to see, but
you're going to have an experience. Our
concession stands sell the regular fare,
but also health foods, apple juice, noncarbonated
beverages, and we are experimenting
with pastries and so forth
But the idea is that there is something
for the other tastes.
"And these are the things," says Hanson,
"that make a pleasant psychic
impression."
AND
Hanson hates tennis shoes.
He Jvites them. You can hear a
loathing edge in his voice every
time he uses the two words together.
"Our ushers don't wear tennis shoes,"
insists Hanson, and one can almost hear
teeth grinding at the other end of the
phone line. "They wear tuxedos. Bill
Blass tuxedos. They wear white gloves.
They don't wear uniforms that fall apart
because they're a hundred years old.
They don't wear ft7jni,s shoes.
"The girls behind the concession
stands and in our boxoffice don't wear
smocks, they wear some very stylish
blouses, and vests, and bow-ties and so
forth. Again, there's no tennis shoes back
there."
Why does Hanson get so excited
about employee uniforms? Because the
way his personnel dress is integral to
Essaness's first-class approach. "We're
people-oriented on both sides of the
counter. We want everybody to make
eye-contact, talk to you, and treat you
not as if you're something on a conveyor
belt. If you have a problem, there'll be
somebody on the floor
"We don't just give our ushers flashlights
and say here, go be an usher We
give you a manual, you are trained, and
then periodically, from two to four
times a year, a group of independent
consultants will come in and you get a
permission slip to get you out of school,
we pay you for that day, and we have
seminars We will teach you how to
handle a situation, whether it's a bomb
scare, or whether it's simply a disgnmtled
customer, or whether it's simply
how to greet .someone at the, concession
stand and be a gofKl front-line salesp>