Schemes & Scams: connecting the dots

Along Aurora Boulevard in Cubao there are three movie houses-- the Diamond, the Remar and the Coronet, they are a bit rundown now and only show double features of second run movies. But in the early 70s, they were relatively new (-- they were built in the late 60s) and offered stiff competition to the New Frontier movie house-- which had the longest escalator and with a seating capacity of maybe a thousand people; it was the premiere cinema then and it was huge. But, we preferred going to the Diamond, Remar and Coronet because it was nearer to the jeepney and bus lines. These movie houses had box offices on the ground floor so you had to take an escalator to go into the movie house. Nowadays seats are priced the same, but back then you have to pay extra to watch the movie on the upper levels. But, we only go to the orchestra; it was the cheapest.

Because of the way these movie houses were configured, they ordinarily let in their patrons this way: after buying a ticket at the box office, the patron would then step up to the escalator, there the patron was met by an usher who took his ticket, tore it up; and, depending on the kind of ticket a patron had, would either drop the torn ticket in a box, if he was an orchestra patron; or give back half of it, if he was an upper levels patron. The upper levels patrons would then show his half of the ticket to another usher at the second floor; a balcony patron’s ticket would be taken and dropped in yet another box while the loge patron would be let in where he would have to find an usher inside the cinema, hand over his half of the ticket and be led to his seat. I observed that one of the three cinemas did it a little differently, instead of an usher a security guard was stationed at the foot of the escalator who merely check the tickets; patrons would then go up the escalator and walk up to an usher stationed at the only entrance to the orchestra or to another usher stationed at a pathway that led to the upper levels. It is only then that upper levels patrons handed over their ticket. At the second level, a snack store was on one side and at the corner were adjoining powder rooms for men and ladies.

In my young mind, this offered an interesting opportunity that could be exploited. Inside my head were the beginnings of a systematic mental codification of cartoons, comic books, the funny pages on Sunday papers, stories I’ve read, things I’ve pick up here and there and other trivial things I see everyday that are re-processed in the context of new things giving me a particularly organized way of cognitively perceiving what’s going on and to respond to complex situations or set of stimuli. I was fascinated with the predictability of how people get things done given a set of tasks to do; there was always an oversight; a loophole; a flaw. There was always a scheme cooking up in my head.

The next time we went to see a movie, I decided to test ran a scheme. I bought the usual Orchestra tickets for my brothers but I got a Balcony ticket for myself; we went up the escalator as usual, but upon reaching the second level, I told my brothers to go ahead and wait for me just beyond the doors. I went to the men’s room and after a minute, I walked out and slammed the door so the usher would see me coming out. I walked out to him and without stopping I pushed open the door to the movie house. I was betting that he would take it that I was already in and only walked out to take a piss break. I got nothing to loose, if he didn't let me in I would show him the Balcony ticket and I could still see the movie. But, it worked.

Later I would invite four of my classmates to see a movie in the same cinema, I bragged that I could get them in for half the price of the tickets, but they would have to follow what I say. They were a bit skeptical but they agreed. I got all their money and bought one balcony ticket. I got in first and went straight to the john. I got into the corner cubicle and opened a window; clipped the balcony ticket unto a Bic ball pen (-- the one with a yellow ocher body and a blue cap with an overhang, remember?) and threw it out of the window unto a classmate standing on the street at the side of the movie house. We all got in without incident.

After the movie, I sold the balcony ticket at a discount to a man on a queue to the box office. The man was more than happy to oblige. I walked off with enough money for two more movies!