Some Movies Starting On Time

(From The Hartford Courant -- By Pat Seremet)

Some people may have thought state Representative ANDREW FLEISCHMANN of West Hartford was a bit daft for proposing legislation in January to force movie theaters to give actual starting times instead of having audiences sit through tediously long trailers and commercials before the movie starts.

Aren't there more important things in the state to be concerned with?
[I guess in Connecticut, no.]

And so he was shot down.

But who's gets the last laugh now?

New York has seen the wisdom of his ways.

LOEWS CINEPLEX ENTERTAINMENT announced that next month it will begin listing actual starting times, and it's starting in Connecticut, where it operates theaters in PLAINVILLE and DANBURY. It has 11 theaters with 84 screens in New York City, and 198 theaters in the rest of the country that will follow a few weeks later.

"It's terrific," Fleischmann said when he heard the news. "Connecticut is the first state to roll out this policy. It's a great win for consumers."

He didn't say that it was his proposal that brought this decision about, but he did say he brought it to the legislature's attention in January, when "the movie industry had showed no movement on this issue for 100 years."

After he made the proposal, he was besieged with media requests from CNN, CBS's THE EARLY SHOW, MSNBC and stations in Seattle, Denver, Cincinnati and Peoria, Illinois.

"It was nutty. I'm the chairman of the education committee, working on major issues," Fleischmann said. "But this bill has brought me more attention."

Fleischmann came up with the idea of a bill when he was at the movies in a sort of stupor brought on by "soda, popcorn and Jujubes," he said, when he was approached by a constituent who complained about the half-hour of ads and previews they had to endure before the movie.

"Isn't there something you can do?" he asked the state representative, who agreed the waste of time was "ridiculous." The legislature rejected his proposal, but independently, Loews made its move.

This state representative has no interest in going down in the books as, say, "Quick Flick" Fleischmann. "Just a state representative who can get things done," he said.