"They'd better be worth it," she said anxiously.
"Didn't you see that line when you brought me breakfast? Eight blocks! Hundreds and hundreds of people all trying to get to see the first performance."
"That doesn't mean a thing," she said. "After all, no one's ever seen the complete movie—"
"It's not a movie," he corrected.
"All right, the complete whatchamacallit. No one's ever seen the complete thing—not even the people who made it. So how do you know it's good?"
"Believe me, honey, this is going to be the greatest ever!"
On Wednesday, April 25, 1973, at 7:30 in the evening, the Hendriks stood in the midst of a vast crowd that thronged the open plaza before the Ultrarama Theater. The theater itself was a towering edifice that had been built just for this production; it was one of the world's most impressive buildings.
"All right, all right," a policeman shouted. "Ticket-holders come this way. The rest of you stay back."
They cleared a channel through the mob and the Hendriks, along with several hundred other early arrivees, followed along to the door of the vast theater.