Movie magic: Theater managers' collection brings smiles to young and old

Betty Ulrey, assistant manager of Carmike Cinemas Northgate 14 Theatre, and manager Matt Spickard (not pictured) have amassed a large collection of movie memorabilia that is on display in the office they share. They focus mostly on movies but include World Wrestling Entertainment and auto collectibles.
Betty Ulrey, assistant manager of Carmike Cinemas Northgate 14 Theatre, and manager Matt Spickard (not pictured) have amassed a large collection of movie memorabilia that is on display in the office they share. They focus mostly on movies but include World Wrestling Entertainment and auto collectibles.

Betty Ulrey laughs at the memory of the young boy who stuck his head into her office at the Northgate 14 movie theater.

As the theater's assistant manager, her office is crammed with movie posters, bobbleheads, action figures, coffee mugs, mirror decals, Pez dispensers and movie props. She even has end tables made out of old movie reels.

"He looked in here and asked his father, 'Is this the gift shop?'" Ulrey says with a laugh.

photo Betty Ulrey, assistant manager of the Carmike Cinemas Northgate 14 Theatre, has filled her office with a number of items, most involving characters from children's movies.

It's a funny, but perfectly understandable, question because that's exactly what the room looks like. Ulrey, who turns 70 today, has always had a passion for collecting, for being crafty and for making people happy. Working in the Wynnsong theater at Hamilton Place before moving to Northgate 10 years ago, she now combines those passions in her job.

The office she shares with Northgate 14 Manager Matt Spickard, 33, is filled from floor to ceiling with "stuff," both hers and Spickard's. While his collection also includes items from World Wrestling Entertainment and auto collectibles, the two mostly focus on movies.

Located just off the main lobby, the office is packed with hundreds of toys and a dozen or so framed movie posters. There are likenesses of Alvin and his Chipmunk pals, Scooby-Doo, most of the Disney princesses, superheroes like the Incredible Hulk and Wolverine and lots of Star Wars figures. On the wall is an "Alice in Wonderland" triptych, a three-poster set featuring Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen from the 2010 Tim Burton film.

One of Ulrey's favorites is the basket of candy guarded by characters from "Monsters, Inc." When you take a piece of candy, the basket says things like, "If you want to be scary, you gotta look scary."

"It makes me laugh because it makes other people laugh," she says.

photo Matt Spickard, manager of the Carmike Cinemas Northgate 14 Theatre, has also decorated the office he shares with assistant manager Betty Ulrey with a number of action figures.

A few pieces came from movie studios, which send them to theaters nationwide to be used as promotional displays, but most -- the majority actually -- are things Ulrey and Spickard have purchased on their own, mostly through local fast-food chain promotions.

Spickard started his collection about six years ago when he was given a bunch of movie collectibles upon leaving the Battlefield 10 theater in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., to take his current position at Northgate 14. A little later, some friends gave him some WWE stuff as well, and he has added to his collection since.

While he enjoys being surrounded by his collection, he loves seeing the reactions of people who stop by.

"It's pretty cool," he says. "The kids are always the ones that see them first but, for me, I think it's cooler when the adults come in and think it's cool."

Neither Spickard nor Ulrey has any idea how many pieces they've bought over the years, nor how much money they've spent on them. Ulrey says she can't even say which one might be valuable as a collectible or which is her favorite.

"It's not a retirement for me," says Ulrey, who also has a stuffed bear collection at home. "I do it for fun."

photo With help from her brother, Betty Ulrey, assistant manager of the Carmike Cinemas Northgate 14 Theatre, made tables from two old film reels.

On occasion, Ulrey uses her collection to build promotional displays in the theater's hallways and lobby for films, both upcoming or current. When studios send her promotional material for displays in the lobby or front windows, she keeps nearly every piece even after the movies are gone, then recycles them in future displays. Using the materials' frames and cardboard boxes, she combines them with her own pieces and enlists local businesses and groups to create bigger and better displays.

For the new live-action "Cinderella," released earlier this month, she borrowed a canvas castle wall from a local church, wrapped it around an old frame from a previous movie and created a backdrop for photo ops. She had the folks at Beauty and the Beast costume shop make her some butterflies, then she found some small glass slippers to add to the display.

She loves it when kids come in dressed as their favorite movie character and have their pictures made in one of her displays.

"That touches my heart," she says, "because it means that the time I've spent doing it is worth it."

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.

Upcoming Events