Jerry's

Transcript (Download)

That's an unusual story.

It's a one of a kind.

There is no question of it.

The actions toward the customer, if the customer walks in the door, you must give his order immediately.

If not, sometimes I push him back out to read the menu on the outside.

If it's too cold, I let him stand there, but I force him to talk.

I grab him by the arm, throw him up to the counter, wherever there's a free man open.

I say now that I don't know what percentage anymore is gimmicked or my own neurosis as far as having the customer wait on immediately or neurotic situations.

There's no question about it.

That's the way to go.

I'll serve you.

Who's reporting? You, sir.

That's the way to go.

All the way down to the...

The man is out by somebody else.

Call me about Ryan, who must be? Is the man there? You, sir.

What have you got? You, sir.

Get out of here.

Wait on this man.

Hey, which one on that room? You're the man.

Hello, what do you want? What do you want? You see that thing? What do you have? Here he is! Here he is! Get him! Get him! You got me.

Show this guy won't talk.

Maybe he's in here on the top.

I'm right here.

Get out of here.

Terry, go ahead, please.

Everything on the dinner? Everything on the food fries? What else, ma 'am? Everything? In the Army thing, I went in in December of 41, just before war broke out.

And I was a private, had four years overseas.

Three and a half years were combat times, the second longest in the entire Army.

I came out with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

I became a captain at the end of the war.

I was selling furniture on the road for two and a half years, and then I bought into a partnership on St.

Clair in Ohio in 48.

Didn't have any money, so two guys put up money.

One had a half of me for about three years, and took half of what I made.

I was working 15 hours a day, seven days a week.

Finally got rid of him about three years later.

He didn't want out.

Get down there! Remember once sticking a knife into Freddie's arm, one of those big knives that stuck right in there.

He had to have stitches in the thing.

These guys here have all been with me anywhere from, oh I will say, 10 to 22 years.

One man's been with me for 27 years.

There are quite a bunch of guys.

If they can take my guff, it's quite something.

Keep going! I hear you! They're defending us! Here's my near mine! I try to analyze why these customers come in, and take my grabbing them, and take my forcing them to give orders.

It's always been the case where I said, maybe they're masochists.

I realize that 90 % of people can't be masochists, so it must be something else.

I've analyzed to the point where they're very humanized when they walk in here.

Whereas where they work, they are just number four or five.

They're nobody.

They come in here by my grabbing them and touching them and screaming at them to become human beings.

I think this is the secret of the thing, and it's the fact that I feel that close to people.

You, sir! Sir, are you way down? I wouldn't trade for a dollar.

He's getting right here! The man's trying to help you! There he is, saying for a dollar! I'll move him around.

What else? Sure, my actions have caused many little situations in the store.

Some, in a few cases, have tried to hit me, and I ducked in time because they didn't know me.

Then the other people that were here would explain me to them, which of course, as the years go on, most of these people I even know by name after 26 years in this neighborhood.

I don't get out the here! Excuse me.

When are you going to hang out? What do you have, sir? Yo! Freddie first started with me about 19 years ago.

After a year or so, by that time he was in the back room.

I didn't have a black man actually making the sandwiches.

I wanted him to wait on trade, but I was scared I would lose my customers.

So I told Fred I would put up crackers in front of him, boxes of crackers in front of him, so they wouldn't see his hand, show how ridiculous it is.

This is supposedly a man with ideals.

And then I went home that night, and came back the next day and I walked up to Fred and I said, how the hell did you feel about this yesterday, this working night? I felt like hell.

And I said I did too.

I had talked to my wife about it.

My wife said, you know Jerry, you talk a big game about ideals.

When it comes down to it, you don't put your money where your mouth is.

So I said, I might lose a lot of customers, she said, it's your gamble.

But you talk the big game, do something about it.

And so we threw away the crackers, and the beautiful part of it is within two, three months, the customers were asking Fred to wait on him because he was the nicest guy in the store.

Far nicer than I could ever be.

Come in now, will you man? Are you ready, sir? Yes, sir.

Okay, yours, sir.

Yours, sir, right down there.

Yours, sir, right in there, behind that guy here.

Right behind this man here.

Sir, right behind this man here.

Yours, what, you dead man? Yours, please.

Don't look at him.

Roast beef, fried.

Pork beef and a beer.

I'll have a beer with you.

I'll have a beer with you.

Roast beef, fried.

How about you? Let's go somebody.

Thank you, sir.

I'm right here.

I'm right here.

What else do you want me to do? Look at me.

Make a damn look at me.

Look around me.

Get down here, sir.

One more bottle of wine.

$4 .30, please.

What's all? $4 .30.

$10 .00, please.

Sir, I need a bottle of wine.

Sir, I need a bottle of wine.

Get your mustard in.

Sir, get your mustard in.

Sir, get your mustard in.

Get your mustard in.

Get over there.

Get over there.

One more bottle of wine.

Give him anything.

I said, I don't get it.

What else do you want? You're dead.

What else do you want? What else do you want? Thank you very much.

Are you waiting on church? You man, are you waiting on church? No, I'm at the Poonon Rye.

The Poonon Rye.

Good morning, sir.

Sir, he's going to have a race.

Egg, wheat, what else, babe? I would like to have a corned beef sandwich on rye and no mustard.

Identifier

F.2013-08-0047

Date Of Production

1976

Abstract

For 29 years Jerry Meyers has screamed and yelled at the customers who came into his deli – the film attempts to explain why people keep coming back for more.

"A top award for the Fastest Camera in the Midwest. To have captured the essence of Jerry and his deli-in-action proves this filmmaker one of the few who can make the documentary a high art form, comparable to the best portraiture painting; and taking it, possibly, one step farther." —Larry Jordan, Judge

Awards: Ann Arbor Film Festival and Tour; First Prize (short film category), Bellevue Film Festival.
(Canyon Cinema)

Run Time

0:08:58

Format

16mm

Extent

400 feet

Color

Color

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

No

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Print

Genre

Documentary

Form

Short

Subject

Food
City and town life

Related Collections

SERIES I: Finished Films by Tom Palazzolo

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

Main Credits

Palazzolo, Tom (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers

Meyers, Jerry (is interviewee)

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