During my high school years, rather during my junior and senior years after I turned 16, I worked at the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville. This would be 1944-1945. I worked at the candy and popcorn stand, which was in the lobby of the theatre. I remember I had to wear a white pinafore apron while on duty. I also worked in the ticket booth, which was a small booth located in the front of the theatre. It was very small and could only hold one person comfortably. The manager at the time I worked there was Stuart Gavett.

Also working there were a few of my classmates – Leo Levora, Andy Nelson, and Marvin Winte. They were ushers and had to wear white shirts, ties, and dark trousers. They always carried a flashlight so that they could seat people and also walk up and down the aisles every now and then to make sure everything was okay. One of them was also stationed at the door to collect tickets. They would tear the ticket in half, giving half to the customer and putting the other half in the large container. They also had to change the marquee in the front of the building every time the picture changed. Movies changed three times a week. One picture would run Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with a continuous showing starting at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. On Wednesday, they would run a double feature, usually B-type movies. They would run the next movie on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. A cartoon and the news were usually run prior to the main attraction.

Another friend also worked in the ticket booth, Esther Bettman Meyer. She was the permanent cashier and worked at the Wildey for quite a long time. I was more or less her substitute in the ticket booth. Sometimes the line to buy tickets would stretch all the way down to the Tri-City Grocery, which is now known as Laurie’s Place. At the end of selling tickets, which was 9:00 p.m., John Huse, a police Officer, would come and escort the cashier into the building as she always had quite a bit of money from ticket sales.

When it was a sellout, the people would have to wait in the lobby until seats were available for the next movie. There were two projectionists, Andy Foehrkalb, and for the life of me, I cannot remember the other man’s name. I remember the large curtain that was used on the stage. If I remember correctly, it was heavy maroon velvet decorated with gold, which they would open before the movie and close at the end of the night.

A man by the name of Frank Carter was the all-around handyman. He kept the theatre very clean. There was a drinking fountain on the corner in front of the theatre and he kept that fountain sparkling clean and shiny.

My job, naturally, was to sell candy, gum, and popcorn. Sometimes we would have a contest to see who could fold the popcorn boxes the fastest. When we got real busy, someone would help fold boxes to keep ahead of the crowd. Popcorn was 25 cents a box. Candy bars and gum were 5 cents. This was during the war and people would ask for Hershey bars, which we could not get. We had a candy bar which was similar, called Nestles, which has now become a household name. I had to go in on Saturday mornings and clean the candy case and popcorn machine, which was never a fun job. I really enjoyed working at the theatre. It provided me with spending money, plus.

Claribel Huelskamp Ramsey