<I>DAMIAN MULINIX photo</I><BR>Friends of Len Williams help him move out some old seats from the Neptune Theater Tuesday morning. The theater is getting new seats this month.

LONG BEACH – Next time you see a movie at the Neptune Theater and over-indulge in popcorn and Raisinettes, you may notice something – a little extra room in your seat.

After 20 years, the Neptune Theater is in the process of installing new, wider seats, many of which recline.

This came about by chance for owner Bud McKay, who heard from the woman who books his movies that a theater in the Seattle area was closing and the seats inside were being surplused. And with a price tag of “free,” McKay couldn’t help but take advantage of such an opportunity.

“Simply the right place at the right time,” said McKay. “They said they were going to knock the theater down and if we wanted some seats we gotta come and get ’em.”

This has led McKay on a few road trips in the last week, as he has driven a moving truck back and forth to pick up loads of seats. He said he can fit more than 100 in each load and is planning to bring in around 330 total.

And he’s not doing it alone. McKay has received a good deal of help from people attached to his boxing club, which meets upstairs at the cinema. His assistant boxing coach Bill Rayburn has made a few trips with him and his boxing students have helped unload upon return.

“It took us 11 hours to bring the first truck down, to haul ’em out of that theater and get ’em in the truck and down here,” he said. “I had my nine boxers waiting down here on this end.”

The seats being replaced are elementary school-style with little folding tables. They are also only 18-inches wide, as opposed to 20 on the new ones.

“That’s a little too narrow for a lot of us customers,” he said with a laugh. “Some customers aren’t sitting too well in 18s anymore, at least comfortably.”

The smaller theater room will be fully-equipped with reclining seats and the larger theater room will be half-filled with the same, the rest being stationary.

Thus far getting rid of the older chairs hasn’t been a problem for McKay, who has been giving them away to anyone who wants them.

“The kite museum came and took a few. I’ve been talking to customers every night and losing two or three sets a night,” he said. “They’re taking them for their TV rooms.”

On Tuesday morning, Len Williams came by and took about a dozen seats for his home.

“We have what was a karate dojo up on China Hill. The grandchildren have a rock and roll band and I’m putting it in for extra kids chairs,” said Williams.

McKay said he’d love it if more people did the same, saying, “Come and get’em, everything’s free, just take’em. The last thing I want to do is have to discard’em.”

McKay figures it will take a few weeks to complete the make-over, with the bigger theater room hopefully completed by the end of the month. The process of bolting them to the floor will also feature a change from the current set up, with the chairs being set up continental-style, so that seats are no longer directly in front of each other, providing a better view of the screen. And despite the fact that both theater rooms are missing some chairs right now, McKay says it has not and will not hamper his being able to seat all customers who come in during the project.

“We’ve left the center section intact. When we start doing the switch in here, we’ll do the sides and as we do that, we’ll start doing the prime seating in the back and then in the front,” he said. “It’s just a matter of staying on the screen and working at night.”