The Harvey A. Jordan architected Chisholm Trail Drive-In was named after its owner, Mr. E. Chisholm who announced the project in March of 1959 and had a grand opening on May 21, 1959. The Chisholm Trail was at 3001 East Main Street bounded by railroad tracks and Main Street and getting additional traffic from Jefferson Avenue. Opening first features on the 40' by 80' screen were “Forest Rangers” and “Wells Fargo.” Chisholm veered the theater toward families and children. Competition was just down to the east with the Twin Drive-In and then further down to the east was the Jefferson D.I. Trains would constantly appear to blow through the Chisholm’s drive-in tower with loud noise and rumbling during screenings. The Chisholm struggled and Woodland Hills Mayor Arthur Avnsoe took over the theater in 1962. The theater’s view toward busy E. Main St. and noise and rumblings – not from the trains – but within the cars at the drive-in appears to have unseated the Chisholm.
Attention about a jury trial over the theater’s showing of “Europe in the Raw” on July 16, 1963 caused a chain reaction. Though the drive-in prevailed having not violated the 1961 anti-obscenity act, public furor didn’t subside. Chemline Inc. – operators of the nearby Twin Drive-In – decided to challenge the Constitutionality of the city’s ordinance which drew an overflow audience to the courtroom. A psychiatrist from Austin explained the dangers of screen leakage on drivers. The anti-obscenity act was upheld which gave residents some teeth in the matter. Not one but 15 petitions flowed to Grand Prairie Mayor C.P. Waggoner with over 1,000 signatures about lewd and obscene films showing at the Chisholm in 1964. Facing mounting public relations backlash for public nuisance and causing inattentive driving habits, the Chisholm’s operator had an opportunity.
First, Avnsoe would move to the newly built Country Squire Drive-In just south of Dallas' Redbird Airport on U.S. 67. As for the Chisholm, veteran theater operator J.J. Rodriguez of the Panamericano in Dallas was convinced by businessmen to convert his Spanish language Panamericano Theater to an art house/restaurant/night club called the Festival. This would require the Panamericano to shut down in early 1965 to convert the space. Rodriguez took on the Chisholm in March 1965 to continue his bookings of Spanish Language films. Rebranding the ozoner as the Auto Vista, Rodriguez opened March 29, 1965 with “La Bandida” and “Suenos de Oro.” Rodriguez operated the theater for one season but closed the theater not long after the Festival launched.
Charles Weisenburg added the Auto Vista the next season in his circuit of Weisenburg Theaters. He rebranded the Auto Vista as the East Main Drive-In and switched it back to English language films. Weisenburg dropped the East Main but the McLendon Theater Circuit would take over the East Main shortly thereafter in 1969 hoping to turn it in to a twin screener. McLendon had recently purchased the Downs Drive-In in Grand Prairie and would convert it to the renamed, multi-screen Century Drive-In in 1970. The circuit had also converted the single screen Garland Road Drive-In into the three-screen Apollo Drive-In. McClendon took over the Plano Drive-In retaining its name and converting it to a three-screen operation. McClendon’s ozone portfolio entering the 1970s was the Astro, Apollo, Gemini, Century, and East Main. That didn’t last long for one property and it was the East Main on the chopping block.
The East Main space was tight and McLendon decided to hold off on twinning the theater. As an underachiever for three previous owners, McLendon reduced the theater to discount status playing exploitation double and triple features or third-run major features to an admission price of just 99 cents per carload. The experiment ended in 1971 as McLendon quietly dropped the theater. A look at the theater at historical aerials.com in 1972 shows the first “bite” already removed from the theater with its demolition to follow. Three names, five owners and not much success for the Chisholm Trail /Auto Vista/ East Main in a 12-year period.
The Twin Hi-Ways Drive-In Theater opened in June 26, 1955 at 4800 E. Main St. in Grand Prairie. with “Duel in the Sun” and “The Long Wait” on its single screen. The Twin confusingly opened as a single-screen theater named after the two roadways that the drive-in was near in Loop 12 and Highway 80. Patrons could enter from Highway 80 / Main St. or Jefferson St.. that bounded both sides of the theater. Because the theater pre-dated the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike during its first two years of operation, loads of traffic passed by the theater.
Its competition came from the Jefferson Drive-In about 2.5 miles to the east. In its first years of operation, the Twin played second-run double features. Unlike the Jefferson whose screen was shielded from ongoing cars, the Twin Hi-Ways had its screen facing the highway which led to myriad accidents including fatalities. This was an awful situation that just got worse. Two weeks after the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike opened routing traffic to what is now Interstate 30, mother nature spoke. A wind storm knocked the Twin’s theater screen down on September 11, 1957. Unfortunately, the owners doubled down and created a two-screen theater rebuilding the “East Screen” with 750 spots and the new, “West Screen” opening July 18, 1958 with 500 spots. “Peyton Place” opened on East Screen and “God’s Little Acre” with “Across the Bridge to Mexico” inaugurated the West Screen. The theater’s official name was now Twin Drive-In Theatres often referred to as The Twin and both screens carried double-features with newer content on East Screen. Both screens faced Highway 80 making even more unsafe traffic conditions than before. And this nightmarish situation even got worse yet.
In 1959, new competition from the family-oriented Chisholm Trail Drive-In (renamed the Auto Vista and then the East Main) less than two miles to the west. With competition fierce, Chemline, the operators of the Twin. Chemline made a momentous decision late in 1962 to turn East Screen into an adult screen. People too afraid or cheap to buy a ticket parked on the shoulder or in the ditches along Highway 80 and, upon completion of viewing, would pull out slowly onto the highway. Drivers not expecting cars pulling from the shoulder or a ditch and possibly with their eyes on the drive-in screen faced myriad near misses, as well as serious and fatal accidents along the stretch. On December 4, 1962 police seized seven “girlie” films and would charge the operators with a “public showing” of lewd content. The operators were able to previal in a lower court decision as a First Amendment violation and appealed licensing fees as a tax upon the right of free communication. The Chisholm Drive-In would also experiment with adult content doing brisk business with “Europe in the Raw” in 1963 as Chemline’s case proceeded.
In 1964, 15 petitions were handed to Grand Prairie Mayor C.P. Waggoner with over 1,000 signatures. With a public relations disaster on their hands, the theaters went two different directions. The Chisholm operator moved away from Grand Prairie to Dallas and created a new drive-in to show adult fare. A new operator rebranded the Chisholm as the Autovista playing Hispanic-oriented films. The Twin’s Chemline, meanwhile went all in with a court battle drawing an overflow crowd and a psychiatrist from Austin explaining the dangers of screen leakage on drivers and youth, alike. Chemline got a big win and a slight loss in November of 1964 with the case appealed on both counts. On July 6, 1966, Chemline finally lost at the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Chemline v. City of Grand Prairie. But the four-year battle saw four more years of traffic problems.
Following its loss, the Twin appeared to have taken a low-key philosophy discontinuing show listings and advertising. Hopes to move away from anything other than adult films was challenged when the three-screen Astro moved in less than five miles away in 1968 near Loop 12 and the 303. According to the police blotter, adult films are stolen from the theater’s projection room in 1968 and 1970. Since incomplete reels were taken in the heists, it was apparent that the thieves didn’t want the theater playing adult content more than the thieves wanting incomplete copies of features. The Twin’s East Screen appears to have been retired toward the end of the theater’s run. The entire operation appears to have closed not long after two big robberies in November and December of 1970. That also times out with the end of a 15-year lease which likely was the end of Twin.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike would become a “free” interstate in 1978 decimating traffic and property values around the Twin in the late 1970s. Today, the Twin’s East Screen has junked cars for an auto salvage yard and the West Screen has returned to vacancy as of the mid-2010s and can be found across from the Sunset Golf Club in Grand Prairie. A year after the Twin closed, its competition to the west – the East Main Drive-In which was playing super low-cost double-feature sub-runs and triple-feature sub-sub or exploitation runs (former Chisholm / former Autovista) closed after the 1971 season leaving just the Jefferson Drive-In along this stretch. The Jefferson would operate until 1990 with the Astro going all the way to 1998.
The fast-growing AMC Theater chain wanted to follow up its game-changing AMC Northtown 6 and its follow-up AMC Northwood Hills 4 with another 42 screens with 10,000 seats in Dallas-Fort Worth during the 1971 calendar year. Also fast-growing was the community of Arlington, TX and a heavyweight battle was being waged at the end of the 1960s as two competing malls were being built within five miles of each other in Arlington. General Cinema and AMC wanted to be near or in these new malls.
The battle: in one corner – at U.S. 80 and Texas 360 – was a mall planned by veteran shopping center group Homart Development and executed by Monumental Properties. That mall had a nice design, good traffic flow, well devised parking plans, some landscaping, and three A+ anchors for the time in Sears, Sanger-Harris, and JC Penney’s. With 97% occupancy at its grand opening on August 5, 1970, architect Harwood K. Smith used Texas sun tones, tropical greenery and architectural flourishes to serve as a harmonic showcase for the area. The mall — built upon 80 acres home formerly to the historic Downs Racetrack – had a design using the area’s fun sensibilities and was called the Six Flags Mall. Outside of the shopping mall was an area called The Village, an external shopping center is the area housed by Cinema I & II by General Cinema.
In the other corner less than three miles south was a mall at the confluence of N. Forum Drive, Spur 303, Highway 360, and E. Arkansas Lane. The gangly over-sized mall went up in stages with the first store opening in Halloween of 1969 and its name was the Forum 303 Mall probably because the name, “Forum-303-360-Arkansas Mall” seemed too long. The 120-acre facility by Alpert Investment Corp. had Montgomery Wards along with Meacham’s and Leonard’s Department Store as its original anchors. The mall would also have an amphitheater called The Forum with 320-seats which had two airplane-fin-like skylights sculptures designed by artist Doris Marie Leeper. The odd art objects would spell out Forum Mall in a serif font with gaudy purple coloring.
Phase I of the mall launched on Halloween 1969 with Leonard’s opening despite the mall being under construction. The parking and traffic flow was curious and under-thought given the minimal entrance/exit access points. While Six Flags had a uniform and coordinated grand opening, the Forum 303 launched between September and December of 1971 as stores came on line unevenly. Other plans for the mall including a hotel and office space just never happened. With all of the A+ stores, major publicity, uniform starting date and the overall architectural design all going to the heavyweight Six Flags Mall, one wondered how the area could support this second chump mall to say nothing of the new malls also opened in 1971 — to the north in Irving and Hurst (Northeast Mall).
Within the mall was an attraction point: a six-screen multiplex cinema run by AMC starting on October 13, 1971. AMC had done great business in the area with its Dallas-based Northtown Mall Cinema 6. And one thing going for the new Forum 6 was that you couldn’t really miss the ticket booth which had a John Geoffrey Naylor two-ton four-sided sculpture of polished aluminum and plexiglass suspended with nearly invisible wires above it in the 40' ceiling height entrance area. A wild, matching ticket booth constructed of stainless steel and aluminum strips was built to aesthetically match the decor. The booth was detached but placed diagonally and adjacent to the theater. The sculpture and ticket booth made an impact on movie goers. Yet, with the Forum 303’s idiosyncrasies and lack of execution at its opening, nobody would blame AMC if it simply honored its ten-year lease and vacate the mall.
But AMC proved popular in part because it had six new film options compared to just two at nearby Six Flags and one at the nearby GCC Park Plaza. Midnight shows which would eventually include “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” added a cool element. Dillard’s proved to be a hit taking over Leonard’s, concerts drew crowds at the Forum amphitheater, a super arcade drew people, an ice skating rink was a nice touch, and Picadilly Cafeteria proved to be a winner for the mall. In fact, AMC re-upped for another 10-year lease and announced that it would build another six-screen theater holding 1,800 patrons as a standalone operation adjacent to the Forum along with a motor bank, restaurants and other retail to open in the Summer of 1980. It was actually General Cinema that was losing the fight as the theater would tack on three more cinemas in its substandard Six Flags location.
Potential trouble for the Forum 6 was around the corner as Loews had opened the Lincoln Square to the North, UA launched the Bowen to the southwest, AMC built its Green Oaks 8 to the southwest, and General Cinema would open an eight screener to the southwest. The economic tides were turning as Interstate 20 was being built opening in 1987 making a retail nexus in south Arlington. It was fortunate that the external six-screener didn’t happen as especially devastating to the AMC Forum was Homart Corp. which opted to build the Parks Mall opening in 1988. That mall would decimate foot traffic split amongst the two aging Arlington malls. Six Flags would counter with a $20 million facelift including the addition of a Dillard’s store. The Forum 303 would add a hastily-crafted Farmer’s Market.
Yet more competition for the movie dollar came along I-20 as Cinemark opening a megaplex in Grand Prairie in Nov. 1989. With most original tenant mall leases and re-ups coming due including Picadilly Cafeteria and the AMC Forum, the mall’s fortunes were fading at precisely the wrong time. Following the 20-year mark, the Forum Mall was heading toward greyfield status, a term for dying malls with vacant storefronts. Dillard’s downgraded its store to a clearance center but AMC re-upped again for ten years in 1991.
By 1993, the mall was on vapors and the FDIC overtook the mall. Never a good sign. The FDIC identified a new owner in Fuller/DDM. Film producer Bob Yari took on the mall in 1994 changing the name to the Forum Value Mall as Dillard’s Clearance Center and lesser independents moved into the plentiful empty spaces. The AMC property was looking dated and dying in a multiplex world. United Artists opened to the east with its Grand Prairie theater and to the west with its Eastchase theater. In 1997, the mall spent $3.5 million to convert to the Festival Marketplace, a bazaar concept with tiny vendor spaces for everything from computer repair to incense to car radios officially launching May 21, 1998 in hopes of masking the empty spaces. The Bazaar concept was like a hastily-crafted flea market and AMC – now facing yet more competition in the form of a nine-screen Cinemark Tinseltown inside of Six Flags Mall — would leave the building and anchor Service Merchandise shuttered. Certainly, the cinematic days were behind the Festival Marketplace. By decade’s end, the Festival Marketplace became the Festival Discount Mall and shedded even more stores including original tenants Picadilly Cafeteria and Montgomery Ward’s. The mall was now in greyfield status.
But to Yari’s credit, two different operators would take on the former AMC theater, simply chipping the AMC sign off of the theater and operating as the Forum 6. The theaters’ original AMC cupholders and seating would survive to the theater’s end. The operator of the independent Park Plaza would close up shop there on Feb. 28, 2002 and take on the Forum 6 as its last operator. The mall was no longer open seven days a week yet the cinema remained a seven-day-a-week operation. On certain weeknights, all of the parking lights in the complex and most of the mall lights were off but the theater was still functioning in almost unbelievable conditions. Parking lot potholes, abandoned graffiti-filled motor bank and store anchors, weeds in the parking lot, and totally faded parking lines were no match for the determined theater operation which continued as a first-run house despite the Cinemark competition up the road.
In October of 2004, the air conditioning system failed at the Festival Discount Mall and the owners just didn’t want to spend the money to repair it. Dillard’s Clearance Center would move out choosing the also-dying Six Flags Mall and when the warm weather came at the end of May 2005, everyone was told to pack up and go. They were given a mere five days’ notice. And of course that was the end of the entire mall including the Forum 6 cinema.
Or was it? Almost unbelievably, the Forum 6 brought in a portable air conditioning system and, despite a condemned mall property, somehow soldiered on now with no parking lights on at night. A bizarre situation akin to the struggles of the Fox Theatre in Toledo’s Woodville Mall if not other dying malls. The phone’s message featured a warning at its tag, “We’re going to be forced to close soon, so please come on over.” And weeks stretched to months as the very lightly trafficked theater limped to its closure on August 18, 2005 with “The Dukes of Hazzard”, “Sky High”, “The Island”, “Stealth”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and “Bad News Bears”.
In the final chapter, just outside the AMC Forum, six piles of theater chairs and AMC cupholders were respectfully placed in the decrepit parking lot representing each of the auditoriums. Also in the pile was anything metal including 35mm film rewinders and other equipment. The failure fence told the story as the faded mall was demolished including Looper’s original airplane fin skylights and the Forum 6 theaters. While Cinemark won the heavyweight battle at Six Flags Mall, that mall would also shutter virtually every other store other than Dillard’s Clearance store due, in part, to a failed air conditioning system (it would relaunch in 2014 as the Plaza Central). How the Forum cinema survived 34 years is something of a mystery. But in this fight, the Forum proved to be a plucky contender.
D.L. Wood opened the Palace Theater late in 1913. The theater at the southwest corner of what were Main and Mechanic streets in Plano was open seven-days-a-week through its entire run with a Saturday matinees. The advertisements proclaim that the theater was cooled with “plenty of electric fans.” That was good because the only other theater in town was an aerodome to the north which was an outdoors operation. The theater was sold to O.B. Hancock who made many improvements to the facility. The theater’s continuous lifespan appears to be exactly 40 years with advertisements running in the Plano Star-Courier from 1914 to 1953. Ads cease after the December 2, 1953 showing of Kiss Me, Kate which times out to two 20-year lease cycles . Ads resume in the mid-1950s and cease again. On August 18, 1957, W.R. Petty reopened the Palace and ads continue through 1961.
he General Cinema Corp.’s (GCC) Six Flags Mall Cinema I & II was announced late in 1969 to be located in the Village adjacent to the Six Flags Mall at the confluence of highways 80 and 360. It would open with the rest of the mall on August 5, 1970. It opened with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” It would be GCC’s second Arlington theater with its nearby GCC Park Plaza Cinema which had opened in May of 1966. The Six Flags theater’s identical 350 seat auditoria had push-back chairs, automated projection equipment, special smoking sections, and an art gallery in the lobby. The mall was planned by veteran shopping center group Homart Development which had an exterior GCC at its Seminary South shopping center and would have exterior GCC theaters at its Town East Mall in Mesquite four years later and also at the Parks Mall in Arlington late in the 1980s. Six Flags’ external shopping area was called “The Village” and the theater could be seen from the northern doors of Sanger-Harris and Sears. A night out at the GCC Six Flags I-II might have also included a low-priced steak dinner at the neighboring York Steak House.
The mall got competition from the Forum 303 mall less than three miles away and the General Cinema. While that mall was underwhelming on a variety of levels, it did feature an interior and superior six-screen AMC theater opening on October 13, 1971. AMC signed a 10-year lease and did such great business with first-run fare and midnight shows that it re-upped for another 10-years and was supposed to build an additional six-screen theater adjacent to the Forum Mall. Fortunately for GCC Six Flags, that project was scrapped. Some of the theater’s biggest hits were “The Godfather,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
General Cinema faced pressure from six-screen multiplexes with both its Town East and Six Flags properties. In both situations, the theaters were retrofitted to become five screen properties. Town East got a poorly executed five-screen shoehorned into its existing space while Six Flags got extra space to tack on the additional screens. Fortunately for Mesquite moviegoers, Town East was then retrofitted to be an improved five-screen experience while the Six Flags Cinema I-V simply coasted to its end at the end of its 20-year lease in August of 1990. AMC would re-up for another lease at the Forum Mall.
The timing of GCC’s departure was curious as the mall, itself, was just completing a major expansion and redesign to compete with the new Parks Mall. But with General Cinemas opening its more modern Arlington Park Square 8 just across the street from the Parks in 1986, the circuit turned its attention there leaving behind both the Park Plaza and Six Flags. The Six Flags cinema became home to short-lived live projects including some wrestling events but for the most part look sad, empty and decrepit over the next 25 years. And fortunately for the Six Flags Mall, the March 28, 1997 launch of the nine-screen Tinseltown USA brought movies back to the Six Flags Mall even after the mall, itself, closed and then re-launched under a different name.
For twenty years, the Six Flags Mall had an external twin-screen turned five-screen General Cinema Theater that competed with the nearby AMC Forum 6 at the same-era Forum 303 Mall. As Arlington grew, theaters sprouted up everywhere: Loews opened the Lincoln Square to the North, UA launched the Bowen to the southwest, AMC built its Green Oaks 8 to the southwest, and General Cinema would open an eight screener to the southwest. As the 1980s concluded, Six Flags Mall was being challenged by the new Parks Mall in Arlington just to the Southwest and had to take action.
The economic tides were turning as Interstate 20 was helping to create a retail nexus in south Arlington entering the 1990s. Six Flags had a major expansion and remodel in 1990 to compete against the Parks. Unfortunately, the veteran General Cinema Six Flags left as the remodel was happening, As more theaters came online including two in Grand Prairie to the southeast, Cinemark stepped in and announced a theater in 1996 which would open in March 28, 1997. The 45,000-square-foot addition to the shopping center would be christened as the Cinemark Tinseltown USA Six Flags Mall 9.
Opening with Selena, Jerry Maguire; Return of the Jedi; Liar, Liar; Jungle 2 Jungle; Donnie Brasco; and The English Patient, the theater boosted optimism for the twenty year old mall. In terms of moviegoing, AMC would leave the Forum which was a shot in the arm to the Tinseltown. When AMC announced a megaplex to be added to the interior of the Parks Mall, Six Flags Mall countered with a $25 million expansion plan including skating rink, free-standing restaurants and expansion of Six Flags’ Cinemark from 9 to 14 screens with an additional 18,639 square fee added.
But Six Flags Mall would go into a nosedive along with the neighboring former Forum turned Festival Mall. Six Flags shedded stores then anchors heading toward greyfield status – a term akin to a dead mall. Tinseltown’s expansion from 9 to 14 screens was featured on the mall directory but never became reality nor did the other promised changes. Penney’s, Foley’s, Sears, and Dillards – the primary four anchors – all left with Dillards returning with a low-priced outlet store. The Festival would be closed in May of 2005 which may have prolonged the agony facing the Six Flags Mall. Attempts to revive the Penney’s anchor met with failure and the mall flailed. Yet, despite Six Flags obvious-to-all forthcoming demise, Cinemark just kept drawing huge crowds in the ghost town mall.
As the 2010s opened, Six Flags Mall was toast. The air conditioning failed and all of the stores in the middle were closed and access was only allowed to the food court, cinema, and Dillards anchor. In December of 2012, Six Flags Mall was sold to Noble Crest which renamed the mall, “Plaza Central,” a lackluster effort to convert the space to a vibrant Hispanic mall. As of the mid-2010s, the mall had reopened but was a surreal shopping experience in which anyone could walk through the closed stores and make a deal to launch a store at a bargain leasing rate. Using low-cost first-run pricing, Cinemark shrugged off the disaster that was the Six Flags Mall / Plaza Central in its infancy and continued to pack in crowds. An odd success in a wildly unsuccessful shopping center. And as of 2015, the circuit still hadn’t acknowledged the Six Flags Mall name change to Plaza Central as the new mall owners struggled mightily to create an inviting shopping experience.
The fourth Angelika outside of New York was designed by veteran art cinema architect Frank Dagdagan. Angelika called this theater more refined though the “bohemian aesthetic” was still present with raw materials, wood floor at the first level, exposed concrete floor at the second level and exposed ceilings. Furniture and artwork still maintain the attitude of Angelika sought in both design and film selection.
In 1998 and 1999, announcements that two new-build art theaters were coming to town in the Landmark West Village and the Angelika – Dallas at Mockingbird Station. Dallas had never had a new-build art cinema – though many converted spaces such as the UA Ciné and Silver Cinema’s Inwood Theater both of which were operating at the time of these announcements. This was exiciting despite the fact that the projects fell months and months behind schedule.
At the Landmark West Village, Landmark’s bankruptcy forced the project to stall out and was endangered. The Angelika Dallas at Mockingbird Station was delayed by bad weather but won the race with a grand opening on August 3, 2001. A week later, Magnolia Pictures – just founded then by Bill Banowsky and John Sughrue – would take on the moribund West Village theater project calling it The Magnolia. They would have an outlet for their own film releases and program other art and repertory films. Beck Group – known for many Cinemark theaters through the years – both architected and constructed the theater.
The Magnolia had its grand opening in January of 2002. The swanky second-floor bar well fit the West Village complex in which it was situated providing a revenue stream for the independent theater. It also had one DLP projector for digital screenings – one of only two DFW theaters to boast that technology at that time. This added flexibility to programatic options. And the fledgling circuit would add a second theater to its portfolio in Boulder, Colorado. Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban would found 2929 Pictures and in 2002 invested in Magnolia Pictures. Oaktree Capital took on the cash strapped Silver Cinema circuit allowing for $65,000 refurbishing of the Inwood and it competed with The Magnolia for runner-up arthouse destination to the Angelika’s supremacy.
Wagner and Cuban’s 2929 would buy out Landmark Theatres circuit in October of 2003 giving them an outlet for their films while giving Landmark a much larger cash infusion. The Inwood Theater v. The Magnolia battle would end a month later. In November of 2003, Landmark Theatres acquired Magnolia Pictures and The Magnolia became a Landmark Theatre. This was ironic since the Magnolia started as a Landmark project only to be abandoned by them. The Inwood would get another makeover and eventually repositioned as a first-run house though continuing repertory midnight shows.
In 2005, the theater circuit was first to try “day and date” releases with films opening simultaneously on the Internet and in limited releases in theaters. It would mix in major mainstream releases especially in the summer to draw audiences. In October of 2012, it would gravitate to digital projection in all five theaters with upgraded digital sound. Also new leather-style seats with expanded row widths and leg room along with new carpet and flooring, wall coverings, and expanded gourmet concessions items at the snack bar. As of the mid-2010s, the theater had aged very well remaining a popular spot within Uptown Dallas.
Cinema architect Frank Dagdagan created three Japan theaters and one Hong Kong location for AMC Entertainment International including this entry for the circuit’s second theater in Japan, the AMC Nakama 16. The 16-screen, 57,000 square foot theatre was designed with 2,600-seats and at the time of opening was the largest theatre in Japan. Located at the Daiei-Nakama shopping center groundbreaking was late in 1997 with an opening in November 1998.
The auditorium design gave moviegoers an unobstructed view of the screen and had the AMC LoveSeats with retractable cupholder armrests. All auditoriums will feature Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) and the High Impact Theatre System (HITS) with compound-curved screens. The AMC Canal City 13 theatre in Fukuoka, Japan, was the first AMC theater in Japan theater launching in April 1996.
In 1998 and 1999, announcements that two new-build art theaters were coming to town in the Landmark West Village and the Angelika – Dallas at Mockingbird Station. Dallas had never had a new-build art cinema – though many converted spaces such as the UA Ciné and Silver Cinema’s Inwood Theater both of which were operating at the time of these announcements. And the Anglelika was in good hands with veteran art cinema architect Frank Dagdagan who had done the circuit’s first Texas theater in Houston.
So this was exiciting despite the fact that the projects fell months and months behind schedule. At Mockingbird Station, the $100 million, 10-acre business plus living concept was delayed by bad weather. At the Landmark West Village, Landmark’s bankruptcy forced the project to stall out and was endangered. The Angelika finally had a soft launch on July 27, 2001 with Deep Ellum Film, Music, Arts and Noise Inc. (DEFMAN) presenting free screenings of independent films, “George Washington” and “L.I.E.” The theater then had more free soft launch screenings until it grand opening on August 3, 2001. The theater’s film experience was an instant success and spelled doom for the nearby UA Ciné as well as the Granada Theater.
In addition to art cinema, the theater hosted many major film festivals including USA Film Festival, USA Kidfest, Jewish Film festival screenings, Dallas International Film Festival, Dallas Black Film Festival, and Vistas Hispanic film festival among them.
Downstairs, however, the downstairs cafe by Lisa Kelley featuring risotto cakes , pounded pork medallions and sautéed chicken breast didn’t click with the audience and would soon be downgraded to coffee bar and prepared sandwiches and desserts. Kelley left in less than four months and another chef tried without much success to make the theater a restauarant. And more competition for the art cinema dollar came when new buyers took on the flatlined Landmark West Village opening as the Magnolia Theater in January of 2002. And Angelika would open a West Plano theatre within the DFW market. As of the mid-2010s, all three theaters were operating as full-time art cinemas.
Announced in 2002 as part of the 23-acre Legacy Town Center in West Plano, Angelika’s second Dallas area art theater was set to open in 2003. This was architect Frank Dagdagan’s fourth theater for Angelika. He said that the theater has a bohemian aesthetic with unique art and showcasing raw materials including concrete, steel, two-story wall of glass, wood, marble and bamboo. Like other Angelika’s a large crystal chandelier was featured with this one accented with blue neon. The focal point upon entering is the grand staircase leading both to concession/café/ lounge area and the auditoriums. Black-box style auditoriums featured Dolby Digital sound, stadium seating, retractable armrests with cup holders at each seat, and “wall-to-wall” screens. The two largest houses had all-leather seating.
The delayed theater had a soft launch with the Dallas South Asian Film Festival’s repertory screening of “East is East” on June 21, 2004 and then having its official grand opening on June 23, 2004 with “Fahrenheit 9/11” playing on three of the five screens. The theater was seen as progress for moviegoers not only being Collin County’s first art house but in 1990, the Mayor of Plano kept the film, “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” from being shown in the city saying “I can… understand if you show it in Dallas, Texas. But Plano is a community of suburban families.”
With the AMC Stonebriar just to the North along with the and the wildly successful Cinemark West Plano just to the South, the cinematic dollars were heading North as West Plano / Frisco became DFW’s hottest place to watch new films: mainstream and art, included.
Phil Isley Enterprises opened the Granada Theater, its first in the Dallas market and eighth overall on January 16, 1946 with “Mildred Pierce”. Post-War Dallas saw the rise of new suburban movie theaters which would pressure some of the second-run theaters on downtown Dallas' theater row. The Raymond F. Smith architected theater had 950 seats and a tower with changing neon lights. Isley would soon take on the Rita Theater in East Dallas for its second theater. The Granada was community-minded with benefit screenings, church services, early children’s matinees with yo-yo contests, and some local-interest film choices. It had a thin sliver of the population with the Arcadia to the south, the Gay turned Coronet to the west and joined in October of 1946 by the nearby Wilshire Theater. But Isley was up to the task running a consistent and neighborhood-centered operation.
Almost twenty years into Isley’s operation, he sold the Granada and 12 other theaters in his portfolio to John H. Rowley for $1.5 million. Rowley had just sold out of his Rowley United as that circuit would operate as the southwest region of United Artists (UA). The Granada would be the first group in Rowley’s newly-christened and short-lived Big Tex Theaters before being subsumed by United Artists. Under UA opeation, the Granada lost its way as a number of theaters on the periphery of the Central Zone in Dallas struggled.
Within the C-Zone, newer theaters like the UA Ciné, Medallion, and Northpark I & II got the new films. Veteran Highland Park’s Village got the family films and the Wilshire did great with road shows and first-run bookings. The Arcadia, Coronet, Knox St., Lakewood and Granada flailed to stay relevant just outside of the C-Zone. Pitched as an occasional under-carrier completing UA Ciné roadshow runs including “Far From the Madding Crowd” and “Funny Girl,” UA positioned the Granada as an arthouse and having a big hit with “The Producers.” The start was so good that UA switched names of the veteran Avenue Theater in East Dallas to the Guild Theater to rebrand there as art also.
The Guild failed with art and a company called Guild Art Theater would sublease and reposition the Guild as a porn theater which was very successful. The Granada, too, was failing as the Northpark III & IV came online adding new options for moviegoers. The Guild subleased the Granada from UA taking down posters for the MGM classical musicals in February of 1975 and abruptly switching it to an X with XXX second-show, “hardcore” porn. (The Fine Arts in Snider Plaza had the porno chic single-X audience so the Granada went for a different audience.)
Local shop owners weren’t too thrilled and the police raided theater during its very first week. A petition signed by 1,400 people tried to end the porn and picketers protested. The city put enough pressure on the theater – as well as the nearby adult operator, the Coronet Theater— including raids and daily fines to force a change. Guild Art would sub-sublease the theater to William Smart and a partner in late August 1975 who changed the theater back to a discount house. The first-time operators signed on with New American Cinema – which vacated the Festival Theater – and Zoo-FM, a local rock station which showed music-centric midnight shows during that period. The protests and raids had stopped but so had a viable flow of patrons. The Granada brand was tarnished and the sub-run $1 concept failed within five months. In March of 1976, the Guild came back playing adult films. The Guild left the building under scrutiny and UA subleased the theater to an operator who changed the theater to sub-run discount in November of 1976. Those operators reportedly walked away from the theater January 13, 1977 failing to make rent and UA locked up the property and the lease finally expired. UA left the property.
The next operators spent $50,0000 in the spring and summer of 1977 to convert the Granada to a live event space reducing to 600 seats. The theater opened with Kenny Rogers and soon featuring Muddy Waters with some other impressive acts booked. The venue failed quickly and some promised events at the end didn’t make it to the stage. The changes — including expanded stage — would serve the building well down the line but it was hard to convince lower Greenville residents saddened as the theater was vacant for the second time that year and a sixth-month period into 1978. It had a very uncertain future as theaters including the Esquire and the nearby Wilshire were among the single screen post-War suburban theaters in Dallas being demolished.
But operator Movie Inc. out of New Mexico took on the other neighborhood, former-art-turned-porn-theater in the Coronet creating an oft sold out repertory and cult film establishment. Having just 309 seats, Movie Inc. needed a bigger place so the Edison moved to the Granada Theater on April 20, 1978. The Granada held twice as many people and was more of a nightspot for the target audience. The Edison ran for about a year but with home video coming into vogue, that market was challenging and the Edison ended. A new operator came in who tried eclectic fare and another operator tried an Edison-like movie club concept with 20 repertory films for $25. That didn’t work. In February of 1984, Bill Neal ran the theater running repertory. His last screening was on Oct. 31, 1986 with “The Tingler.” The neighborhood turned out in force with “Save the Granada” signs and a petition with 2,000 signatures opposing the theater’s closing. Times had changed in ten years when picketers tried to close the then-adult house.
The next operator was Keith McKeague and John Appleton of Great Concepts who residents told to not create “another” restaurant, nightclub or bar in the Granada. They launched the Granada Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse with beer as an option while watching second-run movies. Replacing the old rows of seats with dining tables though decreasing the house to 400 seats proved to be a winner. In 1992, Brian Schultz took on the Granada forming Granada Entertainment. In 1997, the Granada reported $2 million in revenue. They parlayed that into the purchase and redesign of a second location, the former UA Prestonwood Creek on Belt Line Road which would have a full kitchen and play first-run films. In 1999, the original Granada changed to first-run films. With competition due from the new Angelika, the Granada closed at the end of March 2001. Schultz’s fledgling Granada Entertainment circuit would soon become the dynamic, multi-state Studio Movie Grill circuit that blossomed in the early 21st Century.
In early 2002, new operators refurbished the Granada taking it back to live concerts including Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Steve Winwood, and Peter Tork of the Monkees. And the theater had football viewing, Oscars parties and even brought cinema classics back showing on the rooftop. As the theater was approaching its 70th anniversary, it was just as vibrant an entertainment spot deftly intertwined with its neighborhood as when it had opened. The Granada proved to be quite the survivor in Dallas’ entertainment history.
In April of 1988, PBA Development Inc., an affiliate of Cinemark Theatres, purchased 8.6 acres from Trammell Crow at the entrance to the 1,000-acre Westchester development at Carrier Parkway and I-20 in Grand Prairie for a 12-screen theater complex. A new theater, it was surmized, would attract people from Arlington, Grand Prairie, DeSoto and possibly South Dallas. On March 9, 1990, the multiplex opened following the previous fall’s opening of the circuit’s Vista Ridge 14 in Lewisville. The theater was a big success and would eventually attract competition.
United Artists decided to challenge Cinemark in three zones: Lewisville, Garland and Grand Prairie. Patterning its Grand Prairie theater after its UA Lakepointe 10 in Lewisville opened in December of 1994, the circuit opened its UA Grand Prairie 10 on August 24, 1995 at 510 Westchester Parkway seating 2,550. Two theaters had 490 seats featuring THX sound systems with all houses having DTS digital stereo. Opening features included Lord of Illusions, The Show, The Amazing Panda Adventure, and Desperado. UA would leave Lewisville while Cinemark downgraded its Garland location to sub-run discount status. That left Cinemark and UA Grand Prairie continuing to compete for clearances for more than 20 years. In the age of the megaplex, these two were among the longest-running same-zone challenge business situations in the DFW area.
AMC would open its new-build AMC at the Parks in Arlington just to the West but these two theaters just kept trucking past their 25th and 20th anniversaries looking virtually unchanged since their openings.
In October of 1995, a Dallas development company announced the 100,000 square foot 5,200 seat 20-screen Cinemark theater project on a 23-acre site just north of the northeast corner of Parker Road and Dallas North Tollway. The larger project extending to the corner would be completed by that development company twenty years later but the Cinemark project, itself, would come on in just over a year once residents’ concerns were addressed by the city council.
The circuit called its Tinseltown USA Plano theater it flagship location as the company would move its headquarters to a neighboring office building. Launching December 20, 1996, the all stadium-seating auditoria ranged in size from 200 to 600 seats each with multichannel sound. An additional Iwerks motion-simulator ride screen had 16 seats opening with “The Red Rock Run” though would be excised once the novelty wore thin. An arcade area —– featured at virtually all Cinemark theaters – fell into controversy when a city rule prohibiting arcades within the tollway corridor was enacted. The arcade would ultimately be replaced by a lounge when the theater was redesigned.
TInseltwon Plano would immediately become the DFW area’s second highest grossing theater behind only the AMC Grand and both AMC and Cinemark would take the momentum to expand in the megaplex era knocking out multiplex-centric General Cinema and counterpunch UA and Loews/Sony in the DFW market. In 1998, Tinseltown USA Plano surpassed the Grand as the highest grossing theater in DFW. And a second Cinemark Plano megaplex, the Legacy, on US-75 delivered stellar results upon its opening in June of 1999.
The Tinseltown USA became an incubator of concepts as the executives could walk over and see the results of concepts. Sneak previews sometimes with stars in attendance took place at the theater. Its moniker would be changed to the Cinemark West Plano and XD and received an incredible makeover with huge self-service concession area, Starbuck’s coffee, a Cinemark Extreme Digital Cinema screen (XD) — the circuit’s first in 2009, a party area next to the XD screen, and would convert from 35mm film to DCP servers projecting digital films and special satellite-fed events including classic film series. In 2014/5, the theater would be joined by eight restaurants built just to the south becoming a desitnation point for foodies and movie fans. Thanks to constant attention and innovative concepts, along with a stellar location, the theater looked to have a vibrant future heading into the 2020s.
For more than 35 years, Garland residents could enjoy drive-in movies at 3159 S. Garland Road. But as the home video era came into being, it was out with the Apollo Drive-In and in with the Wal-Mart 24-hour concept store, the Hypermart which opened at the former drive-in’s spot in 1989. But less than a mile away, movie lovers of Garland were delighted when a 60,000 square foot, 15-screen behemoth known as the Cinemark Hollywood U.S.A. was announced in 1992 just off of I-635 and Shiloh Road. Groundbreaking took place on June 11, 1992 with Cinemark mascot Front Row Joe, Garland’s Mayor Bob Smith, and others. The city teamed up with Cinemark to combine forces on a massive 800-space parking lot which would be used by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) users during the daytime and moviegoers by night. The fact was that nothing was small or understated about the Cinemark Hollywood U.S.A. as it would become the largest megaplex outside of California when it launched at the end of 1992.
The theater opened on December 18, 1992 playing “Home Alone 2” as the first of 14 features. Its lobby featured neon palm trees on the west, a massive concession area, a neon Sunset Boulevard street sign over the arcade, and a Mama Rugi’s pizzeria with large seating area. There was also a 7’-by-7’ (3 monitor by 3 monitor) video screen featuring trailers and live video. That monitor wall would be about the only casualty over the first 30 years of the theater’s operation as the theater remained remarkably consistent (other than two interior concession stands which were retained but not used for many years).
Nothing was subtle in the purple, green and orange color scheme inside or the well-lit ticket area outside which was trying to conjure up Hollywood’s past with homages to Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson, James Dean, Marlene Dietrich among them. Inside, lit frames of classic Hollywood stars were found next to the entrances of the theaters including theaters dedicated to Bogey and the Duke. But on opening night, people were blown away by the talking Front Row Joe trash can which had a variety of random phrases when trash was dispensed with. 23 years later, the trash can amazingly was still around though Joe’s trash-talking were apparently behind it.
The first competition for the USA came on May 21, 1996 when United Artists opened its superior Galaxy just an exit or two to the west of the Cinemark theater. The two battled it out for the best clearances for the next ten years. But with its six THX-certified auditoria — two with 80' screens — the UA Galaxy was a destination complex. More competition came in March of 1998, the mega-large AMC Mesquite 30 opened to the south also along I-635. With all stadium-seating, the megaplex was draining business from both Garland theaters.
Then in 2005, Garland got the high-tech AMC Firewheel 18. The Cinemark Garland was aging quickly as superior theaters were easily reachable via highway and the circuit finally decided to downgrade the theater after 15-years of first-run service to a pretty awesome sub-run discount house. The theater would temporarily drop to just 14-screens as the theater leased out theater one to a non-profit house of worship. It would also try Spanish-subtitled American films for a period to reach the fast-growing Hispanic population in the area. Both concepts didn’t work out and the theater continued as a mainstream dollar house into the mid-2010s. Its biggest change came when the theater was able to make the conversion from scratchy second-run 35mm prints to all-digital projection allowing for 3D exhibition and better quality presentation. While many early 1990s theaters had changed hands or closed altogether, the Cinemark remained vaiable as it neared its 25th anniversary.
In 1983, the fast-gowing Dallas suburb of Carrollton had just surpassed 50,000 citizens and projected to exclipse 80,000 by 1990. In 1970, it had just 13,855 people and was served by a twin-screen drive-in, the Rebel, and an old downtown movie theater, the Plaza. In Carrollton’s growth spurt, the Trinity Mills / Old Denton Road would receive an astonishing 21 movie screens. It would start with General Cinema’s Furneaux Creek Village 7. That would prove so successful that the firm would plop down another theater caddy corner to the Furneaux called the GCC Carrollton Towne Centre 6 – generally known simply as the GCC Carrollton 6. And Cinemark would create its Movies 8 at Trinity Mills positioning it as a sub-run discount house.
Starting with Furneaux Creek, developer Paul Broadhead announced the $12 million Furneaux Creek Village late in 1982. General Cinema Corp. and three restaurants were first announced with the GCC Furneaux Creek Cinemas 7 launching on December 9, 1983. The theater was at 2625 Old Denton Rd. It opened with Yentl, Christine, Sudden Impact, Never Say Never Again, and a Smurfs film. Despite limited street visibility, the theater was an immediate hit as people loved the dining and shopping alternatives including book store in the cozy Furneaux Creek. The shopping center had a subdued architectural feel and the GCC cinema used understated and dark color palette creating a calm and abnormally darker than average lobby environment. GCC would use its business strategy to plop down another multiplex where one was doing brisk business. It had done this at the Town East Mall in Mesquite, Northpak Center and Redbird Mall in the DFW area.
Caddy corner to Furneaux Creek Village, a 182,000 square foot, non-descript shopping strip called Carrollton Towne Centre was announced in 1986. GCC would take a well-hidden 25,175 square foot spot tucked away in the back of that strip. The theater was brighter than its neighbor. That said, the arcitecturally-bland Carrollton 6 matched the benign shopping center launching July 24, 1987. The theater had mediocre sound options and wasn’t a destination theater by any stretch. But GCC had tight control of the Carrollton zone with its 13 screens caddy corner from one another. Success was rather short-lived.
Furneaux Creek’s creator Broadhead had now moved on to chairman of upstart movie circuit, Cinemark. He and LeRoy Mitchell made what they called a “risky move” by encroaching on the Carrollton zone. In 1989, the three-year old circuit decided to launch an 8-screen subrub discount house walking distance from the Furneaux Creek shopping center at 1130 W. Trinity Mills Rd. The city had gone from one screen in 1983 to 21 screens when the Cinemark opened Nov. 10, 1989. And the risk was possibly too great as all three theaters would fall on very hard times fairly quickly.
Just to the North in Lewisville, less than five miles away on Interstate 35, a retail nexus would form around the Vista Ridge Mall – the DFW area’s newest and largest mall which opened in October of 1989. It included a 12-screen first-run Cinemark theater as multiplexes were giving way to megaplexes of ten or more screens. Within five years, the Lewisville zone would have 30 first-run screens and one discount house. The better-built megaplex-era theaters would erode film audiences from the multiplex-era Carrollton theaters. Also, population shifts in the 1990s saw a surge in Asian residents and the marketplace would alter Furneaux Creek’s target demographic. In short, the three Carrollton theaters would all be at the wrong place at the wrong time each failing to reach the end of their original lease periods.
The GCC Carrollton was the first casualty closing in September of 1998 as GCC focused on its Furneaux Creek operation. The GCC Carrollton would have the distinction of showing “Simon Birch” as among its last offerings. Birch would close the iconic General Cinema NorthPark I theater less than a month later. Things weren’t any better for Cinemark as it closed up shop at its Movies 8 in July of 2000, a rare misstep for the firm. And the third and final theater in the Carrollton zone would drop just three months later.
GCC was doomed with its multiplex-centric business model. The GCC Furneaux Creek got a vote of confidence on October 5, 2000 when four GCCs were shuttered leaving just the Galleria, the Furneaux, and the newly-built Irving Mall 14 in the DFW area. Two weeks later, GCC rethought the plan and closed the Galleria and Furneaux Creek. The last show was “Bait” with no patrons for the other six shows as the theater closed quickly and quietly before the evening’s posted showtimes could run.
It was hard to imagine that the Carrollton zone had gone down so quickly. Star Cinema took on the Furneaux Creek very briefly openning in November of 2000 with Little Nicky and six other features. But that operation closed quickly as Star Cinema moved to the former GCC Town East and then, finally, to the former AMC Towne Crossing before surrendering to the megaplex era. A hastily-created Cinema Grill by a fledgling circuit of the same name came into the Furneaux Creek basically removing rows of seats to put in tables for full-kitchen service movies with meals. That launched May 8, 2002 but was a quick failure.
The Movies 8 became a non-profit Covenant Church. The Furneaux Creek was completely gutted revealing just a giant hand-painted General Cinema logo on its back wall. It was converted into a vibrant Korean market. And this listing for the GCC Carrollton Towne Center was home to a gym which failed. The former Carrollton 6 was vacant for long stretches prior to and after being a gym, in part, due to the hidden nature of the building.
In the 1930s, George Myers was everything to the, then, small town of Carrollton, Texas. The grocer/mayor/postmaster showed outdoor films before carving out a space in his downtown grocery store with post office to show indoor films at 1110 W. Main Street. The show-store was purchased by A.R. Lowery and his wife, Vera who replaced the benches with seating at the Plaza Theater. Their 8-year old son, John, made news when he made it to the final chapter of a western serial with a broken leg. Not long after A.R. Lowrey passed away, Vera and John, would decide to operate a larger theater, the “new” Plaza opening December 23, 1949 as the town had surged to just over 1,000 residents.
The Raymond Smith architected facility would prove to be well-built as the building was virtually unchanged over the next 45 years of operation. The original projector made it through the entire run of the building. Carrollton would grow from 1,000 residents to 93,000 in the 1990s. In a 55-year family theatrical career, the Lowery’s with their two Plaza Theaters would survive competition from the nearby twin-screen drive-in, the Rebel, as well as three multiplexes created in suburban Carrollton. Vera would continue working at the theater until age 92 and son, John, finally closed the theater – operating as a sub-run discount dollar house — with “The Mask” as the theater was reaching its 45th anniversary. The veteran operator sold the theater to a church-backed group who would convert the theater into a live performance venue.
A marker outside of the theater commemorates the Lowrey’s 45-year operation at the Plaza. Continuing in 1985 as the Plaza Music Theatre, the Grapevine Opry entertained locals until 2002. Two local businessmen took on the Plaza renaming it the Plaza Arts Center. It has space for local artists to display work regularly and hosted some events and local events. The Plaza has continued to the mid-2010s where the facility continues to entertain Carrollton in the city’s downtown looking almost unchanged after more than 65 years.
In 1985, the Herring Group of Dallas and Homart Development Co. announced that they would develop DFW’s largest shopping mall, a 1.4 million square foot center known as Vista Ridge. The mall opened in October of 1989 and the Cinemark wasn’t far behind opening that same month. The mall theater was glitzy and gaudy resplendent in purple, red, and green neon tubing. A 3x3 CRT monitor bank had 10 minutes of movie previews and then three minutes of live video where patrons could see themselves larger than life. The theater had an arcade area, large concession stand, and two larger theaters for the biggest films that week. The only competition was a ten-screen theater up the road which became a discount house in the Garden Park Shopping Center.
The theater was an amazing hit. James Terry McIlvain signed autographs during a screening of “Pure Country.” Scott Bakula showed up of “Quantum Leap” fame and signed autographs. And the theater was doing such stellar business that AMC Theatres announced in 1993 it would build its first ever 20-screen theater across the street from Vista Ridge Mall. While that project was dropped as AMC turned its attention to its AMC Grand Project further south on Interstate 35, two new theaters opened across from each other with Trans-Texas’ Vista Ridge 8 and UA’s Lakepointe 10 both opening the same day on December 16, 1994.
Cinemark would take on the Vista Ridge 8 converting it to a sub-run, discount house. The competing Super Saver discount house in Garden Park would close. But in December of 2000, Rave Motion Pictures would open its first ever theater with the high-tech Hickory Creek 16 just to the North on I-35. It was game on and Cinemark’s property began to age quickly compared to the Rave.
Instead of trying to refresh the 17 year old property and do a full digital conversion, Cinemark created a new build Cinemark 15 at Vista Ridge Mall opening with a soft launch on September 20, 2006. That theater would supplant the Movies 12 which remained empty for some time.
The Studio Movie Grill Lewisville was originally going to be AMC’s first 20-screen super-megaplex. When Vista Ridge Mall opened in 1989, Lewisville received its second 10-plus screen theater with Cinemark Theater’s Vista Ridge 12 inside the mall. Because the shopping complex drew people from a wide circle including Lewisville, Flower Mound, Carrollton, Coppell, Lake Dallas, Corinth and Highland Village, there was room for another theater. So in January 1993, AMC announced an exterior multiplex across the highway down from Corporate Drive that would be a 48,000 sqaure feet 20-screen multiplex the likes of which the DFW area hand’t seen.
In May of 1993, AMC turned its attention to a 24-screen AMC Stemmons Crossroads project that would become the game-changing AMC Grand 24 opening in 1995. AMC walked away from the 20-screen Lewisville project leaving an opening for another operator to build a megalplex in that spot. United Artists stepped up with a smaller-sized concept theater that would serve as a blueprint for its expansion within DFW over the next several years.
UA concentrated its 1994-1997 growth with 9-to-11 screen builds that were more destination theaters then the generic, neighborhood 8-plexes that it had built in the early to mid-1990s. And the UA Lakepointe 10 would be its first scheduled to open followed by a similar facility in Grand Prairie (1995), a grander location near Garland (1996), and two in Fort Worth (1997). Meanwhile, Trans-Texas announced a simultaneous project on the opposite side of the freeway. Trans-Texas' 8-screen theater was of more modest scale and it was a race to see which would open first.
To demonstrate that it was out of the business of building generic boxy theaters, UA got a waiver from the City of Lewisville to include a laser lighting system that would adorn the main entrance and be visible to the busy adjoinging highway. The UA Lakepointe 10’s translucent theater canopy was designed by Runyon Architects and Associates. It was 10 feet tall and 100 feet long projecting 14 color patterns that could be set to music. The UA theater launched December 16, 1994 with features including Speechless, Dumb and Dumber, Drop Zone and Disclosure though would not have its official grand opening celebration until January 26, 1995. Trans-Texas' Vista Ridge 8-plex opened across the street on December 16, 1994 with sub-runs and would go first run then back to sub-run discount when it became part of the Cinemark circuit.
The first shoe to drop in the Lewisville area was the first multiplex in the Rand/Hollywood/Silver Cinema 10-screen discount house in the Garden Park Shopping Center. But UA ran into financial difficulty as a circuit as the century closed while others easily outflanked the chain’s 10-screen effort. Rave Motion Pictures opened a state-of-the-art high tech megaplex just to the north of the Lakepointe opening in 2000 which took much of the non-mall, non-discount moviegoing audience with it. With Cinemark scheduled to open a brand new facility at Vista Ridge Mall, and a 14-plex just to the North in Denton, the writing was on the wall. UA closed the Lakepointe and many other theaters across DFW and around the country.
But all was not lost as Studio Movie Grill repositioned the Lakepointe as a movie and dining event place called the Studio Movie Grill Lewisville opening May 2007. The theater was in a contentious zone with AMC opening its Highland Village theater to the west in December of that year, Obviously with many theaters within exits of each other (the Vista Ridge Mall 15 Lewisville, the Lewisville 8 discount house, Cinemark 14 in Denton, the Silver Cinemas Golden Triangle, and the Rave Hickory Creek 16), SMG had its work cut out for it. Redesigning the complex as an 8-plex with full kitchen, the theater pulled off the task with aplomb keeping the theater relevant into the mid-2010s and beyond.
The Trans-Texas Vista Ridge Movies 8 opened at an inopportune time for the fledgling circuit. Across the highway, United Artists opened its far superior Lakepointe 10 on the same day that the T-T Vista Ridge was having its grand opening celebration. The Vista Ridge had scheduled sub-run films for the public to get a free look at facility. But with competition just yards away from the Cinemark Vista Ridge 12 inside of the Vista Ridge Mall, the UA Lakepointe and by decade’s end, Rave Motion Pictures just to the North, Trans-Texas bailed and Cinemark took on the struggling 8-plex. It repositioned it as a sub-run discount house. With the departure of the Rand/Hollywood/Silver Cinema 10-screen discount house in the Garden Park Shopping Center, this theater had found its audience continuing strong into the mid-2010s.
United Artists Circuits purchased 9.5 acres near the southeast corner of Jupiter Road and LBJ Freeway in northeast Dallas to launch a destination theater that eventually opened May 21, 1996 called the Galaxy. While much of the attention was going to 24 and 30 screen megaplexes of the era, UA was more conservative building 9-11 screen complexes. UA built its Lakepointe 10 theater in Lewisville opening in December 1994 and would build a similar facility in Grand Prarie (Aug.1995) along with two Fort Worth complexes opening in 1997 with the Eastchase 9 and the Fossil Creek 11.
Much like the UA Grand Prairie, the circuit was going after a contemporary Cinemark multiplex in the Hollywood USA 14/15. With screen count already in favor of the established Cinemark property, UA spent more on this property than the afforementioned theaters. The costs of the Galaxy sailed past $12 million with two huge 750 seat auditoria with 76.5 foot wide screens and 50-foot high ceilings affectionately called the 80 foot screens, eclipsing the 75 foot screens at the CInemark 17. The two auditoria had the second largest screens next to only the outdoor Astro Drive-In.
The theater made a statement, THX certification was found in six auditoria where digital sound was vibrant. There was stadium seating with rocking-chair padded seats in all houses, something that UA had eschewed in the past. A crazy large dual-sided concession area, gaming area, two additional concession stands close to theaters 5 & 9 – the largest houses, and a 38-seat Showscan ride simulator theater that rounded out the technologically innovative theater.
Opening night was wild on May 21, 1996. With eight theaters ready for usage, Mission: Impossible was screened on each screen a day before its actual opening and the theater attracted sell out audiences. People showed up, they filled the auditorium and went on to the next auditorium. The theater made $22,500 in ticket revenue selling out all shows until 11:45p.
Because of the size of the large screens, Star Wars fans camped out at the Galaxy as members of “Countdown Dallas” waited the highly anticipated 1999 film. The theater had many sell-outs and delivered the goods. The Galaxy 9 would become the Galaxy 10 when the Showscan novelty house was converted into a small screen. UA all but vanquished its Cinemark competitor as the Hollywood USA was downgraded to sub-run dollar house status. UA had all the new clearances it wanted for new films.
But United Artists, itself, fell on hard times and the circuit dropped theater after theater in the area and around the country. Even the Countdown Dallas group abandoned the theater for 2002’s Phantom Menace sequel opting for the DLP-centric Cinemark Legacy. UA which once had theaters all over Dallas would be taken over by Regal and would have only the Galaxy after leaving the Plaza, the Keystone, the MacArthur Marketplace, and all of its multiplexes including the North Star in Garland. Regal didn’t do justice to the Galaxy as THX designation went away. The cash-strapped Regal chain didn’t do much over the next ten years to refresh the property and weekday audiences found the 900 slot parking lot with more new cars for the adjoining car dealership than patrons.
Meanwhile, AMC would upgrade its 30-screen Mesquite property with a IMAX-branded screen, a bar, fork-and-screen full-kitchen houses, and recliners. More people were drifting away from the Galaxy. But there was hope as in 2015, the theater would receive its first major refresh when recliner seating was announced in March of 2015 to come in time for the big summer films. Because Regal owned the theater instead of the former practice of leasing, it realized that the theater might have an opportunity to remain vibrant heading into the 2020s.
The $5 million, sub-run discount Starplex Mesquite Cinema 10 opened on July 27, 1996 at Highway 80 and Belt Line Road. On its opening weekend, films were free (Flipper, James and the Giant Peach, The Arrival, Heaven’s Prisoners, Celtic Pride, Dragonheart, Executive Decision, Toy Story, Homeward Bound 2, Truth About Cats & Dogs, and Primal Fear). Auditorium size ranged from 125 to 450 seats. The theater had DTS, Dolby Digital and SDDS at its opening with wall-to-wall screens. '
The theater was the cousin to the Starplex Irving which had also just opened. Tickets were $1 before 6 p.m. and $1.50 after 6 p.m. with bargain Tuesdays. Its nearest subrun discount competition would be from the Cinemark Big Town five miles away and AMC Towne Crossing four miles away. They would both go out of business in 1999 and 1998, respectively. The Starplex chain would later add a first-run theater in Forney just 11 miles away.
Correction: April 29, 1949
Designed by Harvey A. Jordan, the architectural drawings for the Ruston Drive-In can be found in the University of Texas library.
The Harvey A. Jordan architected Chisholm Trail Drive-In was named after its owner, Mr. E. Chisholm who announced the project in March of 1959 and had a grand opening on May 21, 1959. The Chisholm Trail was at 3001 East Main Street bounded by railroad tracks and Main Street and getting additional traffic from Jefferson Avenue. Opening first features on the 40' by 80' screen were “Forest Rangers” and “Wells Fargo.” Chisholm veered the theater toward families and children. Competition was just down to the east with the Twin Drive-In and then further down to the east was the Jefferson D.I. Trains would constantly appear to blow through the Chisholm’s drive-in tower with loud noise and rumbling during screenings. The Chisholm struggled and Woodland Hills Mayor Arthur Avnsoe took over the theater in 1962. The theater’s view toward busy E. Main St. and noise and rumblings – not from the trains – but within the cars at the drive-in appears to have unseated the Chisholm.
Attention about a jury trial over the theater’s showing of “Europe in the Raw” on July 16, 1963 caused a chain reaction. Though the drive-in prevailed having not violated the 1961 anti-obscenity act, public furor didn’t subside. Chemline Inc. – operators of the nearby Twin Drive-In – decided to challenge the Constitutionality of the city’s ordinance which drew an overflow audience to the courtroom. A psychiatrist from Austin explained the dangers of screen leakage on drivers. The anti-obscenity act was upheld which gave residents some teeth in the matter. Not one but 15 petitions flowed to Grand Prairie Mayor C.P. Waggoner with over 1,000 signatures about lewd and obscene films showing at the Chisholm in 1964. Facing mounting public relations backlash for public nuisance and causing inattentive driving habits, the Chisholm’s operator had an opportunity.
First, Avnsoe would move to the newly built Country Squire Drive-In just south of Dallas' Redbird Airport on U.S. 67. As for the Chisholm, veteran theater operator J.J. Rodriguez of the Panamericano in Dallas was convinced by businessmen to convert his Spanish language Panamericano Theater to an art house/restaurant/night club called the Festival. This would require the Panamericano to shut down in early 1965 to convert the space. Rodriguez took on the Chisholm in March 1965 to continue his bookings of Spanish Language films. Rebranding the ozoner as the Auto Vista, Rodriguez opened March 29, 1965 with “La Bandida” and “Suenos de Oro.” Rodriguez operated the theater for one season but closed the theater not long after the Festival launched.
Charles Weisenburg added the Auto Vista the next season in his circuit of Weisenburg Theaters. He rebranded the Auto Vista as the East Main Drive-In and switched it back to English language films. Weisenburg dropped the East Main but the McLendon Theater Circuit would take over the East Main shortly thereafter in 1969 hoping to turn it in to a twin screener. McLendon had recently purchased the Downs Drive-In in Grand Prairie and would convert it to the renamed, multi-screen Century Drive-In in 1970. The circuit had also converted the single screen Garland Road Drive-In into the three-screen Apollo Drive-In. McClendon took over the Plano Drive-In retaining its name and converting it to a three-screen operation. McClendon’s ozone portfolio entering the 1970s was the Astro, Apollo, Gemini, Century, and East Main. That didn’t last long for one property and it was the East Main on the chopping block.
The East Main space was tight and McLendon decided to hold off on twinning the theater. As an underachiever for three previous owners, McLendon reduced the theater to discount status playing exploitation double and triple features or third-run major features to an admission price of just 99 cents per carload. The experiment ended in 1971 as McLendon quietly dropped the theater. A look at the theater at historical aerials.com in 1972 shows the first “bite” already removed from the theater with its demolition to follow. Three names, five owners and not much success for the Chisholm Trail /Auto Vista/ East Main in a 12-year period.
The Twin Hi-Ways Drive-In Theater opened in June 26, 1955 at 4800 E. Main St. in Grand Prairie. with “Duel in the Sun” and “The Long Wait” on its single screen. The Twin confusingly opened as a single-screen theater named after the two roadways that the drive-in was near in Loop 12 and Highway 80. Patrons could enter from Highway 80 / Main St. or Jefferson St.. that bounded both sides of the theater. Because the theater pre-dated the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike during its first two years of operation, loads of traffic passed by the theater.
Its competition came from the Jefferson Drive-In about 2.5 miles to the east. In its first years of operation, the Twin played second-run double features. Unlike the Jefferson whose screen was shielded from ongoing cars, the Twin Hi-Ways had its screen facing the highway which led to myriad accidents including fatalities. This was an awful situation that just got worse. Two weeks after the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike opened routing traffic to what is now Interstate 30, mother nature spoke. A wind storm knocked the Twin’s theater screen down on September 11, 1957. Unfortunately, the owners doubled down and created a two-screen theater rebuilding the “East Screen” with 750 spots and the new, “West Screen” opening July 18, 1958 with 500 spots. “Peyton Place” opened on East Screen and “God’s Little Acre” with “Across the Bridge to Mexico” inaugurated the West Screen. The theater’s official name was now Twin Drive-In Theatres often referred to as The Twin and both screens carried double-features with newer content on East Screen. Both screens faced Highway 80 making even more unsafe traffic conditions than before. And this nightmarish situation even got worse yet.
In 1959, new competition from the family-oriented Chisholm Trail Drive-In (renamed the Auto Vista and then the East Main) less than two miles to the west. With competition fierce, Chemline, the operators of the Twin. Chemline made a momentous decision late in 1962 to turn East Screen into an adult screen. People too afraid or cheap to buy a ticket parked on the shoulder or in the ditches along Highway 80 and, upon completion of viewing, would pull out slowly onto the highway. Drivers not expecting cars pulling from the shoulder or a ditch and possibly with their eyes on the drive-in screen faced myriad near misses, as well as serious and fatal accidents along the stretch. On December 4, 1962 police seized seven “girlie” films and would charge the operators with a “public showing” of lewd content. The operators were able to previal in a lower court decision as a First Amendment violation and appealed licensing fees as a tax upon the right of free communication. The Chisholm Drive-In would also experiment with adult content doing brisk business with “Europe in the Raw” in 1963 as Chemline’s case proceeded.
In 1964, 15 petitions were handed to Grand Prairie Mayor C.P. Waggoner with over 1,000 signatures. With a public relations disaster on their hands, the theaters went two different directions. The Chisholm operator moved away from Grand Prairie to Dallas and created a new drive-in to show adult fare. A new operator rebranded the Chisholm as the Autovista playing Hispanic-oriented films. The Twin’s Chemline, meanwhile went all in with a court battle drawing an overflow crowd and a psychiatrist from Austin explaining the dangers of screen leakage on drivers and youth, alike. Chemline got a big win and a slight loss in November of 1964 with the case appealed on both counts. On July 6, 1966, Chemline finally lost at the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Chemline v. City of Grand Prairie. But the four-year battle saw four more years of traffic problems.
Following its loss, the Twin appeared to have taken a low-key philosophy discontinuing show listings and advertising. Hopes to move away from anything other than adult films was challenged when the three-screen Astro moved in less than five miles away in 1968 near Loop 12 and the 303. According to the police blotter, adult films are stolen from the theater’s projection room in 1968 and 1970. Since incomplete reels were taken in the heists, it was apparent that the thieves didn’t want the theater playing adult content more than the thieves wanting incomplete copies of features. The Twin’s East Screen appears to have been retired toward the end of the theater’s run. The entire operation appears to have closed not long after two big robberies in November and December of 1970. That also times out with the end of a 15-year lease which likely was the end of Twin.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike would become a “free” interstate in 1978 decimating traffic and property values around the Twin in the late 1970s. Today, the Twin’s East Screen has junked cars for an auto salvage yard and the West Screen has returned to vacancy as of the mid-2010s and can be found across from the Sunset Golf Club in Grand Prairie. A year after the Twin closed, its competition to the west – the East Main Drive-In which was playing super low-cost double-feature sub-runs and triple-feature sub-sub or exploitation runs (former Chisholm / former Autovista) closed after the 1971 season leaving just the Jefferson Drive-In along this stretch. The Jefferson would operate until 1990 with the Astro going all the way to 1998.
Spelling error: Doris Leeper (not Looper)
The fast-growing AMC Theater chain wanted to follow up its game-changing AMC Northtown 6 and its follow-up AMC Northwood Hills 4 with another 42 screens with 10,000 seats in Dallas-Fort Worth during the 1971 calendar year. Also fast-growing was the community of Arlington, TX and a heavyweight battle was being waged at the end of the 1960s as two competing malls were being built within five miles of each other in Arlington. General Cinema and AMC wanted to be near or in these new malls.
The battle: in one corner – at U.S. 80 and Texas 360 – was a mall planned by veteran shopping center group Homart Development and executed by Monumental Properties. That mall had a nice design, good traffic flow, well devised parking plans, some landscaping, and three A+ anchors for the time in Sears, Sanger-Harris, and JC Penney’s. With 97% occupancy at its grand opening on August 5, 1970, architect Harwood K. Smith used Texas sun tones, tropical greenery and architectural flourishes to serve as a harmonic showcase for the area. The mall — built upon 80 acres home formerly to the historic Downs Racetrack – had a design using the area’s fun sensibilities and was called the Six Flags Mall. Outside of the shopping mall was an area called The Village, an external shopping center is the area housed by Cinema I & II by General Cinema.
In the other corner less than three miles south was a mall at the confluence of N. Forum Drive, Spur 303, Highway 360, and E. Arkansas Lane. The gangly over-sized mall went up in stages with the first store opening in Halloween of 1969 and its name was the Forum 303 Mall probably because the name, “Forum-303-360-Arkansas Mall” seemed too long. The 120-acre facility by Alpert Investment Corp. had Montgomery Wards along with Meacham’s and Leonard’s Department Store as its original anchors. The mall would also have an amphitheater called The Forum with 320-seats which had two airplane-fin-like skylights sculptures designed by artist Doris Marie Leeper. The odd art objects would spell out Forum Mall in a serif font with gaudy purple coloring.
Phase I of the mall launched on Halloween 1969 with Leonard’s opening despite the mall being under construction. The parking and traffic flow was curious and under-thought given the minimal entrance/exit access points. While Six Flags had a uniform and coordinated grand opening, the Forum 303 launched between September and December of 1971 as stores came on line unevenly. Other plans for the mall including a hotel and office space just never happened. With all of the A+ stores, major publicity, uniform starting date and the overall architectural design all going to the heavyweight Six Flags Mall, one wondered how the area could support this second chump mall to say nothing of the new malls also opened in 1971 — to the north in Irving and Hurst (Northeast Mall).
Within the mall was an attraction point: a six-screen multiplex cinema run by AMC starting on October 13, 1971. AMC had done great business in the area with its Dallas-based Northtown Mall Cinema 6. And one thing going for the new Forum 6 was that you couldn’t really miss the ticket booth which had a John Geoffrey Naylor two-ton four-sided sculpture of polished aluminum and plexiglass suspended with nearly invisible wires above it in the 40' ceiling height entrance area. A wild, matching ticket booth constructed of stainless steel and aluminum strips was built to aesthetically match the decor. The booth was detached but placed diagonally and adjacent to the theater. The sculpture and ticket booth made an impact on movie goers. Yet, with the Forum 303’s idiosyncrasies and lack of execution at its opening, nobody would blame AMC if it simply honored its ten-year lease and vacate the mall.
But AMC proved popular in part because it had six new film options compared to just two at nearby Six Flags and one at the nearby GCC Park Plaza. Midnight shows which would eventually include “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” added a cool element. Dillard’s proved to be a hit taking over Leonard’s, concerts drew crowds at the Forum amphitheater, a super arcade drew people, an ice skating rink was a nice touch, and Picadilly Cafeteria proved to be a winner for the mall. In fact, AMC re-upped for another 10-year lease and announced that it would build another six-screen theater holding 1,800 patrons as a standalone operation adjacent to the Forum along with a motor bank, restaurants and other retail to open in the Summer of 1980. It was actually General Cinema that was losing the fight as the theater would tack on three more cinemas in its substandard Six Flags location.
Potential trouble for the Forum 6 was around the corner as Loews had opened the Lincoln Square to the North, UA launched the Bowen to the southwest, AMC built its Green Oaks 8 to the southwest, and General Cinema would open an eight screener to the southwest. The economic tides were turning as Interstate 20 was being built opening in 1987 making a retail nexus in south Arlington. It was fortunate that the external six-screener didn’t happen as especially devastating to the AMC Forum was Homart Corp. which opted to build the Parks Mall opening in 1988. That mall would decimate foot traffic split amongst the two aging Arlington malls. Six Flags would counter with a $20 million facelift including the addition of a Dillard’s store. The Forum 303 would add a hastily-crafted Farmer’s Market.
Yet more competition for the movie dollar came along I-20 as Cinemark opening a megaplex in Grand Prairie in Nov. 1989. With most original tenant mall leases and re-ups coming due including Picadilly Cafeteria and the AMC Forum, the mall’s fortunes were fading at precisely the wrong time. Following the 20-year mark, the Forum Mall was heading toward greyfield status, a term for dying malls with vacant storefronts. Dillard’s downgraded its store to a clearance center but AMC re-upped again for ten years in 1991.
By 1993, the mall was on vapors and the FDIC overtook the mall. Never a good sign. The FDIC identified a new owner in Fuller/DDM. Film producer Bob Yari took on the mall in 1994 changing the name to the Forum Value Mall as Dillard’s Clearance Center and lesser independents moved into the plentiful empty spaces. The AMC property was looking dated and dying in a multiplex world. United Artists opened to the east with its Grand Prairie theater and to the west with its Eastchase theater. In 1997, the mall spent $3.5 million to convert to the Festival Marketplace, a bazaar concept with tiny vendor spaces for everything from computer repair to incense to car radios officially launching May 21, 1998 in hopes of masking the empty spaces. The Bazaar concept was like a hastily-crafted flea market and AMC – now facing yet more competition in the form of a nine-screen Cinemark Tinseltown inside of Six Flags Mall — would leave the building and anchor Service Merchandise shuttered. Certainly, the cinematic days were behind the Festival Marketplace. By decade’s end, the Festival Marketplace became the Festival Discount Mall and shedded even more stores including original tenants Picadilly Cafeteria and Montgomery Ward’s. The mall was now in greyfield status.
But to Yari’s credit, two different operators would take on the former AMC theater, simply chipping the AMC sign off of the theater and operating as the Forum 6. The theaters’ original AMC cupholders and seating would survive to the theater’s end. The operator of the independent Park Plaza would close up shop there on Feb. 28, 2002 and take on the Forum 6 as its last operator. The mall was no longer open seven days a week yet the cinema remained a seven-day-a-week operation. On certain weeknights, all of the parking lights in the complex and most of the mall lights were off but the theater was still functioning in almost unbelievable conditions. Parking lot potholes, abandoned graffiti-filled motor bank and store anchors, weeds in the parking lot, and totally faded parking lines were no match for the determined theater operation which continued as a first-run house despite the Cinemark competition up the road.
In October of 2004, the air conditioning system failed at the Festival Discount Mall and the owners just didn’t want to spend the money to repair it. Dillard’s Clearance Center would move out choosing the also-dying Six Flags Mall and when the warm weather came at the end of May 2005, everyone was told to pack up and go. They were given a mere five days’ notice. And of course that was the end of the entire mall including the Forum 6 cinema.
Or was it? Almost unbelievably, the Forum 6 brought in a portable air conditioning system and, despite a condemned mall property, somehow soldiered on now with no parking lights on at night. A bizarre situation akin to the struggles of the Fox Theatre in Toledo’s Woodville Mall if not other dying malls. The phone’s message featured a warning at its tag, “We’re going to be forced to close soon, so please come on over.” And weeks stretched to months as the very lightly trafficked theater limped to its closure on August 18, 2005 with “The Dukes of Hazzard”, “Sky High”, “The Island”, “Stealth”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and “Bad News Bears”.
In the final chapter, just outside the AMC Forum, six piles of theater chairs and AMC cupholders were respectfully placed in the decrepit parking lot representing each of the auditoriums. Also in the pile was anything metal including 35mm film rewinders and other equipment. The failure fence told the story as the faded mall was demolished including Looper’s original airplane fin skylights and the Forum 6 theaters. While Cinemark won the heavyweight battle at Six Flags Mall, that mall would also shutter virtually every other store other than Dillard’s Clearance store due, in part, to a failed air conditioning system (it would relaunch in 2014 as the Plaza Central). How the Forum cinema survived 34 years is something of a mystery. But in this fight, the Forum proved to be a plucky contender.
D.L. Wood opened the Palace Theater late in 1913. The theater at the southwest corner of what were Main and Mechanic streets in Plano was open seven-days-a-week through its entire run with a Saturday matinees. The advertisements proclaim that the theater was cooled with “plenty of electric fans.” That was good because the only other theater in town was an aerodome to the north which was an outdoors operation. The theater was sold to O.B. Hancock who made many improvements to the facility. The theater’s continuous lifespan appears to be exactly 40 years with advertisements running in the Plano Star-Courier from 1914 to 1953. Ads cease after the December 2, 1953 showing of Kiss Me, Kate which times out to two 20-year lease cycles . Ads resume in the mid-1950s and cease again. On August 18, 1957, W.R. Petty reopened the Palace and ads continue through 1961.
he General Cinema Corp.’s (GCC) Six Flags Mall Cinema I & II was announced late in 1969 to be located in the Village adjacent to the Six Flags Mall at the confluence of highways 80 and 360. It would open with the rest of the mall on August 5, 1970. It opened with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” It would be GCC’s second Arlington theater with its nearby GCC Park Plaza Cinema which had opened in May of 1966. The Six Flags theater’s identical 350 seat auditoria had push-back chairs, automated projection equipment, special smoking sections, and an art gallery in the lobby. The mall was planned by veteran shopping center group Homart Development which had an exterior GCC at its Seminary South shopping center and would have exterior GCC theaters at its Town East Mall in Mesquite four years later and also at the Parks Mall in Arlington late in the 1980s. Six Flags’ external shopping area was called “The Village” and the theater could be seen from the northern doors of Sanger-Harris and Sears. A night out at the GCC Six Flags I-II might have also included a low-priced steak dinner at the neighboring York Steak House.
The mall got competition from the Forum 303 mall less than three miles away and the General Cinema. While that mall was underwhelming on a variety of levels, it did feature an interior and superior six-screen AMC theater opening on October 13, 1971. AMC signed a 10-year lease and did such great business with first-run fare and midnight shows that it re-upped for another 10-years and was supposed to build an additional six-screen theater adjacent to the Forum Mall. Fortunately for GCC Six Flags, that project was scrapped. Some of the theater’s biggest hits were “The Godfather,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
General Cinema faced pressure from six-screen multiplexes with both its Town East and Six Flags properties. In both situations, the theaters were retrofitted to become five screen properties. Town East got a poorly executed five-screen shoehorned into its existing space while Six Flags got extra space to tack on the additional screens. Fortunately for Mesquite moviegoers, Town East was then retrofitted to be an improved five-screen experience while the Six Flags Cinema I-V simply coasted to its end at the end of its 20-year lease in August of 1990. AMC would re-up for another lease at the Forum Mall.
The timing of GCC’s departure was curious as the mall, itself, was just completing a major expansion and redesign to compete with the new Parks Mall. But with General Cinemas opening its more modern Arlington Park Square 8 just across the street from the Parks in 1986, the circuit turned its attention there leaving behind both the Park Plaza and Six Flags. The Six Flags cinema became home to short-lived live projects including some wrestling events but for the most part look sad, empty and decrepit over the next 25 years. And fortunately for the Six Flags Mall, the March 28, 1997 launch of the nine-screen Tinseltown USA brought movies back to the Six Flags Mall even after the mall, itself, closed and then re-launched under a different name.
For twenty years, the Six Flags Mall had an external twin-screen turned five-screen General Cinema Theater that competed with the nearby AMC Forum 6 at the same-era Forum 303 Mall. As Arlington grew, theaters sprouted up everywhere: Loews opened the Lincoln Square to the North, UA launched the Bowen to the southwest, AMC built its Green Oaks 8 to the southwest, and General Cinema would open an eight screener to the southwest. As the 1980s concluded, Six Flags Mall was being challenged by the new Parks Mall in Arlington just to the Southwest and had to take action.
The economic tides were turning as Interstate 20 was helping to create a retail nexus in south Arlington entering the 1990s. Six Flags had a major expansion and remodel in 1990 to compete against the Parks. Unfortunately, the veteran General Cinema Six Flags left as the remodel was happening, As more theaters came online including two in Grand Prairie to the southeast, Cinemark stepped in and announced a theater in 1996 which would open in March 28, 1997. The 45,000-square-foot addition to the shopping center would be christened as the Cinemark Tinseltown USA Six Flags Mall 9.
Opening with Selena, Jerry Maguire; Return of the Jedi; Liar, Liar; Jungle 2 Jungle; Donnie Brasco; and The English Patient, the theater boosted optimism for the twenty year old mall. In terms of moviegoing, AMC would leave the Forum which was a shot in the arm to the Tinseltown. When AMC announced a megaplex to be added to the interior of the Parks Mall, Six Flags Mall countered with a $25 million expansion plan including skating rink, free-standing restaurants and expansion of Six Flags’ Cinemark from 9 to 14 screens with an additional 18,639 square fee added.
But Six Flags Mall would go into a nosedive along with the neighboring former Forum turned Festival Mall. Six Flags shedded stores then anchors heading toward greyfield status – a term akin to a dead mall. Tinseltown’s expansion from 9 to 14 screens was featured on the mall directory but never became reality nor did the other promised changes. Penney’s, Foley’s, Sears, and Dillards – the primary four anchors – all left with Dillards returning with a low-priced outlet store. The Festival would be closed in May of 2005 which may have prolonged the agony facing the Six Flags Mall. Attempts to revive the Penney’s anchor met with failure and the mall flailed. Yet, despite Six Flags obvious-to-all forthcoming demise, Cinemark just kept drawing huge crowds in the ghost town mall.
As the 2010s opened, Six Flags Mall was toast. The air conditioning failed and all of the stores in the middle were closed and access was only allowed to the food court, cinema, and Dillards anchor. In December of 2012, Six Flags Mall was sold to Noble Crest which renamed the mall, “Plaza Central,” a lackluster effort to convert the space to a vibrant Hispanic mall. As of the mid-2010s, the mall had reopened but was a surreal shopping experience in which anyone could walk through the closed stores and make a deal to launch a store at a bargain leasing rate. Using low-cost first-run pricing, Cinemark shrugged off the disaster that was the Six Flags Mall / Plaza Central in its infancy and continued to pack in crowds. An odd success in a wildly unsuccessful shopping center. And as of 2015, the circuit still hadn’t acknowledged the Six Flags Mall name change to Plaza Central as the new mall owners struggled mightily to create an inviting shopping experience.
The fourth Angelika outside of New York was designed by veteran art cinema architect Frank Dagdagan. Angelika called this theater more refined though the “bohemian aesthetic” was still present with raw materials, wood floor at the first level, exposed concrete floor at the second level and exposed ceilings. Furniture and artwork still maintain the attitude of Angelika sought in both design and film selection.
In 1998 and 1999, announcements that two new-build art theaters were coming to town in the Landmark West Village and the Angelika – Dallas at Mockingbird Station. Dallas had never had a new-build art cinema – though many converted spaces such as the UA Ciné and Silver Cinema’s Inwood Theater both of which were operating at the time of these announcements. This was exiciting despite the fact that the projects fell months and months behind schedule.
At the Landmark West Village, Landmark’s bankruptcy forced the project to stall out and was endangered. The Angelika Dallas at Mockingbird Station was delayed by bad weather but won the race with a grand opening on August 3, 2001. A week later, Magnolia Pictures – just founded then by Bill Banowsky and John Sughrue – would take on the moribund West Village theater project calling it The Magnolia. They would have an outlet for their own film releases and program other art and repertory films. Beck Group – known for many Cinemark theaters through the years – both architected and constructed the theater.
The Magnolia had its grand opening in January of 2002. The swanky second-floor bar well fit the West Village complex in which it was situated providing a revenue stream for the independent theater. It also had one DLP projector for digital screenings – one of only two DFW theaters to boast that technology at that time. This added flexibility to programatic options. And the fledgling circuit would add a second theater to its portfolio in Boulder, Colorado. Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban would found 2929 Pictures and in 2002 invested in Magnolia Pictures. Oaktree Capital took on the cash strapped Silver Cinema circuit allowing for $65,000 refurbishing of the Inwood and it competed with The Magnolia for runner-up arthouse destination to the Angelika’s supremacy.
Wagner and Cuban’s 2929 would buy out Landmark Theatres circuit in October of 2003 giving them an outlet for their films while giving Landmark a much larger cash infusion. The Inwood Theater v. The Magnolia battle would end a month later. In November of 2003, Landmark Theatres acquired Magnolia Pictures and The Magnolia became a Landmark Theatre. This was ironic since the Magnolia started as a Landmark project only to be abandoned by them. The Inwood would get another makeover and eventually repositioned as a first-run house though continuing repertory midnight shows.
In 2005, the theater circuit was first to try “day and date” releases with films opening simultaneously on the Internet and in limited releases in theaters. It would mix in major mainstream releases especially in the summer to draw audiences. In October of 2012, it would gravitate to digital projection in all five theaters with upgraded digital sound. Also new leather-style seats with expanded row widths and leg room along with new carpet and flooring, wall coverings, and expanded gourmet concessions items at the snack bar. As of the mid-2010s, the theater had aged very well remaining a popular spot within Uptown Dallas.
Cinema architect Frank Dagdagan created three Japan theaters and one Hong Kong location for AMC Entertainment International including this entry for the circuit’s second theater in Japan, the AMC Nakama 16. The 16-screen, 57,000 square foot theatre was designed with 2,600-seats and at the time of opening was the largest theatre in Japan. Located at the Daiei-Nakama shopping center groundbreaking was late in 1997 with an opening in November 1998.
The auditorium design gave moviegoers an unobstructed view of the screen and had the AMC LoveSeats with retractable cupholder armrests. All auditoriums will feature Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) and the High Impact Theatre System (HITS) with compound-curved screens. The AMC Canal City 13 theatre in Fukuoka, Japan, was the first AMC theater in Japan theater launching in April 1996.
In 1998 and 1999, announcements that two new-build art theaters were coming to town in the Landmark West Village and the Angelika – Dallas at Mockingbird Station. Dallas had never had a new-build art cinema – though many converted spaces such as the UA Ciné and Silver Cinema’s Inwood Theater both of which were operating at the time of these announcements. And the Anglelika was in good hands with veteran art cinema architect Frank Dagdagan who had done the circuit’s first Texas theater in Houston.
So this was exiciting despite the fact that the projects fell months and months behind schedule. At Mockingbird Station, the $100 million, 10-acre business plus living concept was delayed by bad weather. At the Landmark West Village, Landmark’s bankruptcy forced the project to stall out and was endangered. The Angelika finally had a soft launch on July 27, 2001 with Deep Ellum Film, Music, Arts and Noise Inc. (DEFMAN) presenting free screenings of independent films, “George Washington” and “L.I.E.” The theater then had more free soft launch screenings until it grand opening on August 3, 2001. The theater’s film experience was an instant success and spelled doom for the nearby UA Ciné as well as the Granada Theater.
In addition to art cinema, the theater hosted many major film festivals including USA Film Festival, USA Kidfest, Jewish Film festival screenings, Dallas International Film Festival, Dallas Black Film Festival, and Vistas Hispanic film festival among them.
Downstairs, however, the downstairs cafe by Lisa Kelley featuring risotto cakes , pounded pork medallions and sautéed chicken breast didn’t click with the audience and would soon be downgraded to coffee bar and prepared sandwiches and desserts. Kelley left in less than four months and another chef tried without much success to make the theater a restauarant. And more competition for the art cinema dollar came when new buyers took on the flatlined Landmark West Village opening as the Magnolia Theater in January of 2002. And Angelika would open a West Plano theatre within the DFW market. As of the mid-2010s, all three theaters were operating as full-time art cinemas.
Announced in 2002 as part of the 23-acre Legacy Town Center in West Plano, Angelika’s second Dallas area art theater was set to open in 2003. This was architect Frank Dagdagan’s fourth theater for Angelika. He said that the theater has a bohemian aesthetic with unique art and showcasing raw materials including concrete, steel, two-story wall of glass, wood, marble and bamboo. Like other Angelika’s a large crystal chandelier was featured with this one accented with blue neon. The focal point upon entering is the grand staircase leading both to concession/café/ lounge area and the auditoriums. Black-box style auditoriums featured Dolby Digital sound, stadium seating, retractable armrests with cup holders at each seat, and “wall-to-wall” screens. The two largest houses had all-leather seating.
The delayed theater had a soft launch with the Dallas South Asian Film Festival’s repertory screening of “East is East” on June 21, 2004 and then having its official grand opening on June 23, 2004 with “Fahrenheit 9/11” playing on three of the five screens. The theater was seen as progress for moviegoers not only being Collin County’s first art house but in 1990, the Mayor of Plano kept the film, “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” from being shown in the city saying “I can… understand if you show it in Dallas, Texas. But Plano is a community of suburban families.”
With the AMC Stonebriar just to the North along with the and the wildly successful Cinemark West Plano just to the South, the cinematic dollars were heading North as West Plano / Frisco became DFW’s hottest place to watch new films: mainstream and art, included.
Phil Isley Enterprises opened the Granada Theater, its first in the Dallas market and eighth overall on January 16, 1946 with “Mildred Pierce”. Post-War Dallas saw the rise of new suburban movie theaters which would pressure some of the second-run theaters on downtown Dallas' theater row. The Raymond F. Smith architected theater had 950 seats and a tower with changing neon lights. Isley would soon take on the Rita Theater in East Dallas for its second theater. The Granada was community-minded with benefit screenings, church services, early children’s matinees with yo-yo contests, and some local-interest film choices. It had a thin sliver of the population with the Arcadia to the south, the Gay turned Coronet to the west and joined in October of 1946 by the nearby Wilshire Theater. But Isley was up to the task running a consistent and neighborhood-centered operation.
Almost twenty years into Isley’s operation, he sold the Granada and 12 other theaters in his portfolio to John H. Rowley for $1.5 million. Rowley had just sold out of his Rowley United as that circuit would operate as the southwest region of United Artists (UA). The Granada would be the first group in Rowley’s newly-christened and short-lived Big Tex Theaters before being subsumed by United Artists. Under UA opeation, the Granada lost its way as a number of theaters on the periphery of the Central Zone in Dallas struggled.
Within the C-Zone, newer theaters like the UA Ciné, Medallion, and Northpark I & II got the new films. Veteran Highland Park’s Village got the family films and the Wilshire did great with road shows and first-run bookings. The Arcadia, Coronet, Knox St., Lakewood and Granada flailed to stay relevant just outside of the C-Zone. Pitched as an occasional under-carrier completing UA Ciné roadshow runs including “Far From the Madding Crowd” and “Funny Girl,” UA positioned the Granada as an arthouse and having a big hit with “The Producers.” The start was so good that UA switched names of the veteran Avenue Theater in East Dallas to the Guild Theater to rebrand there as art also.
The Guild failed with art and a company called Guild Art Theater would sublease and reposition the Guild as a porn theater which was very successful. The Granada, too, was failing as the Northpark III & IV came online adding new options for moviegoers. The Guild subleased the Granada from UA taking down posters for the MGM classical musicals in February of 1975 and abruptly switching it to an X with XXX second-show, “hardcore” porn. (The Fine Arts in Snider Plaza had the porno chic single-X audience so the Granada went for a different audience.)
Local shop owners weren’t too thrilled and the police raided theater during its very first week. A petition signed by 1,400 people tried to end the porn and picketers protested. The city put enough pressure on the theater – as well as the nearby adult operator, the Coronet Theater— including raids and daily fines to force a change. Guild Art would sub-sublease the theater to William Smart and a partner in late August 1975 who changed the theater back to a discount house. The first-time operators signed on with New American Cinema – which vacated the Festival Theater – and Zoo-FM, a local rock station which showed music-centric midnight shows during that period. The protests and raids had stopped but so had a viable flow of patrons. The Granada brand was tarnished and the sub-run $1 concept failed within five months. In March of 1976, the Guild came back playing adult films. The Guild left the building under scrutiny and UA subleased the theater to an operator who changed the theater to sub-run discount in November of 1976. Those operators reportedly walked away from the theater January 13, 1977 failing to make rent and UA locked up the property and the lease finally expired. UA left the property.
The next operators spent $50,0000 in the spring and summer of 1977 to convert the Granada to a live event space reducing to 600 seats. The theater opened with Kenny Rogers and soon featuring Muddy Waters with some other impressive acts booked. The venue failed quickly and some promised events at the end didn’t make it to the stage. The changes — including expanded stage — would serve the building well down the line but it was hard to convince lower Greenville residents saddened as the theater was vacant for the second time that year and a sixth-month period into 1978. It had a very uncertain future as theaters including the Esquire and the nearby Wilshire were among the single screen post-War suburban theaters in Dallas being demolished.
But operator Movie Inc. out of New Mexico took on the other neighborhood, former-art-turned-porn-theater in the Coronet creating an oft sold out repertory and cult film establishment. Having just 309 seats, Movie Inc. needed a bigger place so the Edison moved to the Granada Theater on April 20, 1978. The Granada held twice as many people and was more of a nightspot for the target audience. The Edison ran for about a year but with home video coming into vogue, that market was challenging and the Edison ended. A new operator came in who tried eclectic fare and another operator tried an Edison-like movie club concept with 20 repertory films for $25. That didn’t work. In February of 1984, Bill Neal ran the theater running repertory. His last screening was on Oct. 31, 1986 with “The Tingler.” The neighborhood turned out in force with “Save the Granada” signs and a petition with 2,000 signatures opposing the theater’s closing. Times had changed in ten years when picketers tried to close the then-adult house.
The next operator was Keith McKeague and John Appleton of Great Concepts who residents told to not create “another” restaurant, nightclub or bar in the Granada. They launched the Granada Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse with beer as an option while watching second-run movies. Replacing the old rows of seats with dining tables though decreasing the house to 400 seats proved to be a winner. In 1992, Brian Schultz took on the Granada forming Granada Entertainment. In 1997, the Granada reported $2 million in revenue. They parlayed that into the purchase and redesign of a second location, the former UA Prestonwood Creek on Belt Line Road which would have a full kitchen and play first-run films. In 1999, the original Granada changed to first-run films. With competition due from the new Angelika, the Granada closed at the end of March 2001. Schultz’s fledgling Granada Entertainment circuit would soon become the dynamic, multi-state Studio Movie Grill circuit that blossomed in the early 21st Century.
In early 2002, new operators refurbished the Granada taking it back to live concerts including Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Steve Winwood, and Peter Tork of the Monkees. And the theater had football viewing, Oscars parties and even brought cinema classics back showing on the rooftop. As the theater was approaching its 70th anniversary, it was just as vibrant an entertainment spot deftly intertwined with its neighborhood as when it had opened. The Granada proved to be quite the survivor in Dallas’ entertainment history.
In April of 1988, PBA Development Inc., an affiliate of Cinemark Theatres, purchased 8.6 acres from Trammell Crow at the entrance to the 1,000-acre Westchester development at Carrier Parkway and I-20 in Grand Prairie for a 12-screen theater complex. A new theater, it was surmized, would attract people from Arlington, Grand Prairie, DeSoto and possibly South Dallas. On March 9, 1990, the multiplex opened following the previous fall’s opening of the circuit’s Vista Ridge 14 in Lewisville. The theater was a big success and would eventually attract competition.
United Artists decided to challenge Cinemark in three zones: Lewisville, Garland and Grand Prairie. Patterning its Grand Prairie theater after its UA Lakepointe 10 in Lewisville opened in December of 1994, the circuit opened its UA Grand Prairie 10 on August 24, 1995 at 510 Westchester Parkway seating 2,550. Two theaters had 490 seats featuring THX sound systems with all houses having DTS digital stereo. Opening features included Lord of Illusions, The Show, The Amazing Panda Adventure, and Desperado. UA would leave Lewisville while Cinemark downgraded its Garland location to sub-run discount status. That left Cinemark and UA Grand Prairie continuing to compete for clearances for more than 20 years. In the age of the megaplex, these two were among the longest-running same-zone challenge business situations in the DFW area.
AMC would open its new-build AMC at the Parks in Arlington just to the West but these two theaters just kept trucking past their 25th and 20th anniversaries looking virtually unchanged since their openings.
In October of 1995, a Dallas development company announced the 100,000 square foot 5,200 seat 20-screen Cinemark theater project on a 23-acre site just north of the northeast corner of Parker Road and Dallas North Tollway. The larger project extending to the corner would be completed by that development company twenty years later but the Cinemark project, itself, would come on in just over a year once residents’ concerns were addressed by the city council.
The circuit called its Tinseltown USA Plano theater it flagship location as the company would move its headquarters to a neighboring office building. Launching December 20, 1996, the all stadium-seating auditoria ranged in size from 200 to 600 seats each with multichannel sound. An additional Iwerks motion-simulator ride screen had 16 seats opening with “The Red Rock Run” though would be excised once the novelty wore thin. An arcade area —– featured at virtually all Cinemark theaters – fell into controversy when a city rule prohibiting arcades within the tollway corridor was enacted. The arcade would ultimately be replaced by a lounge when the theater was redesigned.
TInseltwon Plano would immediately become the DFW area’s second highest grossing theater behind only the AMC Grand and both AMC and Cinemark would take the momentum to expand in the megaplex era knocking out multiplex-centric General Cinema and counterpunch UA and Loews/Sony in the DFW market. In 1998, Tinseltown USA Plano surpassed the Grand as the highest grossing theater in DFW. And a second Cinemark Plano megaplex, the Legacy, on US-75 delivered stellar results upon its opening in June of 1999.
The Tinseltown USA became an incubator of concepts as the executives could walk over and see the results of concepts. Sneak previews sometimes with stars in attendance took place at the theater. Its moniker would be changed to the Cinemark West Plano and XD and received an incredible makeover with huge self-service concession area, Starbuck’s coffee, a Cinemark Extreme Digital Cinema screen (XD) — the circuit’s first in 2009, a party area next to the XD screen, and would convert from 35mm film to DCP servers projecting digital films and special satellite-fed events including classic film series. In 2014/5, the theater would be joined by eight restaurants built just to the south becoming a desitnation point for foodies and movie fans. Thanks to constant attention and innovative concepts, along with a stellar location, the theater looked to have a vibrant future heading into the 2020s.
For more than 35 years, Garland residents could enjoy drive-in movies at 3159 S. Garland Road. But as the home video era came into being, it was out with the Apollo Drive-In and in with the Wal-Mart 24-hour concept store, the Hypermart which opened at the former drive-in’s spot in 1989. But less than a mile away, movie lovers of Garland were delighted when a 60,000 square foot, 15-screen behemoth known as the Cinemark Hollywood U.S.A. was announced in 1992 just off of I-635 and Shiloh Road. Groundbreaking took place on June 11, 1992 with Cinemark mascot Front Row Joe, Garland’s Mayor Bob Smith, and others. The city teamed up with Cinemark to combine forces on a massive 800-space parking lot which would be used by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) users during the daytime and moviegoers by night. The fact was that nothing was small or understated about the Cinemark Hollywood U.S.A. as it would become the largest megaplex outside of California when it launched at the end of 1992.
The theater opened on December 18, 1992 playing “Home Alone 2” as the first of 14 features. Its lobby featured neon palm trees on the west, a massive concession area, a neon Sunset Boulevard street sign over the arcade, and a Mama Rugi’s pizzeria with large seating area. There was also a 7’-by-7’ (3 monitor by 3 monitor) video screen featuring trailers and live video. That monitor wall would be about the only casualty over the first 30 years of the theater’s operation as the theater remained remarkably consistent (other than two interior concession stands which were retained but not used for many years).
Nothing was subtle in the purple, green and orange color scheme inside or the well-lit ticket area outside which was trying to conjure up Hollywood’s past with homages to Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson, James Dean, Marlene Dietrich among them. Inside, lit frames of classic Hollywood stars were found next to the entrances of the theaters including theaters dedicated to Bogey and the Duke. But on opening night, people were blown away by the talking Front Row Joe trash can which had a variety of random phrases when trash was dispensed with. 23 years later, the trash can amazingly was still around though Joe’s trash-talking were apparently behind it.
The first competition for the USA came on May 21, 1996 when United Artists opened its superior Galaxy just an exit or two to the west of the Cinemark theater. The two battled it out for the best clearances for the next ten years. But with its six THX-certified auditoria — two with 80' screens — the UA Galaxy was a destination complex. More competition came in March of 1998, the mega-large AMC Mesquite 30 opened to the south also along I-635. With all stadium-seating, the megaplex was draining business from both Garland theaters.
Then in 2005, Garland got the high-tech AMC Firewheel 18. The Cinemark Garland was aging quickly as superior theaters were easily reachable via highway and the circuit finally decided to downgrade the theater after 15-years of first-run service to a pretty awesome sub-run discount house. The theater would temporarily drop to just 14-screens as the theater leased out theater one to a non-profit house of worship. It would also try Spanish-subtitled American films for a period to reach the fast-growing Hispanic population in the area. Both concepts didn’t work out and the theater continued as a mainstream dollar house into the mid-2010s. Its biggest change came when the theater was able to make the conversion from scratchy second-run 35mm prints to all-digital projection allowing for 3D exhibition and better quality presentation. While many early 1990s theaters had changed hands or closed altogether, the Cinemark remained vaiable as it neared its 25th anniversary.
In 1983, the fast-gowing Dallas suburb of Carrollton had just surpassed 50,000 citizens and projected to exclipse 80,000 by 1990. In 1970, it had just 13,855 people and was served by a twin-screen drive-in, the Rebel, and an old downtown movie theater, the Plaza. In Carrollton’s growth spurt, the Trinity Mills / Old Denton Road would receive an astonishing 21 movie screens. It would start with General Cinema’s Furneaux Creek Village 7. That would prove so successful that the firm would plop down another theater caddy corner to the Furneaux called the GCC Carrollton Towne Centre 6 – generally known simply as the GCC Carrollton 6. And Cinemark would create its Movies 8 at Trinity Mills positioning it as a sub-run discount house.
Starting with Furneaux Creek, developer Paul Broadhead announced the $12 million Furneaux Creek Village late in 1982. General Cinema Corp. and three restaurants were first announced with the GCC Furneaux Creek Cinemas 7 launching on December 9, 1983. The theater was at 2625 Old Denton Rd. It opened with Yentl, Christine, Sudden Impact, Never Say Never Again, and a Smurfs film. Despite limited street visibility, the theater was an immediate hit as people loved the dining and shopping alternatives including book store in the cozy Furneaux Creek. The shopping center had a subdued architectural feel and the GCC cinema used understated and dark color palette creating a calm and abnormally darker than average lobby environment. GCC would use its business strategy to plop down another multiplex where one was doing brisk business. It had done this at the Town East Mall in Mesquite, Northpak Center and Redbird Mall in the DFW area.
Caddy corner to Furneaux Creek Village, a 182,000 square foot, non-descript shopping strip called Carrollton Towne Centre was announced in 1986. GCC would take a well-hidden 25,175 square foot spot tucked away in the back of that strip. The theater was brighter than its neighbor. That said, the arcitecturally-bland Carrollton 6 matched the benign shopping center launching July 24, 1987. The theater had mediocre sound options and wasn’t a destination theater by any stretch. But GCC had tight control of the Carrollton zone with its 13 screens caddy corner from one another. Success was rather short-lived.
Furneaux Creek’s creator Broadhead had now moved on to chairman of upstart movie circuit, Cinemark. He and LeRoy Mitchell made what they called a “risky move” by encroaching on the Carrollton zone. In 1989, the three-year old circuit decided to launch an 8-screen subrub discount house walking distance from the Furneaux Creek shopping center at 1130 W. Trinity Mills Rd. The city had gone from one screen in 1983 to 21 screens when the Cinemark opened Nov. 10, 1989. And the risk was possibly too great as all three theaters would fall on very hard times fairly quickly.
Just to the North in Lewisville, less than five miles away on Interstate 35, a retail nexus would form around the Vista Ridge Mall – the DFW area’s newest and largest mall which opened in October of 1989. It included a 12-screen first-run Cinemark theater as multiplexes were giving way to megaplexes of ten or more screens. Within five years, the Lewisville zone would have 30 first-run screens and one discount house. The better-built megaplex-era theaters would erode film audiences from the multiplex-era Carrollton theaters. Also, population shifts in the 1990s saw a surge in Asian residents and the marketplace would alter Furneaux Creek’s target demographic. In short, the three Carrollton theaters would all be at the wrong place at the wrong time each failing to reach the end of their original lease periods.
The GCC Carrollton was the first casualty closing in September of 1998 as GCC focused on its Furneaux Creek operation. The GCC Carrollton would have the distinction of showing “Simon Birch” as among its last offerings. Birch would close the iconic General Cinema NorthPark I theater less than a month later. Things weren’t any better for Cinemark as it closed up shop at its Movies 8 in July of 2000, a rare misstep for the firm. And the third and final theater in the Carrollton zone would drop just three months later.
GCC was doomed with its multiplex-centric business model. The GCC Furneaux Creek got a vote of confidence on October 5, 2000 when four GCCs were shuttered leaving just the Galleria, the Furneaux, and the newly-built Irving Mall 14 in the DFW area. Two weeks later, GCC rethought the plan and closed the Galleria and Furneaux Creek. The last show was “Bait” with no patrons for the other six shows as the theater closed quickly and quietly before the evening’s posted showtimes could run.
It was hard to imagine that the Carrollton zone had gone down so quickly. Star Cinema took on the Furneaux Creek very briefly openning in November of 2000 with Little Nicky and six other features. But that operation closed quickly as Star Cinema moved to the former GCC Town East and then, finally, to the former AMC Towne Crossing before surrendering to the megaplex era. A hastily-created Cinema Grill by a fledgling circuit of the same name came into the Furneaux Creek basically removing rows of seats to put in tables for full-kitchen service movies with meals. That launched May 8, 2002 but was a quick failure.
The Movies 8 became a non-profit Covenant Church. The Furneaux Creek was completely gutted revealing just a giant hand-painted General Cinema logo on its back wall. It was converted into a vibrant Korean market. And this listing for the GCC Carrollton Towne Center was home to a gym which failed. The former Carrollton 6 was vacant for long stretches prior to and after being a gym, in part, due to the hidden nature of the building.
In the 1930s, George Myers was everything to the, then, small town of Carrollton, Texas. The grocer/mayor/postmaster showed outdoor films before carving out a space in his downtown grocery store with post office to show indoor films at 1110 W. Main Street. The show-store was purchased by A.R. Lowery and his wife, Vera who replaced the benches with seating at the Plaza Theater. Their 8-year old son, John, made news when he made it to the final chapter of a western serial with a broken leg. Not long after A.R. Lowrey passed away, Vera and John, would decide to operate a larger theater, the “new” Plaza opening December 23, 1949 as the town had surged to just over 1,000 residents.
The Raymond Smith architected facility would prove to be well-built as the building was virtually unchanged over the next 45 years of operation. The original projector made it through the entire run of the building. Carrollton would grow from 1,000 residents to 93,000 in the 1990s. In a 55-year family theatrical career, the Lowery’s with their two Plaza Theaters would survive competition from the nearby twin-screen drive-in, the Rebel, as well as three multiplexes created in suburban Carrollton. Vera would continue working at the theater until age 92 and son, John, finally closed the theater – operating as a sub-run discount dollar house — with “The Mask” as the theater was reaching its 45th anniversary. The veteran operator sold the theater to a church-backed group who would convert the theater into a live performance venue.
A marker outside of the theater commemorates the Lowrey’s 45-year operation at the Plaza. Continuing in 1985 as the Plaza Music Theatre, the Grapevine Opry entertained locals until 2002. Two local businessmen took on the Plaza renaming it the Plaza Arts Center. It has space for local artists to display work regularly and hosted some events and local events. The Plaza has continued to the mid-2010s where the facility continues to entertain Carrollton in the city’s downtown looking almost unchanged after more than 65 years.
In 1985, the Herring Group of Dallas and Homart Development Co. announced that they would develop DFW’s largest shopping mall, a 1.4 million square foot center known as Vista Ridge. The mall opened in October of 1989 and the Cinemark wasn’t far behind opening that same month. The mall theater was glitzy and gaudy resplendent in purple, red, and green neon tubing. A 3x3 CRT monitor bank had 10 minutes of movie previews and then three minutes of live video where patrons could see themselves larger than life. The theater had an arcade area, large concession stand, and two larger theaters for the biggest films that week. The only competition was a ten-screen theater up the road which became a discount house in the Garden Park Shopping Center.
The theater was an amazing hit. James Terry McIlvain signed autographs during a screening of “Pure Country.” Scott Bakula showed up of “Quantum Leap” fame and signed autographs. And the theater was doing such stellar business that AMC Theatres announced in 1993 it would build its first ever 20-screen theater across the street from Vista Ridge Mall. While that project was dropped as AMC turned its attention to its AMC Grand Project further south on Interstate 35, two new theaters opened across from each other with Trans-Texas’ Vista Ridge 8 and UA’s Lakepointe 10 both opening the same day on December 16, 1994.
Cinemark would take on the Vista Ridge 8 converting it to a sub-run, discount house. The competing Super Saver discount house in Garden Park would close. But in December of 2000, Rave Motion Pictures would open its first ever theater with the high-tech Hickory Creek 16 just to the North on I-35. It was game on and Cinemark’s property began to age quickly compared to the Rave.
Instead of trying to refresh the 17 year old property and do a full digital conversion, Cinemark created a new build Cinemark 15 at Vista Ridge Mall opening with a soft launch on September 20, 2006. That theater would supplant the Movies 12 which remained empty for some time.
The Studio Movie Grill Lewisville was originally going to be AMC’s first 20-screen super-megaplex. When Vista Ridge Mall opened in 1989, Lewisville received its second 10-plus screen theater with Cinemark Theater’s Vista Ridge 12 inside the mall. Because the shopping complex drew people from a wide circle including Lewisville, Flower Mound, Carrollton, Coppell, Lake Dallas, Corinth and Highland Village, there was room for another theater. So in January 1993, AMC announced an exterior multiplex across the highway down from Corporate Drive that would be a 48,000 sqaure feet 20-screen multiplex the likes of which the DFW area hand’t seen.
In May of 1993, AMC turned its attention to a 24-screen AMC Stemmons Crossroads project that would become the game-changing AMC Grand 24 opening in 1995. AMC walked away from the 20-screen Lewisville project leaving an opening for another operator to build a megalplex in that spot. United Artists stepped up with a smaller-sized concept theater that would serve as a blueprint for its expansion within DFW over the next several years.
UA concentrated its 1994-1997 growth with 9-to-11 screen builds that were more destination theaters then the generic, neighborhood 8-plexes that it had built in the early to mid-1990s. And the UA Lakepointe 10 would be its first scheduled to open followed by a similar facility in Grand Prairie (1995), a grander location near Garland (1996), and two in Fort Worth (1997). Meanwhile, Trans-Texas announced a simultaneous project on the opposite side of the freeway. Trans-Texas' 8-screen theater was of more modest scale and it was a race to see which would open first.
To demonstrate that it was out of the business of building generic boxy theaters, UA got a waiver from the City of Lewisville to include a laser lighting system that would adorn the main entrance and be visible to the busy adjoinging highway. The UA Lakepointe 10’s translucent theater canopy was designed by Runyon Architects and Associates. It was 10 feet tall and 100 feet long projecting 14 color patterns that could be set to music. The UA theater launched December 16, 1994 with features including Speechless, Dumb and Dumber, Drop Zone and Disclosure though would not have its official grand opening celebration until January 26, 1995. Trans-Texas' Vista Ridge 8-plex opened across the street on December 16, 1994 with sub-runs and would go first run then back to sub-run discount when it became part of the Cinemark circuit.
The first shoe to drop in the Lewisville area was the first multiplex in the Rand/Hollywood/Silver Cinema 10-screen discount house in the Garden Park Shopping Center. But UA ran into financial difficulty as a circuit as the century closed while others easily outflanked the chain’s 10-screen effort. Rave Motion Pictures opened a state-of-the-art high tech megaplex just to the north of the Lakepointe opening in 2000 which took much of the non-mall, non-discount moviegoing audience with it. With Cinemark scheduled to open a brand new facility at Vista Ridge Mall, and a 14-plex just to the North in Denton, the writing was on the wall. UA closed the Lakepointe and many other theaters across DFW and around the country.
But all was not lost as Studio Movie Grill repositioned the Lakepointe as a movie and dining event place called the Studio Movie Grill Lewisville opening May 2007. The theater was in a contentious zone with AMC opening its Highland Village theater to the west in December of that year, Obviously with many theaters within exits of each other (the Vista Ridge Mall 15 Lewisville, the Lewisville 8 discount house, Cinemark 14 in Denton, the Silver Cinemas Golden Triangle, and the Rave Hickory Creek 16), SMG had its work cut out for it. Redesigning the complex as an 8-plex with full kitchen, the theater pulled off the task with aplomb keeping the theater relevant into the mid-2010s and beyond.
The Trans-Texas Vista Ridge Movies 8 opened at an inopportune time for the fledgling circuit. Across the highway, United Artists opened its far superior Lakepointe 10 on the same day that the T-T Vista Ridge was having its grand opening celebration. The Vista Ridge had scheduled sub-run films for the public to get a free look at facility. But with competition just yards away from the Cinemark Vista Ridge 12 inside of the Vista Ridge Mall, the UA Lakepointe and by decade’s end, Rave Motion Pictures just to the North, Trans-Texas bailed and Cinemark took on the struggling 8-plex. It repositioned it as a sub-run discount house. With the departure of the Rand/Hollywood/Silver Cinema 10-screen discount house in the Garden Park Shopping Center, this theater had found its audience continuing strong into the mid-2010s.
United Artists Circuits purchased 9.5 acres near the southeast corner of Jupiter Road and LBJ Freeway in northeast Dallas to launch a destination theater that eventually opened May 21, 1996 called the Galaxy. While much of the attention was going to 24 and 30 screen megaplexes of the era, UA was more conservative building 9-11 screen complexes. UA built its Lakepointe 10 theater in Lewisville opening in December 1994 and would build a similar facility in Grand Prarie (Aug.1995) along with two Fort Worth complexes opening in 1997 with the Eastchase 9 and the Fossil Creek 11.
Much like the UA Grand Prairie, the circuit was going after a contemporary Cinemark multiplex in the Hollywood USA 14/15. With screen count already in favor of the established Cinemark property, UA spent more on this property than the afforementioned theaters. The costs of the Galaxy sailed past $12 million with two huge 750 seat auditoria with 76.5 foot wide screens and 50-foot high ceilings affectionately called the 80 foot screens, eclipsing the 75 foot screens at the CInemark 17. The two auditoria had the second largest screens next to only the outdoor Astro Drive-In.
The theater made a statement, THX certification was found in six auditoria where digital sound was vibrant. There was stadium seating with rocking-chair padded seats in all houses, something that UA had eschewed in the past. A crazy large dual-sided concession area, gaming area, two additional concession stands close to theaters 5 & 9 – the largest houses, and a 38-seat Showscan ride simulator theater that rounded out the technologically innovative theater.
Opening night was wild on May 21, 1996. With eight theaters ready for usage, Mission: Impossible was screened on each screen a day before its actual opening and the theater attracted sell out audiences. People showed up, they filled the auditorium and went on to the next auditorium. The theater made $22,500 in ticket revenue selling out all shows until 11:45p.
Because of the size of the large screens, Star Wars fans camped out at the Galaxy as members of “Countdown Dallas” waited the highly anticipated 1999 film. The theater had many sell-outs and delivered the goods. The Galaxy 9 would become the Galaxy 10 when the Showscan novelty house was converted into a small screen. UA all but vanquished its Cinemark competitor as the Hollywood USA was downgraded to sub-run dollar house status. UA had all the new clearances it wanted for new films.
But United Artists, itself, fell on hard times and the circuit dropped theater after theater in the area and around the country. Even the Countdown Dallas group abandoned the theater for 2002’s Phantom Menace sequel opting for the DLP-centric Cinemark Legacy. UA which once had theaters all over Dallas would be taken over by Regal and would have only the Galaxy after leaving the Plaza, the Keystone, the MacArthur Marketplace, and all of its multiplexes including the North Star in Garland. Regal didn’t do justice to the Galaxy as THX designation went away. The cash-strapped Regal chain didn’t do much over the next ten years to refresh the property and weekday audiences found the 900 slot parking lot with more new cars for the adjoining car dealership than patrons.
Meanwhile, AMC would upgrade its 30-screen Mesquite property with a IMAX-branded screen, a bar, fork-and-screen full-kitchen houses, and recliners. More people were drifting away from the Galaxy. But there was hope as in 2015, the theater would receive its first major refresh when recliner seating was announced in March of 2015 to come in time for the big summer films. Because Regal owned the theater instead of the former practice of leasing, it realized that the theater might have an opportunity to remain vibrant heading into the 2020s.
The $5 million, sub-run discount Starplex Mesquite Cinema 10 opened on July 27, 1996 at Highway 80 and Belt Line Road. On its opening weekend, films were free (Flipper, James and the Giant Peach, The Arrival, Heaven’s Prisoners, Celtic Pride, Dragonheart, Executive Decision, Toy Story, Homeward Bound 2, Truth About Cats & Dogs, and Primal Fear). Auditorium size ranged from 125 to 450 seats. The theater had DTS, Dolby Digital and SDDS at its opening with wall-to-wall screens. '
The theater was the cousin to the Starplex Irving which had also just opened. Tickets were $1 before 6 p.m. and $1.50 after 6 p.m. with bargain Tuesdays. Its nearest subrun discount competition would be from the Cinemark Big Town five miles away and AMC Towne Crossing four miles away. They would both go out of business in 1999 and 1998, respectively. The Starplex chain would later add a first-run theater in Forney just 11 miles away.