They Have Some of the Better Jobs of Summer : Glamour, Prestige and Training Make Up for the Low Pay

Teddy Tenenbaum can barely keep his enthusiasm in check when he talks about his summer job as a tour guide at Universal Studios. “It’s better than I thought it would be. It’s just like acting. And today we saw the filming of ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ and I saw Burt Reynolds’ car. This is definitely glamorous.”

Tenenbaum is one of the fortunate young people who have summer glamour jobs. Others, including a lifeguard, Hollywood Bowl usher, senatorial intern and day-camp counselor, have their own definitions of what makes summer jobs glamorous, but there are some similarities.

Potential for Socializing

There has to be an element of fun, even if the work itself is difficult, they say, and working outdoors, especially at the beach, is a big plus. Landing a job at a prestigious law firm or corporation is considered a coup, as is making a salary way above minimum wage. And there should be some potential for socializing after work.

The true test, of course, is if it makes at least one person insanely jealous.

Tenenbaum, 18, learned of the job at Universal Studios over the public address system at Taft High School in Woodland Hills. “I’ve loved movies since I was a little kid,” he explained. “(During training) it was really fun to read stories about how Hitchcock filmed.”

With every tour, Tenenbaum said he learns more about handling different groups. The lively ones get a heavy dose of puns, which he calls “groaners,” while the sedate groups sit back and listen to the rehearsed rap about the studio, without the jokes. “Usually I get applause at the end,” he said, “but then there are always people afterward who ask the strangest questions, like, ‘Do you know where Michael J. Fox lives?’ Like I really know.”

Unglamorous Realities

For every Teddy Tenenbaum there are hundreds of other young adults who are slinging hash at fast-food restaurants this summer.

“Kids are always going to want to be aerobics instructors or work the front-office reception in an elegant law office, but the realities indicate that most of the youngsters are placed in concessions in amusement parks, fast-food places, generally service jobs,” said Eleanor Torguson, coordinator of First Break, a 13-year-old program that places students from 16 to 20 in summer jobs. It is a cooperative effort of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce that also teaches students how to apply for a job and how to behave once they’re there.

About 1,500 companies from Chatsworth to San Pedro offered 11,500 jobs to young people this summer, ranging from clerical work at large corporations to waiting tables. The companies benefit because “they get youngsters who are enthusiastic and are so willing to go the second mile,” Torguson said. “The kids get to see how a business is run. They want to prove they’re young adults. And then they have the tangible results--money that they can spend.”

With the 1985 teen unemployment rate in Los Angeles County at 22.7% (compared to 7% for adults), the competition for jobs is fierce among a generation Torguson describes as increasingly sophisticated.

“It seems to be that they don’t view the job market as mowing lawns and having a paper route,” she said. “Many have computers at home, so stepping into a computer data job is easy. I’m amazed by it. It’s the kind of sophistication we didn’t have when I was in high school, when working at J. C. Penney’s bargain basement was a big deal.”

Sixteen-year-old Clancy Drake, who got her job at Lockheed’s Calabasas office through the First Break program, spends 40 hours a week doing general office work in the company’s human resources department. Her pay is $160 a week.

Office Protocol

“The corporate structure is something I never knew about before,” said Drake, who will be a senior at Taft High School this fall. “I’m learning the etiquette and the protocol of an office, how not do to things like keep your boss waiting or hang up on the company vice president.”

Louise Rubin, supervisor of personnel for the accounting firm Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co., said, “The students we have had have been tremendous. Most of them are coming from homes where funding is needed to support future education. Because the desire to continue with schooling is so great, the desire to work is also great. They have a definite goal. And they’re in a professional atmosphere where there are a lot of industrious people around.”

Often students come back and work holidays and subsequent summers, Rubin added. Nancy Leog, 21, did so; this is her fifth summer working in the central file room and as a receptionist. She recently graduated from Pepperdine University and plans to go into broadcast journalism--a profession seemingly unrelated to accounting. Yet Leog maintains, “(Through this job) I’ve learned to communicate better with people. If you’re a real hard worker, it’s good for both you and the company.”

Diane Martinez, 20, walked into the employment office at Knott’s Berry Farm hoping for a job in the petting zoo. But she turned out to be the right height (5 feet, 2 inches) for the Snoopy costume, so now Martinez handles ferrets, possums and a timber wolf in two of the park’s shows: “Snoopy’s Diving Doggies” and “Snoopy’s Animal Friends.”

Martinez, a student at Cerritos College, wants to be a veterinarian, and it’s the animals that most interest her, though she says performing has its merits. “I’m kind of a shy person and in the costume I can watch people and see how they react to the animals. Plus, the job is helping me decide what kind of job I eventually want to have, whether I want to work with livestock or exotic animals or marine animals.”

Susan Friedman is getting a start in journalism through her summer unpaid internship at California Apparel News, a trade publication with offices in downtown Los Angeles. The 17-year-old graduate of Grant High School in Van Nuys is bound for San Diego State University this fall, where she plans to major in telecommunications and film.

Valuable Experience

So far, the two-day-a-week job has been interesting, Friedman said. She’s assisted editors on fashion shoots, talked to clothing manufacturers in New York and may start writing soon. She also is getting used to the exhaustion that comes after eight hours of work and a one-hour commute home. Though not being paid “is sometimes kind of annoying,” she said she realizes the experience is valuable.

To supplement her lack of income there, Friedman works as an usher at the Hollywood Bowl, earning minimum wage--$3.35 an hour. This is her third summer at the Bowl, and the job has made her a fan of classical music and jazz, she said.

Across the country in Washington, Dan Ivey-Soto, 19, is spending his second summer at the Capitol. Last year he was an intern for a Texas congressman and this year he is working for Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) researching legislation, monitoring meetings, running errands and answering phones. He is on a Lowenstein fellowship (named for the late New York Congressman Allard K. Lowenstein) for which he is paid $150 a week. “This is not glamorous pay,” he said, adding that he does like the work. “I’m meeting some of the most influential people in the country.”

But when the Claremont resident and student at Cal Poly Pomona got his first taste of the Capitol’s inner workings last year, he said some of his idealism about politics was shattered. It has since been replaced with a better understanding of how the political process works.

Anita M. Cooper, 22, knew she wanted to be a performer before she started working in Disneyland parades three years ago. Intent on pursuing a career in show business (she’s done a commercial, has been an extra and is up for a part in a movie), Cooper finds that working at Disneyland is simply a smaller-scale version of the big time.

“A lot of people tell me I’m getting paid for doing nothing,” said the Compton resident who performs in Disneyland’s “Totally Minnie” parade and whose job may continue into the fall. “But I am doing something: I’m giving a show for the people in the park. It’s good to get in there and get a foot in the door. This is learning the business of the business. I’ve auditioned for other shows at Disneyland and didn’t get parts. And it’s the same way in Hollywood.”

Even a job that is not remotely related to a future career can have merit. Alison Kent, 21, is a journalism major at Pepperdine and hopes to be in television news one day. This summer she is a camp counselor.

Her weekdays are spent at Camp Cottonwood, a “creative arts” day camp in the hills near Pacific Palisades. Kent’s job is to haul campers to the beach in a bus, then spend hours with them swimming, sailing, roller skating, body surfing and playing in the sand. She also acts as a surrogate mother when there’s a cut or bruise. “You go home dirty, but with a smile on your face. You feel you’ve accomplished something,” she said. “The kids are so curious, so honest. You do have a lot of responsibility, though. You have to be on your toes all the time.”

Academia to the Beach

Similarly, Mike Hoover doesn’t want to be a professional lifeguard, but the 19-year-old economics major from the University of Massachusetts was happy to trade the Eastern life of academia for the sunny shores of Santa Monica for one summer. He came west to play on a local water polo team, then decided to try out for a summer job with the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.

He calls it a “classy organization” and added, “I like being on the beach. You also get a good feeling at the end of the day that you’ve accomplished something. And there’s always something different going on.”

Beach jobs have a certain cachet, even if the work is mundane. Jorge O’Leary, manager of the members-only Sand and Sea Club in Santa Monica, is the first to admit that working there is no easy ride. “Most people who apply come in with a different idea of what they’re going to be doing, like working on their tans and looking at girls in their bikinis--which they do, but we also demand they put in a hard day’s work. Still, they love it, the whole idea of working on the beach. On the breaks they all take a dip in the ocean.”

Tom Kallay, a member of the club’s beach crew, said he’s willing to put up with certain unpleasant aspects of the job for one reason: the beach.

“I carry out chairs and get umbrellas and back rests for people, clean up the beach,” said Kallay, 16, soon to be a junior at Santa Monica High School. “But some of the people treat me like some invisible servant who carries chairs and umbrellas. You just have to put up with them and just refrain from saying anything. But I like to surf, and sometimes I get to do that afterward. I just love the beach. The pay is really good for a job like this, $4.25 an hour.”

What qualities do employers look for when screening applicants for glamour jobs?

O’Leary said he looks for “someone who has a good work ethic and isn’t too squeamish about cleaning. Some kids don’t associate the idea of cleaning with themselves, only with maids.”

At Universal Studios Tours, where the minimum age for employment is 17, management looks for “extremely outgoing, well-groomed” people, according to Mike Sington, director of tour-guide recruitment, training and performance. Almost all applicants, he added, are either aspiring actors, producers or directors, or have encyclopedic knowledge of the film business. Competition is tight; out of 3,000 applicants for work this summer only 50 made the final cut.

“None of the people are working for the money,” Sington said, pointing out that salaries start at $4.25 an hour and go to $8.60 an hour for permanent guides. But there is one priceless perquisite: Tour guides have full access to the studio lots when they’re not working.

Despite the low pay, Teddy Tenenbaum is planning to return to work at Universal on holiday breaks from UC Berkeley, where he will be studying business. “If they need me, I’ll work Christmas, spring break. . . . Even the training has been fun. Everyone thinks this is a great job.”