Nostalgia on Tour

We read with great nostalgia the article April 17 by Michael Arkush about Universal Studios tour guides.

In 1975, when Universal Studios Tours was in its infancy, we and our college roommates decided to become tour guides. We simply drove up the back way (behind the studios, where there is now employee parking) and parked in an open field. We were able to walk straight across this field onto the Universal lot and up to a group of trailers serving as personnel offices. We proceeded to tell a confused young lady behind a stack of unsorted applications that all three of us had been called up by personnel to begin tour guide training.

Of course, she could not find our names on any of the lists she checked. But because the place was such a mess and she was so utterly disorganized, she believed us and placed us in training that very day.

We worked several years at Universal. Even nearly 20 years later, we still laugh about our experiences there. Those young people chosen for the job will get much more than $5.75 an hour--a lifetime of memories and possibly years of a heck of a lot of fun.

The only thing we don’t understand is why guides today are making the same as we did 20 years ago.

JULIE WARD SPIGELMAN

Agoura Hills

LAURIE SHEPARD SWANSON

Sylmar