Cellular? It’s a Growing Hang Up

Got a cellular phone, dude? Better check it in at the counter.

Theaters, restaurants and other businesses are increasingly banning the portable phones, as customers complain of the impolite user.

“They say they need them. Suddenly everyone’s a doctor,” said manager Fredd Selgas of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, where patrons are urged to check their phones at the door.

Complaints about people taking calls in the middle of movies led to a ban on the phones at all 18 Florida theaters owned by Wometco.

“Let’s face it,” Wometco general manager John Wray said. “You’re in the middle of a tense love scene and someone’s phone rings, and a guy says, ‘Hi, sweetheart. How’re you doing?’

“We feel that it’s a disturbing effect to the patrons and, as a courtesy, they should not bring their phones in.”

With the use of cellular phones increasing, cities may take legislative action. In the Florida Statehouse, the phones are banned from Senate and House floors, as well as in the public galleries above.

The problem in the future could get out of hand.

“It could be like smoking--they’ll have a phone section and a non-phone section,” said Alfonso Blanco, manager of a cellular phone store.