[bena]

Oh man, the past was fucking wild, because you would do this. You'd just show up to the theater and look at what was playing. Or, if you were close to a store, you'd go and buy a newspaper that had the movie listings for your local theaters.

[throwaway173738]

Or just call the theater. You can still call stores and ask them if they have something, rather than looking it up on Amazon.

[ButlerianJihad]

Remember MovieFone? That guy with the Mr. Moviefone voice?! Oh, man!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moviefone

[foco_tubi]

We used to record the showings listings manually at the cinemas and it was incredibly hard to do while zooted on weed

Theater usher was quite possibly the best job I’ve ever had

[ButlerianJihad]

I can relate. For a brief, shining month, I worked at Tower Records, and one of the duties when we closed was to get on the PA (through the phone system) and make the announcements about the store closing.

Now these announcements were supposed to be brief and structured, but when they permitted me to make them, I couldn't resist cracking up and laughing for some reason, in the middle of recitation, and so never mastered the art of making the announcements for the store. Pretty sad.

But I do recall those days, when movie theaters had all their showtimes on tape. I know that the movie theater is a place that we would never expect to reach a human on the phone. Because that announcement would play, for as long as it needed at a multiplex, and then repeat or cut off. And you were supposed to figure out the showtimes by picking through the linear verbal announcement and choosing your favorite film. I can only imagine the teenage staff who are mostly paid in concessions, how they would get to recording that stuff!

[bluefirebrand]

Ok, assume you don't have a cell phone. Call the theater with what? Pay phones don't exist anymore

[inigyou]

With your dumbphone?

[bluefirebrand]

Come on man, read and understand the post before replying. It's three* sentences.

I didn't say "you don't have a smartphone" I said "you don't have a cell phone"