ROBERT PRICE: No-texting policy puts movie-house magnate in a League of his own
| Saturday, Jun 25 2011 10:00 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jun 27 2011 10:37 AM
The recipient of this year's I-wish-everybody-had-the-guts-to-do-this award is Tim League, the upstart movie theater mogul and bloodied survivor of Bakersfield commerce who has made a career out of doing things the rest of us wish we'd thought of first.
League, who turned the mixed-bag experience of running Baker Street's old Tejon Theater into a cinema-house gold mine in Austin, Texas, made the national news again this month. This time the chief executive of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain earned notoriety for:
(1) ejecting a customer for texting on her cellphone during a movie, in violation of frequently and emphatically stated house rules;
(2) turning her expletive-littered phone message protesting said ejection into a we-mean-business video PSA; and
(3) jump-starting a national conversation about movie manners and digital-age courtesy in general.
The announcement, now playing in the chain's 10 theaters and on YouTube, opens with these written words: "At the Alamo Drafthouse, we have a simple rule: If you talk or text during a movie, we kick you out. ..."
The young, unidentified female caller is clearly beside herself in the audio that follows. "Yeah, I was wondering if you guys actually enjoy treating your customers like (beeeep)? ... Excuse me for using my phone in (the) USA, Magnited States of America, where you are free to text in a theater." She concludes with "Thanks for taking my money, jerk," and a common anatomical reference.
"You're welcome!" responds the text narration. "Thanks for not coming back to the Alamo, texter!"
The two versions on YouTube, censored and uncensored, have drawn a combined 4.5 million views, with "like" votes outnumbering "dislike" 20 to 1. The irate texter has been featured on websites across the Magnited States (no, I don't know what that means, either) ranging from Gawker to Salon, as well as CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," ABC's "The View" and The New York Times.
Using that voice-mail message to reinforce their point was bold, but League and his wife, Karrie, who opened their first Alamo Drafthouse in May 1997, have been refreshingly innovative almost from the start. They serve food and drink during screenings, with every other row of traditional seating, where necessary, removed to accommodate dining tables and wait-staff service.
Their raucous Rolling Roadshows -- outdoor field trips with giant, inflatable screens -- are legendary. They've screened "Jaws" to a crowd bobbing in inner tubes on Austin's Lake Travis (complete with scuba divers randomly grabbing dangling feet) and "Deliverance" to overalls-wearing river canoers.
But the no-talking/no-texting rule, enforced to the tune of about 150 ejections per year, is something even the most risk-averse theater owner might want to consider adopting. (OK, we won't hold our breath.)
If the comments on YouTube are any indication, League has clearly become a hero to millions of fed-up movie-going Americans. His demand that customers respect other customers is both obvious and courageous.
The Leagues' business model, gorgeous in its simplicity, is the stuff of MBA case studies: Identify what you dislike about movie theaters (or whatever the enterprise) and fix it. Put yourself in the customers' shoes. Don't want to miss a moment of on-screen drama to fetch your date a refill? Jot down your order for the waiter using the provided pad and pencil. Sick of popcorn and Slurpees? Try a black bean burger and a microbrew. Distracted by the three teens in the next row who are more interested in texting each other than watching the film you just paid nine-fifty to see? Flag 'em for Bubba.
Alamo Drafthouse is in the process of nailing down deals for theaters in several new markets, Los Angeles among them. Might a Bakersfield theater ever be hatched from the Leagues' mothership? Because I want one.
"It could happen. We are trying to open in L.A. soon (and) it's a natural leap across the Grapevine," League responded Friday via text message.
Hopefully, Bubba didn't spot him.
Email Editorial Page Editor Robert Price at rprice@bakersfield.com.
