Inside Stories
The Secret to Crowd Control
Look gently into their eyes while biting
the top off a beer bottle...
by Capitol Theatre co-founder Al Hayward
One of my responsibilities as co-producer
at the Capitol was security. With two shows a night and
more than 3000 people attending each show there were lines
outside the theatre on most Friday and Saturday nights. Outside
security was very important, not just to control the lines, but
to insure the safety of our patrons.
When hiring outside security, I looked
for big and tough guys who could command respect by virtue of
their size. I didn’t want anyone hurt. The kids knew the
police couldn’t lay a hand on them but they weren’t
so sure about our security crew.
The first people I looked to hire were
the former security staff from the recently closed Fillmore
East in New York. I remember interviewing one young man by the
name of Tommy. As we talked about his qualifications I offered
him a bottle of beer. He accepted, but before I could hand him
an opener he bit the cap off the bottle. Unlike “The
Donald”, I said “You’re hired!”
(Unknown to me at the time, Tommy had a special tooth for this
purpose).
The next young man that came in for an
interview was about 300 pounds, stood 6'5" tall and wore a
bullwhip on his belt. I said to myself, “now this
is what I’m looking for in a security guy”.
He also was hired.
After hiring about 8 outside security
guys I needed to have a captain for the crew. A guy named Barry
Kantor applied. He worked with most of the other guys at the
Fillmore. Barry was not as big or scary looking, but he had the
necessary leadership qualities. We had very little trouble with
the kids and very rarely did our security guys have to flex
their muscles.
Editor’s note: Barry Kantor also
had a marvelous sense of humor.