As I mentioned yesterday, I was told I was fired from the Hillcrest Cinemas because I wasn't seen as a candidate for moving upward in the chain. This was even though I was still able to perform my job with my normal level of efficiency. It turned out there may have been a more scandalous reason. Most of what follows is based on hearsay and speculation, so I can't say for certain how much of this was true, but it all made sense when I found out about it.
You do need to know what benefits the Landmark hierarchy receive. The House Manager receives a commission from the concession sales. The City Manager gets all kinds of money from doing the marketing reports for the films that get shown. If a film does really well due to the marketing provided, the City Manager gets a bigger bonus. When Anz was in Dallas, she was the House Manager and City Manager because there was only one theatre in town. She was really raking in the dough there. When she became just the House Manager in San Diego, she had supposedly been told that she was going to share in the marketing bonus with City Manager Ved because she would also be working on the marketing. After all, the number of screens in San Diego just doubled, so it would make sense that Ved would market half the films and still get paid the same amount of bonus while Anz would be getting the other half. Somehow, that didn't happen. Anz did complain to me once that she wasn't getting as much money as she was in Dallas. (Even though her base salary was greater as Manager, a lot of that got eaten up by California state income taxes. Texas does not have state income taxes.)
So, I guess the plan was that, after a period of time in which it would be determined that I was capable of doing the majority of managing the theatre, she would concentrate her efforts on the marketing aspect and share in the bonuses. There was probably a six-month transitional period after the theatre opened before this took place. But as I posted earlier this week, there were so many maintenance issues and I was so busy dealing with them, I wasn't really given an opportunity to really run the theatre on my own. Nobody ever told me this was what they were expecting of me.
It would appear that Ved was given complete authority on determining whether or not I was capable of taking over the majority of the management responsibilities and allow Anz to start getting the marketing bonuses. This would explain why Anz always seemed frustrated with me. In her mind, I was keeping her from making more money for a whole year more than she was expecting. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Ved enjoyed getting more money and became rather unwilling to share it with Anz because that would mean he would be making less money, so he would keep telling her he didn't think I was ready.
Again, note that at no point did either Ved or Anz tell me THIS WAS WHAT WAS EXPECTED OF ME. I was happy just managing shifts and counting the money at the end of the day. I did that part of the job very well. But I didn't like having to take care of the maintenance. In my past experience, that was the responsibility of the House Manager.
At the theatre, we had someone in the position of 2nd Assistant Manager. His name was Tond. He was a member of the original staff that we had hired. He had moved up to the Assistant Manager position at the Guild Theatre before coming back to us after our original 2nd Assistant left. I actually considered him a friend because he helped me move into a new apartment. The week before I was fired, I trained him on how to do the payroll.
Completely unbeknownst to me, Ved had a very intense crush on Tond. Even though Ved was in a committed relationship, he was actively pursuing him. Supposedly, he once called him into his office, closed the door and started running his fingers through his hair. (This must have been a challenge because Tond didn't have that much hair to start with.) He also allegedly tried to kiss him. I never would have suspected Ved of being capable of these kinds of shenanigans.
In the meantime, Anz and Tond became rather chummy. She likely felt a connection with him that was similar to the one she had with her Assistant Manager in Dallas. This was what she was missing in a working relationship: A gay man she can talk to when she's having problems with her husband. It's possible she and Ved discussed firing me as a means of getting what they each wanted. He wanted Tond and she wanted that bonus AND an assistant she was compatible with. Ved probably sweetened it by saying he thought Tond would be able to take over management in a few months, allowing her to make more money.
Abed, who had left the theatre after one year of being on the original staff, returned after I had been let go. He told me that Tond bragged about getting me fired. It would appear that Tond wanted my job with the increased pay and benefits and made it seem like he would be more receptive to Ved's overtures if he got my job. I don't know if any reciprocation took place after I was gone, but he continued to hold that position for awhile.
If I had any solid evidence that any of this led to my dismissal, I'm pretty certain I could have filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and settled for around $10,000. But as I mentioned in the last post, that really would have been wrong as I had previously put my hand in the till to the tune of about $1,200.
And it wouldn't surprise me to find out that Ved never let Anz handle any marketing or share in the bonus during the time he remained City Manager, despite that he told her Tond would be able to step up.
It was more than a year before I set foot in the Hillcrest Cinemas. I had gotten a pass to a preview screening for "Pulp Fiction" the day before it was released in theatres. Abed, who had also recently been fired from the theatre, went with me. Ved was at the theatre at the time and saw us come in. I know he turned to the other employee in the lobby and asked, "Was that Fayd?"
After awhile, I went there more frequently, as I did the other Landmark theatres in San Diego. I was still friendly with many staff members, whom I think took pity on me because they all knew I'd gotten railroaded out of my job. This meant I could sometimes get in the movies without having to pay. It was a handy benefit to hold onto at times.
Ved eventually left Landmark Theatres to pursue other projects. Apparently, that involved becoming an architect at some point. In March of 1999, I saw Ved again when I went to my postal mail box to pick up my mail. He was coming in as I was going out. This was the day I had gotten my new car, and I was so excited that I didn't really care about what he had done to me six years earlier. I showed him the new car and he said, "Yeah, a new car makes a lot of difference."
I would see him sporadically over the next few years. Often, he was working on the campaigns of a few political candidates. I always made it a point of voting against anybody I knew he was working for. In addition to being an architect, he is the Board President of a neighborhood development corporation in San Diego and does a ton of other community-related projects.
In the years that passed, three out of the four single screen theatres Landmark owned in San Diego closed. They still have the Ken, which continues a repertory-based calendar format. The Hillcrest Cinemas is still going strong.
I know Tond no longer lives in San Diego. The only things I can gleam from his Facebook profile is that he's completely bald and lives in a location that has snow in the winter. I see he is friends with Ved and Anz on Facebook. Interestingly enough, Ved and Anz are NOT friends on Facebook. I guess they let money stand in the way of friendship.
And what became of Anz? That's going to be the subject of a separate article that I will be posting on Monday. It's a very convoluted story and worth waiting for.
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