Emerson College - Emersonian Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Wanted: A Job by Thomas Lavvton I’ve worked on a clamboat and that was fun and 1 had a sun burn all sum- mer. I’ve worked in supermarkets where I stacked eggs and cleaned up leaky milk containers. I’ve been a mov- ing man and travelled all over the country. I’ve been a receptionist and answered phones and made value judgements on people who wanted to enter my building, I’ve done a wide variety of things and none of them have prepared me for the role I have now. I’m unemployed. I had my first job at age fourteen and have never been without a steady source of income since. I went to high school and I had a job. I moved to a different hometown and I got a job. I came to college and I found a job. Now, I’ve been fired and I can’t find a thing. This school found it necessary to remove me from my job one month ago because I was on the wrong pay system. Instead of having a work study grant, I had been hired outright by the college and had been working as a receptionist for them for two semesters. But two weeks into this semester, I was told that I was on the wrong system of pay and, even though it was necessary to hire three new receptionists, it was impossi- ble for me to be one of them. So much for seniority or the concept of fair play. I’ve had a twenty dollar bill stashed in my desk for three weeks. That twenty could make me very happy by paying for a new sweater, a record, a date with a girl, or it could even sit in a ba nk and collect interest, but it won’t do any of those things. That twenty dollar bill will go to the New England Telephone Company and when it is gone, there will be no more. That twenty has been staring me in the face while my friends spent their evenings in Crossroads or made mid- night pizza runs to Kenmore Square. I don’t even have five dollars to replace the I.D. that was stolen along with the rest of my wallet last week. For the lack of a five dollar bill, I couldn’t prove my age even if someone were willing to buy me a drink. But don’t get the idea that I’m a starving urchin ready to grow into a Boylston Street regular. I’ve got my daily bread courtesy of SAGA Food Services and if it became really neces- sary, my Dad would mail me up a fifty. But he won’t because I won’t ask him. It’s not his responsibility to keep me in spending money. It’s up to me to find a job and, God knows. I’ve been looking; Kenmore Deli just wants girls who can work full time. I could quit school and take the job but then, I might as well be back home. I’ve never worked a cash register and few stores seem willingly to teach me. I type approximately three words a minute with a guaranteed minimum of four mistakes, so secretarial work is out. I’m not a com- puter expert and I don’t know a damn thing about electronics. I am a writer and, unfortunately, no one wants a writer who hasn’t written anything. So, I look on. I’d hate like hell to be forced to return to the dairy department, but it begins to look as if Star Market might have my number. That is, if they are hiring at all.

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Cheers At the Bull and Finch Reprinted with permission from The Berkeley Beacon, October 25, 1983 by Faith Girdler When I first phoned the Bull ind Finch I’uh to make an appointment for an interview, I got a soft, Latin-flavored voice indii ating that yes the manag- er would be in at 1 2:i0 and if I wanted to come in then for an interview, it would be fine. No, it wasn ' t necessary to leave my name. Right away, that should have tipped me off. Why would he nut want me to leave my name? Well, when 12:30 rolled around and I pronif)tly appeared at the Bull and Finch as per our arrange- ment, I had my answer. Not only was the manager not around, but many of the waiters, waitresses, and customers were also quite absent. The one waiter I managed to find had no idea what I was talking about. Interview? Man- ager here at 1 2:30? What? It turns out that the man I talked to on the phone was the cook, not the man- ager. The cook had only been in the county for a few months, and didn ' t speak-a-da English so well, y ' know? Fortunately for me, however, the waiter that I found knew just about as much about the Bull and Finch as the Manager, and I could interview him. The Bull and Finch, long a favorite Emerson hang- out, had been picked by the producers and direc- tors of NBC-TV as the model for one of this year ' s promising shows, namely the series Cheers. Cheers airs on Thursday nights on NBC at 9:00 p.m. According to Bill Shapiro, a waiter who ' s been there for the past eight years (the Bull and Finch has only been open 1 3 years) the producers picked the Bull and Finch because of the general ambiance, the character and flavor of the place. It was exactly what they were looking for. And exactly what they were looking for? A real neighborhood bar, a real slice of life type place. The kind of place where when the phone rings, it ' s a like red alert. The waitresses always yell before answering the phone, Ok, who is not here? Part of the special flavor of the Bull and Finch is the fact that not only are all the waiters and waitres- ses each totally unique characters, ( Good restau- rant people Shapiro calls them) but also the clien- tele itself is totally unique. We ' ve got our own very regular, very special crowd that comes in almost every night, and especially on Saturdays , commented Shapiro. On Saturdays, people drive for miles, |ust to come here , he added. When asked exactly what kind of person goes to the Bull and Finch, Shapiro replied, Well, I don ' t like to generalize, and in the Bull and Finch, you really can ' t. We get every type of person in here. This ranges from many of the young professionals who come down from the Hill to have a drink after work to the average, man on the street type, one who is quite so affluent. Also, Emerson is apparently not the only college that frequents the establishment. According to Mr. Shapiro, there are also many students from B.U., Northeastern, Emmanuel, Simmons, and even sometimes as far away as Bos- ton College and Pine Manor. When asked exactly how the Bull and Finch ‘ came to he picked as the model for the show in- stead of the innumerable other bars in the area, Mr. Shaf)iro explained that Danny DeVito, from the show Taxi, was quite instrumental. All the pro- ducers and writers were in the area checking out Photo by Laura Sawyer different bars, and Danny DeVito kept coming back here. It was he who ultimately decided on the Bull and Finch, said Shapiro. Cheers is one of the most popular shows on NBC this fall, and is one of the few with real promise. And with good reason too — it ' s written by the Charles Brothers, Wes and Glen, both of whom have written many scripts for M A S H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and have won three Emmy ' s for their work on Taxi. The real charm of Cheers flows from the fact that the humor comes from having distinct, solid characters on the show, rather than having a string of nine or ten joke writers writing one liners for the show. The director of Cheers is |im Burrows, who him- self won two Emmys for his work on Taxi. The difference between Taxi and Cheers is subtle, but important. ‘ ' Taxi , Glen Charles said, is popu- lated by people who dream of getting out of the garage, out of the neighborhood. The people in Cheers are there because they want to be. Mr. Charles went on to say that there ' s an emo- tional experience that goes on in a bar that doesn ' t go on any place else, and it ' s not just the drink. It ' s also camaraderie, the charm of the old neighbor- hood pub. Ifthis show has a certain philosophy, it ' s that a bar seems to tap as close to anything we can find to contemporary society. When asked if Cheers was very similar to life at the Bull and Finch, Eric Betts, the wine and food steward replied Oh, extremely. They (the produc- ers) have been very careful. But we are the real Cheers, the real people. We ' re more realistic. But as far as the sets and scenery go, it ' s almost identic- al. They even filmed the front of the building for the lead-in at the beginning of each show. In addition, business has picked up immensely since the airing of Cheers. Ya gotta remember, Mr. Betts drawled, slowly peering out from under his large, consuming gray cap. Ya gotta remem- ber that this show is seen nationwide, and we have a large number of out of town tourists who come in just to see if our place is really like the place on TV. OUR business has always been good, but now it ' s booming. We are open for lunch every day, and are packed every day. Before we couldn ' t even consider opening for lunch. I then asked both Mr. Betts and Mr. Shapiro what their reactions were to having their place of em- ployment used as the model for a TV series. Did it change life at the Bull and Finch very much? Were they excited about it? Well, at first, we were all pretty excited about it, explained Mr. Betts. It was pretty glamorous, having all those producers and directors running around, and having all those stars like Danny De- Vito and Shelley Fong here, he added in. Yeah, but pretty soon we all got sick of it, said Mr. Shapiro. After all, all the producers would do is constantly order us around, and disrupt life in general. Also, Mr. Betts replied, there always seemed to be another g( ' % critic or journalist looking for another interview or reaction! The Bull and Finch has been voted Best Neigh- borhood Bar by Boston Magazine as well as Best Bloody Mary IN Boston by the same magazine. In addition, they were voted the Best Hamburger In Boston by the Herald American. The Bull and Finch is actually a close replica of an English county pub, and was designed and crafted over in England. It was shipped over here bit by bit in the mid-sixties. It ' s located at 84 Beacon Street, directly under the Hampshire House, and is open for lunch and dinner, Monday thru Saturday.

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The World November, 1982: Football tans are bitter about 57 day old strike. Season gets off to a peculiar start. There ' s retribution: Redskins win the Su- perbowl. (Photos by Wide World Photos) January, 1 983 : President Reagan makes a toast at a Dorches- ter pub. FHe offers to pay for the brew, but it ' s on the house. Kansas City, MO. 1982. Wendy, Lisa, Timothy Mountz, and their dog, Mindy enjoy a video game. Computers and home video are huge sellers. In addition. Time magazine ' s Man of the Year is the computer. February 28, 1983: Last episode of M A S H plays on CBS-TV. After 1 1 years the 4077 bugs out for good. This final song is one of the high- est rated shows in Television history. m