Crews at each house theater on the Grand Strand play their own MVP role at the door, ushering in the start of everyone’s experience for a couple of hours in an escape for entertainment.

Besides the memories that patrons on vacation or who live locally bring home, ushers and other customer service personnel encounter new avenues to savor in their mind as a bonus amenity from their day or night at the office per se.

The Palace Theatre

One of the first people employed by the Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach, in September 1995, Mike Mabrey hired the ushers and parking attendants. Fulfilling various positions through the years and having “tried to retire four or five times,” the retired Air Force and Vietnam veteran was the head usher for close to 10 years, and has been, and still fills in occasionally as, front-of-house manager.

At home, he has compiled scrapbooks of mementos, a mini-wardrobe of uniforms and a wall of posters from shows, broken up by eras with original and current theater ownerships.