The Cliff-Queen opened in 1914 at 616 E. Jefferson by W.J. Shivers with nearly 700 seats. E.H. Hulse was the next operator in 1915 followed soon thereafter by George M. Blackburn. The theater was the site of political speeches and bond rallies during World War I. W.W. Ard purchased and remodeled the theater in 1922 which probably explains the reduced number of seats.
L.L. Dunbar was the next and longest operator of the theater. Community-minded, during the Depression, the theater offered free shows to the poor and unemployed, gave 40,000 tickets over many years to servicemen (Dunbar said it was the only theater with such a policy in Texas), and always allowed firemen and police in free. But the theater ran into a couple of problems. Dunbar lost a court battle with ASCAP over music rights. On Oct. 14, 1944, the theater was padlocked for failure to correct fire hazards. Dunbar re-opened the theater in time for Christmas that year.
Gene Autry Enterprises took over the Cliff Queen, Kessler and opened the Hill in 1946 and operated the Beckley. The final operator was the Robb & Rowley Circuit which took over the Gene Autry Enterprises circuit and was operating the Heights, Beverly, Kessler, Midway, Rosewin, Stevens, Texas and Vogue in addition to the Cliff Queen.
The last show appears to be a double-feature of “Chicago Deadline” and “Arthur Takes Over” on March 12, 1950. The building is said to be vacant from that date forward. In March of 1958, the Cliff-Queen was identified as one of 20 buildings to be knocked over including the Oak Cliff City Hall and the 1888 constructed Hamilton Pharmacy Building. At the time of its closing, it was the second oldest theater in the city and the longest running suburban house.
The Odeon (Healy) Theater was built by J.S. Phillips at 1004 Main Street and operated by R.A. Healy. It opened as The Healy on June 14, 1910, a very modest $20,000 house. Complete with a $3,500 Wurlitzer Orchestrian and a smoker gallery to add excitement to the nitrate film projection. But Healy decided to sell the theater just months later. When it was purchased on Nov. 12, 1910 by Elmore Callaway, he held a contest to rename The Healy and child Priscilla Sedgwick won with her suggestion of the Odeon. (A file in the pictures section shows this.) Healy built a larger house at 911 Houston Street which was dubbed The New Healy Show House and then shortened later to The Healy Theater. The Odeon was a survivor as it was surpassed in terms of architecture and technology in the silent era but managed to transition into the sound era within a very competitive downtown Fort Worth theatrical district before closing in the 1930s.
The original Palace Theater in Dallas was a Nickelodeon just two blocks away on Elm Street. It closed in the early 1900s. The second Palace Theater was also on Elm Street and was renamed the Harlem Theater. But this entry is about the third Palace Theater to appear on Elm Street, that of Southern Enterprises’ Palace Theater, a $1,000,000 showplace designed by Thomas W. Lamb of Chicago and built by C.D. Hill of Dallas.
Many concepts within the design are attributed to S.L. “Roxy” Rothafel who patterned his ideas from the Rialto and Rivoli in New York including a small inner proscenium for the screen and an outer frame for a symphony orchestra. And to make sure people knew the theater cost a million bucks, the theater painted the phrase on top of the theater and placed it in early ads for Palace shows. Movie star Bebe Daniels was on hand March 2, 1921 for the laying of the building’s cornerstone. Its seating capacity of 3,000 would house the entire capacity of the Queen, Hippodrome, and Old Mill Theater combined. Its architecture was said to be of the Adam Design with its Roman Pantheon inspired columns and frieze around its dome. Tennessee gray marble and Gray McMullen marble were liberally utilized along with white and yellow terrazzo flooring as nice touches. Bathed in cream, browns, blues and golds, the theater had an opulent feel. An art gallery was just up the stairways which, themselves were marble with bronze bannisters. Historical periods were carried out in the Pantheon frieze work in the mezzanine while rest rooms were in the marble balcony with marble, fumed oak, and open fireplaces and mantels. Medallion lighting fixtures from the ceiling producing lighting effects. All seats were upholstered with air cushion spring bottoms, nineteen inches wide. And the views were unobstructed by posts as the theater was post-free.
The promised 40-piece Palace Orchestra was reduced to a 30-member group the outset but led by D.W. Griffith staff conductor Don Albert. The $50,000 Hope-Jones pipe organ was huge and featured a quartet of reed, stringed and brass instruments including seven violins, violas, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, cornets, trombones, harp, piano, and kettle drums. Coming just two months after The Majestic’s much-heralded opening, the theater had to deliver the goods. Along with the theater amenities was a staff of 66. Point made Southern Enterprises. As for projection, the projection was from a crow’s nest in the back wall of the balcony, a 136 foot throw from projection window to screen: one of the longest in the South. It would be home to Paramount and Realart films.
The theater opened Jun 11, 1921 with “Sentimental Tommy” with Carl Weisemann showing of the organ. WFAA broadcast from the theater. The fireproof construction turned out to be a saving grace as the neighboring Carreaud Bakery threatened to destroy the Palace in 1922. However, the building held up with $20,000 damage mostly due to water used to extinguish the bakery fire. Another fire in a neighboring business in 1923 caused an evacuation but no damage. A special booth was constructed called the “non-synch” room which was a double turntable for recordings to non-synchronized silent films. It was said to be outside the jurisdiction of the musicians union and thus could be operated with violating the musicians contract.
On March 13, 1926, Publix Theaters left the Melba and took control of Southern Enterprises and the Palace. Its first moves was to lower the orchestra into the pit and bring “New York produced shows” to the Palace. The Palace received a $200,000 makeover beginning in July of 1928 designed by George C. Perkins under Publix for its stage shows. The theater decided to put a lot more into the stage show presences while others were putting their capitol into sound systems. New dressing rooms, a counterweight rigging system for faster set set-up and striking, and glow system of illumination for lighting effects inside the auditorium along with a vastly expanded lobby and much larger outdoor sign – the largest in the South reportedly – among the changes. An improved organ with additional pipes and reeds for fuller presentations was added. The theater would be wired for Movietone sound for its ninth year of operation and Vitaphone, as well. The theater was renamed the Greater Palace, its official name at its grand re-opening that was four months behind schedule on January 11, 1929. In the talking picture era, Norma Shearer’s “Smilin’ Through’ played to 10,500 patrons in a single day which was impressive for 1932.
In 1934, the Interstate Theater Circuit took on the Palace and operated until its closure in 1970. In its thirtieth anniversary, changes which came in time for its 31st birthday included moving rest rooms to the main floor, a new color scheme in the recarpeting of the theater, Eugene Gilboe decorative murals, and wider seating reduced the overall count to 2,300. Between the 30th and 31st birthday, however, projectionist and former president of the projectionist’s union Julius J. Schaeffer – who worked at the Palace since 1921 – died at work. Schaeffer would miss the installation of wider angle screens put in in the form of Cinemascope in June of 1953 for demonstrations along with The Robe – Dallas’ first Cinemascope picture opening Sept. 24th of that year, the stage space was greatly reduced leading to fewer wide scale live events. However, the impressive 54'x22’ Cinemascope screen was the first in Dallas. 30,000 people saw The Robe that first week and it set a record for attendance that stood for years. That film was followed by the successful How to Marry a Millionaire.
The Palace fell victim to the growth of the Central Zone in Dallas which got a lot of the major films. Attendance dwindled and when the Palace’s lease expired in December of 1970, Interstate made no efforts to re-up. The theater closed December 3d and was sold and demolished. The final film, “Flap” was a forgettable choice and the decision to bulldoze the building a regrettable error despite eventually being replaced by the venerable Thanksgiving Tower. Sadly, the Palace was no more.
For Dallas-based Rave Motion Pictures, the December 2000 opening of the Rave Hickory Creek 16 was exciting. It was the company’s first theater and located in their corporate backyard. The $12 million, 60,000 square foot property was well-positioned against the nearby UA/Regal Lakepoint Lewisville to the South and the Golden Triangle locations just to the North in Denton with the chain entering bankruptcy and years ahead of Cinemark’s refurbishing of its nearby Vista Ridge Mall to the South or the Denton ‘plex which would be built to the North almost five years later. The Cal Young architected theater was visually stunning upon its opening. Young’s modernistic architecture design was one of six winners of the 2001 National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA) Design Awards of Excellence program. Its auditoriums ranged from 100 to 300 seats.
Launching on December 21, 2000 with free admission to any movie Thursday in exchange for a donation of two cans of nonperishable food, the theater’s regular first-run policy began the next day. The theater chain would be aggressive in moving away from celluloid film and to digital projection well ahead of the competition. In 2005, Rave was the first to enter into the Real-D 3D era with exclusive North Texas screenings at its then three area theaters for 3D films including “Chicken Little” making it a focal point for 3D fans.
The Rave had its technology and architectural advantages going for it. People would drive past older, aged properties from all directions to get to the Rave. Regal would shutter its UA Golden Triangle theaters in Denton just to the North on October 13, 2003 making the Rave a destination point for then theater-less Denton. It would outlast Regal’s UA Lakepoint which would shutter just to the South. But the competition wasn’t rolling over. Cinemark would revitalize its aged Vista Ridge property and retain its nearby discount house to the South while building a megaplex in Denton just a few exits to the North. Studio Movie Grill would take on the Lakepoint as a dine and movie locale. And seven miles away to the West and South, AMC would enter the outer periphery of the Rave’s footprint with its Highland Village theater.
Rave’s aggressive move in 2009 to take on Showcase Cinemas to boost it to the fifth largest operator in the U.S. was short-lived as Cinemark would purchase 32 of the chain’s 35 theaters including the Hickory Creek on November 30, 2012. Obviously with four properties within exits of each other (the Vista Ridge Mall 15 Lewisville, the Lewisville 8 discount house, Cinemark 14 in Denton and the Rave Hickory Creek 16), something had to give. On July 18, 2013, Carmike would acquire the Hickory Creek property along with two other theaters in Louisville, KY and Voorhees, NJ. The Carmike Hickory Creek 16 continued operations with its new Carmike signage as pictured into the 2010s.
Claude V. Caver doesn’t get much credit for inventing the concept of the Drive-In in 1921 but that’s what he did in Comanche, TX getting a permit to build a screen on the town’s courthouse lawn while he remodeled his indoor theater. Residents enjoyed the novelty of watching films from their cars. But Caver moved to Dallas in 1928 to launch the Trinity Theater in the Trinity Heights annex within Dallas’ Oak Cliff. The MGM lion, Leo, visited the theater on December 13, 1929 as the first of three Dallas’ theaters in that year’s tour. In October of 1934, H.C. Houston purchased the theater from Caver and brought in cushioned seats, acoustical treatment, and new sound equipment among the improvements. As a not so welcome to the neighborhood, Houston was a defendant in a $5,300 lawsuit brought by a patron who tripped over a rug in the redecorated theater.
In 1940, Houston put in a new façade, new marquee, and ticket box. The white stucco front with red centerstrip and ornamental blue diamond shaped tiles was retained for over a decade. The King Scenic Company did the remodeling. William Fumm took over management of the theater in 1944. In post-war Dallas, the independent struggled mightily against chains which were operating superior theaters in Oak Cliff including R&R Theaters. The downturn led Fumm to drop the theater and it was closed for a short period.
In 1953, George P. Hamrah and Charles Hothoot reopened the theater renovating the property very slightly and opening February 12, 1953 with Bill Boyd and the Cowboy Ramblers making a personal appearance. The theater had a weekly Friday amateur stage show for months until Hothoot and Hamrah dropped the theater just seven months into their unsuccessful run. Mrs. Victor Jones bought the theater and installed Mrs. Lottie Burt Strong as its manager. Strong brought showmanship to the “new” Trinity regularly featuring Bobby “Uncle Ukie” Henshaw coming from the Malco Theater in Memphis after a long career in vaudeville and motion pictures. The theater also starred renowned organist Paul Jordan and singer/actress Deane Janis. Jones and Strong equipped the theater with new sound and Fox AstroLight CinemaScope-like capable screen. But widescreen and showmanship weren’t the ticket either for the new Trinity. So the theater closed again in early 1954.
At the unrelated White Theater, A.J. Vineyard had a four-day celebration and would also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the theater in the summer of 1954. But multiple armed robberies at the neighboring liquor store took their toll on Vineyard as the theater owner, himself, was a victim of one of the liquor store robberies. The theater, itself, also was robbed at the box office. So Vineyard left the White Theater’s high crime rate area and he bought the Trinity in August of 1954 rebranding it as the Ewing Theater opening November 4, 1954. The Ewing was short-lived as few tickets were sold during Vineyard’s very brief run and the lobby was quickly retrofitted as a retail television store in 1955. Following its theatrical life and short retail period, the Trinity became home to multiple places of worship including the Abundant Life Center (which suffered a major fire in 1962), the Temple Community Church and, more recently, the Lighthouse Gospel Center Church into the 2010s. As a result, the suburban Trinity had surpassed 85 years of service as of 2013.
The police blotter on the Trinity during its movie era was somewhat active. The safe was burgled many times at the Trinity. There was the $10 heist in 1930. The $319 getaway in 1936. A $15 loss in 1944. A 1951 led to a net gain with $0 taken and a tool set left behind with another 1951 safe robbery leading simply to safe damage. A bicycle locked in the theater for safe keeping was stolen through a hole in the roof in a rather dramatic theft. And a 16-year old beat a 40-year old patron to death at the theater over a comment made by the 16-year old about the man’s daughter which led the man to reprimand the boy about his comments and the boy to beat the man to death. Not good.
When AMC announced a multiplex in what was known as Dallas’ Central Zone of movie exhibition to open in November of 1988, United Artists wouldn’t be caught flat-footed. It purchased four acres of land in the shadow of the AMC NorthPark theater (soon changed to the AMC Glen Lakes) and across the street from the venerable General Cinema NorthPark III & IV in May of 1988. The $14 million, 106,000 square foot United Artists NorthPark was drawn up in 1988 and designed to make a splash. By the time the renamed United Artists Plaza opened on May 24, 1989, it was truly a destination theater despite being tucked away behind strip shopping centers. With eight screens and 3,600 seats all on the second floor and dining and entertainment on the ground floor, the UA was not a neighborhood multiplex but a theater people wanted to travel to and spend the night. To accommodate its projection of 20,000 guests per week, an entire three-level parking structure with spaces for 1,100 cars with large parking lots surrounding the complex.
Resplendent in neon and sporting 4 THX certified auditoriums, three with 70mm projection, United Artists was making a statement in the Central Zone. The second floor lobby was filled with a 13-foot video kiosk with two 9x9 CRT monitor video walls. The neon chandeliers glowed purple, rose, white and green. Long after the theater’s heyday, people remembered the memorable escalator ride to the theaters from the ground floor box office transporting you to the four snack bars on each wall, the video wall, lit glass blocks, chandeliers, and theaters. But the Plaza did allow the nearby AMC Glen Lakes to have one upper hand with some of its auditoriums having stadium seating while the UA had no theaters with stadium seating. But the United Artists was clearly gunning for the gracefully aging General Cinemas NorthPark I & II and III & IV in the battle royale while knowing it could outarchitect the AMC project.
“We are sparing no expense,‘ John Panzeca, vice president of United Artists Realty in charge of the company’s North Dallas project said upon its opening. “For years we built theaters that were little, rectangular boxes….I used to point with pride to how inexpensively I could get those projects to come in,” he said. “Today, it’s gone full circle. We have to compete with 48-inch televisions and cable and stereo sound at home. We have to make our theater a more interesting experience.” And the payout was there as the opening week gross for opening film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” was $145,000, a new Dallas record by almost 50% over the previous single-theater mark. Not resting on its laurels, the theater installed a Cinema Digital Sound System for the 70mm presentation of “Edward Scissorhands” in 1990; it was the only theater outside of New York or Los Angeles with the 5.1 disc-based system.
Theaters which took it on the chin in the C-Zone were the Caruth Plaza which shuttered, the Medallion which was downgraded to discount house and the former UA 150 roadshow turned UA Ciné art house. The Skillman theater would also suffer at the hands of the Plaza and, moreso, the UA Galaxy six years later. Theater staffs at the Glen Lakes, NorthParks and UA theaters were all coached well and moved hundreds of people briskly but with attention when they visited any of the zone’s theaters.
The 1994 opening of “The Firm” had the largest box office take in the United States at the Plaza in its opening week and the same was said to be true of “Clear and Present Danger.” In a two year stretch, Dallas would add 175 screens but the UA Plaza just kept going. It played a 31-hour run of Independence Day on July ¾, 1996. The marathon sold $31,000 in tickets at the Plaza in just the first 10 hours. One patron went for five showings including the 4:30 a.m. show.
But the Plaza shuttered restaurants on its first floor as the decade of the 90s continued. Drew Pearson’s 88 restaurant, Vincent’s Seafood were casualties. The General Cinema’s North Park complexes left the area in 1998. Then entertainment places within the Plaza’s first floor boarded up thereafter including the Virtual World gaming center, the Q-Zar arcade, and even United Artists’ own motion theater. The parking complex was so underutilized — generally deserted on weekdays — that the Dallas Area Rapid Transit would use it as remote parking for light rail users. The once vibrant video wall had badly color matched monitors and many monitors had simply flatlined. The two-sided wall became a poorly functioning single sided wall. Three snack bars of the four were permanently closed. Even the iconic first-floor box office was closed on most nights as tickets were sold at the snack bar. And the attraction board on the access road was often out of order. As such, the first part of the 21st Century wasn’t kind to the Plaza with Regal taking on the UA circuit in bankruptcy. Regal was obviously not in a position to spend any money on the property. When the AMC NorthPark 15 was announced, the Plaza was already sensing doom. Theaters lacking stadium seating were in collapse and the Regal shut the UA Plaza theater on Sunday December 5, 2004. The theater’s fall from grace was such that few came to see the last day’s features. The theater complex was converted into a church within a year which continued into the 2010s.
When Trammell Crow leased a space to AMC to build a new eight-screen theater in the lucrative Central Zone of Dallas film exhibition, the battle lines had been crossed. AMC had been a peripheral player in the Dallas market with nondescript multiplexes in outer Dallas neighborhoods. But to build adjoining Crow’s Glen Lakes Tower in a tight two-acre spot within the Central Zone was quite another thing entirely. While it had just landed in the periphery of the Zone when it took over the boutique neighborhood Highland Park Village theater, the AMC NorthPark was going to be the chain’s destination theater. Everyone knew it was movie theater war. Within weeks of the AMC project starting, United Artists was completing terms on a tract of land to build its own multiplex walking distance from the AMC NorthPark. They were both trying to unseat General Cinemas which, itself, had all but done in the Plitt/Interstate theaters which had dominated the Dallas marketplace for decades.
The AMC NorthPark was completed a bit ahead of schedule with a November 10th, 1988, champagne buffet and premiere screening of A Cry in the Dark benefiting Dallas Cares, an AIDS support group. The theater opened to the general public a day later. Two of the eight auditoriums seated 500 patrons and two more seated 400 each. Those four theaters were stadium-style seating which was supposedly one of the first five theaters in the country to have that many stadium seating houses in the same complex. Seating capacity in the sloped seating theaters ranged from 200 to 300 seats. The theaters had Sigma Torus Compound Curved Screens and AMC would brand the theaters as High Impact Theater Systems or HITS. (Obviously unimpressed, it didn’t take long for the neighboring General Cinema NorthPark to move the S to the front of that acronym for its disparaging take on its new competitor to the North.)
The bidding competition would heat up for the top films and AMC would change the name of its theater away from the NorthPark and to the Glen Lakes when a hue and cry was raised. A backroom settlement was reached between GCC an AMC which had the theater renamed as the Glen Lakes less than two months into its run. (Similarly, the planned UA NorthPark would become the Plaza upon its opening in May 1989.) Said an AMC ad upon its name change in January 1989, “So you won’t be confused when searching for the best.” Sell-out signs were common on weekends at the Glen Lakes. Traffic was tough around the theater in its hey day. Veteran AMC Glen Lakes goers had their own traffic routes to get to the theater. Some were patient and got in the line on the theater’s main entrance on the US-75 access road, others took the “secret” back entrance behind the Crow building, some through the Toys ‘r’ Us parking structure and then there was the Walnut Hill “overshoot” method north of the theater which wrapped around between the neighboring apartment complex and Toys ‘r’ Us.
Perhaps most impressive about the AMC Glen Lakes was its wide concession stand that had multiple positions with popcorn popping constantly and a team of workers who had to deal with massive lines of people quickly and graciously. In the Central Zone, employees had to bring their A-game. In the carnage of the new AMC Glen Lakes and the UA Plaza opening six months later were the shuttered Caruth Plaza, the downgrading of the UA Medallion to discount status, the UA Ciné’s move to full time art house and the UA’s Skillman’s large dropoff to the North of the Central Zone.
The Glen Lakes multi-screen environment allowed for special event screenings. It hosted USA Film Festival events for many years and including personal appearances by stars including Jackie Chan, Christopher Walken, Cyd Charisse, and Dennis Hopper and directors including Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, and John Frankenheimer. Classic screenings, sneak previews and even a Russian film festival graced the Glen Lakes' screens. A Star Trek convention event midnight screening of “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” drew a full house of Trekkies who met Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) on the film’s opening night.
The Glen Lakes out-survived the General Cinema NorthPark which closed In October 1998 and the UA Plaza which closed in December of 2004. AMC had won the larger prize decimating (then buying the carcass of) General Cinema and all but eliminating United Artists in Dallas. The metroplex had become largely an AMC and Cinemark area. For AMC, the Glen Lakes was the catalyst of its aggressive and successful expansion. But over at the Glen Lakes, euphoria over such factoids would be tempered as AMC had already announced a new AMC NorthPark 15 theater to go inside the venerable shopping mall even prior to the Plaza’s departure. The writing was on the wall for the badly-aging Glen Lakes. The challenging AMC NorthPark project would finally open on May 5, 2006 at midnight leaving the AMC Glen Lakes in the dust as of May 4, 2006: the theater’s final screenings shy of its 18th anniversary. The property would become home to Dave and Buster’s which moved from its old location just across the street.
The David Rockwell architected Loews Keystone opened at midnight March 21, 1997 during the height of the megaplex boom with showings of Selena and Liar Liar. The project was announced within weeks of the sister cinema to the south, Sony’s Loews Cityplace. But the Keystone’s stadium seating would keep the property viable well past the Cityplace’s demolition in 2008. The 16-plex boasted 80,000 square feet with 4,000 seats ranging from 100 to 500 seats. The screen size ranged from 17.6' x 31' to 25.6' by 49'.
Sony was all about synergy in the 1990s and incorporated Sony Dynamic Digital Sound 5.1 systems in each auditorium including 7.1 in the largest. The theater’s concession stand sold expanded items like fries, chicken tenders and buffalo wings and had an ice cream area for a period to expand past traditional popcorn, hot dogs and nachos.
But in 2006, AMC acquired Loews Cineplex and with AMC turning its attention to the nearby and higher-end all stadium-seating NorthPark 15 and AMC Valley View properties, the Keystone and other Loews properties were in jeopardy. While AMC prized some of the Sony/Loews locations in other cities the same could not be said for its Dallas-area portfolio. AMC would close the Loews Cityplace, the Loews Cinemas 20 & 287 in Arlington, and the Loews City View in Fort Worth after the merger but the Keystone was the chain’s first casualty as it was forced to sell the Loews Keystone Park before the merger could be finalized. Regal became the operator of the theater.
If AMC was ambivalent toward the Keystone, Regal seemed to have an operational malaise looking to wring anything it could from the property. The chain guided the Keystone to its unceremonious closure after its brief two year effort. Reduced price rush hour shows represented the most innovative part of the Regal Keystone operation. The theater closed following shows on October 17, 2010 with contents quickly removed. Regal’s lasting contribution to the Keystone could be found in door signage from the property owner detailing the operator’s non-payment on the lease and changed key / forced lockout. The theater was boarded up not long after the less than regal operation.
But the theater was given love from its next owner, the Studio Movie Grill which continued operation in the redecorated and reinvigorated Studio Movie Grill Spring Valley which opened October 12, 2012 with special screenings. Some thought it odd that SMG would open so close to its very successful SMG Royal just four exits to the South adjoining its headquarters. But SMG Spring Valley was opened to blunt the announced openings of the nearby Look Cinema and the even closer Alamo Movie Drafthouse in Addison just one exit to the North on Central Expressway. While the line in the sand had been drawn and booking competition returning to the area, it wasn’t clear which theater would have the upper hand as the 2010s continued.
When Rosebud Properties built the 14-screen Loews Cityplace, it was actually constructing the last non-stadium seating theater in Dallas. As noted by a number of commenters, this property was identical to many Sony properties which followed but the chain said this was the prototype for those theaters. Many theaters which were similar to it, including the nearby Loews Keystone Park project announced just a month after the Cityplace opening, would, however, include stadium seating. The 11-acre theater cost almost $10 million and was built in place of the former Neiman-Marcus warehouse facing the Target complex which, itself, had opened the prior year. Opening with fifty cent preview shows from December 15-18, 1995 (Sony’s Forget Paris, First Knight, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Net, and non Sony French Kiss, Batman Forever, Die Hard 3, Apollo 13, Dangerous Minds, Clueless, Mortal Kombat, Free Willy 2 and Species) and with a grand opening Dec. 22, 1995 (including Sony’s Jumanji, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, as well as Grumpier Old Men, Heat, Cutthroat Island, Sabrina, Tom & Huck, Toy Story, Balto, Sudden Death, Cutthroat Island, Waiting to Exhale Father of the Bride Part II), the Loews Cityplace was underway.
1995 was the start of the megaplex boom and Cityplace was the last of the megaplexes in DFW to open that year preceded by the AMC Grand 24, the Cinemark 17, the Cinemark Grapevine Tinseltown 17 and the UA Grand Prairie 10 among them. Its auditoriums ranged from a low end 184-seater to the larger 525-seat theaters with about 4,000 overall seats. As a Sony property, the theater was all about synergy: it trumpeted its 5.1 Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) system, gave away Sony music cassettes at the opening, offered prize packages with Sony home theater gear and Sony TVs, Sony Walkmans, Sony 8mm camcorders, featured virtually all of Sony/Columbia/TriStar films released, and claimed to be the first theater in Dallas to display 7.1 SDDS. The Cityplace was the first theater in inner-city Dallas since the opening of the O’Neill West End Cinema and the Cityplace siphoned what little business the West End was getting until that theater’s closure in August 2001.
But in 2006, AMC acquired Loews Cineplex and with AMC turning its attention to the nearby and higher-end all stadium-seating NorthPark 15 and with competition from the nearby art houses Landmark Magnolia and Angelika Film Center Dallas, the Cityplace and other Loews properties were in jeopardy. A sign of the times for the area occurred when a car rammed through the window of the theater after it closed and the made off with one item: the theater’s ATM banking unit.
AMC loved some of the Sony/Loews locations in other cities but not so much its Dallas-area portfolio. AMC would close the Loews Cityplace, the Loews Cinemas 20 & 287 in Arlington, and the Loews City View in Fort Worth after the merger and was forced to sell the Loews Keystone Park before the merger could be finalized (it was sold to Regal). Officially, the Loews Cityplace closed forever January 6, 2008 and the theater was bulldozed shortly thereafter as was the Loews 20 & 287. Rosebud Properties owned the Cityplace theater property and had sold it to a developer which turned the space into apartments and retail including an L.A. Fitness. The 12 year plus 3 week lifespan seemed too brief to many who lived near the theater which was still in fairly nice condition upon closure.
The $18 million AMC Grand was built by Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT) in a warehouse district of Dallas not far from what was once considered restaurant row. The 24-screen megaplex revolutionized theater business and inspired 24+ screen movie theater in urban markets around the nation. Expecting 1.5 million customers its first year, the Grand doubled its clientele. So successful was the concept that four “Gourmet Cinema” auditoriums playing independent and foreign films and one screen playing interactive Interfilm Technology releases such as “Ride For Your Life” were quickly repurposed as additional screens for blockbuster, multi-screen releases within just three weeks of the complex’s opening. AMC knew it had a blockbuster, itself, in the Grand concept.
The 85,000 square foot theater bucked the DFW trend by General Cinema to simply add a multiplex near the footprint of another successful multiplex as they had at Redbird Mall, Town East Mall, Richardson, Irving Mall, Carollton, and others in the area. The Grand’s stadium seating in all 24 houses, multichannel audio in all houses, and 13-acres of exclusive parking with valet was a destination finding people driving as much as an hour to come to that theater. With showings in the early morning and shows into the late hours, patrons likely showed up without paying close attention to the showtimes for the opening weekend of a smash hit. AMC replicated the success in DFW with the 30-screen Mesquite, 30-screen Grapevine Mills, and 24-screen Stonebriar. Meanwhile, 10-16 screen plexes opened all over the metro area by operators including AMC, United Artists, and Cinemark which along with the 24+ screen theaters would blunt the destination status of the Grand.
The uniqueness of the Grand was gone and the momentum of restaurants hopping across to the area and having success was on the downward slope as the first decade of the 2000s was closing. Restaurants and nightspots near the Grand were closing and restaurant row was in retreat, as well. The Grand’s parking lot was often virtually empty on weekdays and the writing was on the wall for the property. EPT had built 95 other megaplexes built during the ‘plex boom period but suffered its first non-renewal when AMC decided to walk away from the Grand as its 15-year lease lapsed. Almost unthinkable ten years earlier that this significant theater could have fallen so far so fast, but it was true. On Halloween 2010, AMC said “trick” and no treat closing up shop hastily. Its lease officially lapsed at the end of November as it carted its possessions away.
EPT found a new operator in Southern Cinemas who shockingly decided to spend millions of dollars to re-tool a portion of the space as the downsized 14-screen AmStar Grand Theatre 14. And almost equally shocking was that another person thought that a Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill would thrive in the other section of the complex. Southern Cinemas found Grand Opening festivities ominous as employees in tuxedos and security guards well outnumbered patrons with many of the advertised shows simply not playing on the second day of the Grand grand re-opening celebration. Things didn’t ever improve as the theater – despite high technology and dependable presentation – was a quick casualty limping badly to a two-year ending. A challenging environment for the once-king of the Dallas box office. Further, the theater housed the area’s only motion-controlled seating with its D-Box installation so Dallas/Fort Worth was motion-seat-less, to boot. Toby Keith’s Bar was also a casualty closing at the end of 2013 despite signs indicating that a re-opening was possible.
Surprisingly, Studio Movie Grill decided to take a stab at rekindling the magic quickly retrofitting the EPT Grand property as a dining-experience theater and opening just months later on December 16, 2013. The Studio Movie Grill Northwest Highway was hoping to somehow buck the trend of a faded cinema treasure location.
The venerable 183 Drive In opened in Irivng in 1950 designed by architect Raymond Smith. The 450-car drive-in theater was a rarity lasting almost 35 years just into the home video era. Irving Mayor Hans Smith co-owned the drive-in with W.P. Gandy at its opening. The owners of the Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie, Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Fischer, then bought the 183 Drive-In and the Irving Theater in November 1959. In the 1960s, Jerry A. Meagher’s Meagher Theatres Circuit took on the 183 Drive-In and the Irving Theater, created the Chateau indoor theater, Buena Vista, Park Plaza Drive –In and would take on the unique Texas Stadium Drive-In from McLendon.
The theater may be best known for its role in the 1988 documentary, “The Thin Blue Line” by Errol Morris and real-life trial of Randall Dale Adams. Adams was wrongfully convicted of murdering police office Robert W. Wood and sentenced to die by lethal injection. Adams had gone with another man, David Ray Harris who had stolen the car they were in, to the 183 Drive-In where they watched “The Student Body” and “Swinging Cheerleaders.” The investigation would lead to Harris who – in turn – would pin the murder on his 183 Drive-in partner, Adams. There was no doubting the staying power of the 183 Drive-In which closed in 1984 with almost 35 years of ozone service.
The Irving Mall opened August 4, 1971. Following a soft launch open house, the General Cinema Irving Mall I-II opened on the mall’s main level on Nov. 17, 1971 with “Something Big” on the 900-seat screen I and “Doctor Zhivago” on the smaller 450-seat screen II. The 900-screen theater was divided into two at the end of 1976 to form the Irving I-II-III. On October 26, 1984, on the mall’s lower floor at the food court, General Cinema added the Irving Mall IV-V-VI-VII.
General Cinema closed the I-II-III in August 1997 to expand into what would be the its only attempt at approaching a modern-build megaplex in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area before its operations were overtaken by AMC. The 14-screen stadium seating Irving Mall 14 was part of a $20 million renovation of the Simon DeBartolo Irving Mall which was trying to compete against strip shopping centers across the street and across the highway. On September 25, 1998, the Irving Mall IV-V-VI-VII ceased leaving the mall theater-less for almost three months. General Cinema also closed the Collin Creek Mall cinema the same day. Those followed the July 1998’s closing of NorthPark III & IV and Prestonwood Town Center as the megaplexes were decimating General Cinema’s failing multiplex business plan. The Irving Mall 14 would have a free soft launch on December 16, 1998 and then open on Dec. 18, 1998.
The move did prompt AMC to shut down its neighboring six-screen dollar house less than a year later. But by 2000/1, General Cinema was in free fall collapse in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closing theaters all over the nation including virtually every theater in the DFW area. The theater chain was down to just 73 theaters nationwide from its high of 621 theaters when purchased by AMC in Dec. 2001 (approved in 2002). The General Cinema signage was quickly removed from the Irving Mall location on a Thursday night where moviegoers could choose between AMC “Ticket” cups and bags or General Cinema “Popcorn Bob” cups and popcorn bags. Then on Friday, the theater opened as the AMC Irving Mall 14 which operated thereafter. While other shuttered General Cinemas became home to movie theaters, the Irving was the only continuously operated theater passing from General Cinema to AMC in DFW.
Under Dalian Wanda’s takeover of AMC, the AMC Irving was almost shockingly selected for a $6.1 million transformation including a bar, high end recliner seats which led to theaters having just 50 to 130 seats in them. The adjoining, enclosed game rooms were repurposed. AMC paid two thirds of the remodel and Simon Malls which operates the entire property paid for the other third. Total seating went from 3,056 seats in the 14-screener to just 1,152 seats. In July of 2013, the Irving Planning and Zoning Commission approved the liquor license and the theater operated continuously to its relaunch in October of 2013 with its first nine luxury suites. Despite the remodel, a few of the General Cinema coming attraction lit signs were still being used within the theater unchanged since 1998.
For more than seven years, the New American Cinema began using the Festival for late night Saturday and some Sunday matinees of what were considered “underground films” in December of 1968 and running into 1976. Maurice Levy scheduled the screenings using cult classics (e.g,. “Freaks” and “Reefer Madness”), repertory fare including classic cartoon shows and serials, experimental and independent contemporary films that just wouldn’t get booked elsewhere (e.g, “White House Madness” in 1975). The regular art run for the Festival wasn’t one year; it started in 1965 with first-run, changing to art double feature second-runs in 1968, but bookings change over to Mexican Cinema after a brief hiatus in October of 1971 — other than the New American Cinema special screenings. Not wanting the remodeling to go to waste, Rodriguez used the tagline, “Cine Mexicano de lujo” or “Mexican Cinema of luxury” in ads to provide brand differentiation from the Stevens Theater which had swiped away Rodriguez’s audience when the Panamericano switched to art fare back in the 1960s.
This picture is a shot of a firefighter who entered the theater just days after its March of 1933 relaunch and refurnishing as the Fair Theater. He’s in standing water as the theater suffered major hail damage, shattering the glass doors and windows. Five feet of water flooded the newly remodeled theater closing for a short period.
Phil Isley Circuit opened the Major Theater with “California” on May 28, 1947 with Monte Hale and Chill Wills making a personal appearance. The 1,200 seat theater had a cry room and free parking. At the end of June 1964, the Major closed briefly and became an independent under Ramon Garcia Lence of the Casa View, Arapaho Drive-In and REX cinema. During September of 1965, the Major went from suburban double-features to adult fare. In October of 1965, the theater’s name was changed to the Lido Theater — a very successful and oft-raided adult theater that added live shows in 1966. That theater went into 1970 when operators mulled over the impact of a Texas obscenity law that had survived a legal challenge. It was subleased and had a very brief run as a Hispanic Theater for three months in 1970 and reverted to playing X-rated fare that same year.
On March 18, 1971, it rebranded as more of an XXX adult house under new ownership and rediscovering its audience. With the neighboring Tamlo Club and Show Lounge which had live shows and some XXX films, the neighborhood drew crowds. The Lido continued all the way into the 1980s until city restrictions were placed on adult theaters within 1,000 feet of a city park. With the home video revolution occurring, it could have been a challenging marketplace for the Lido moving forward with or without the restrictions.
In 1991, the Lido reverted back to its original name, the Major Theater. It started with live shows and then mixed in films with many fewer seats. It made a little news by showing Dial M for Murder in 3-D. Since the film had been shown flat at the Majestic in 1954, it was Dallas' first chance to see the Hitchcock film in 3D. The theater closed in 1992 and re-opened in 1993 showing classic films. The lineage was that the Edison Theater had opened as a revival house that moved to the Granada Theater. The Major was the follow-up location after the Granada changed its operation. Partners Rob Clements and Bryce Gonzalez changed from retro movies to live shows beginning July 15, 1995. That appears to have lasted just over a year. In 1998, the Propel Group doing web development and digital media opened and was still in the space as of the 2010s. As for the Lido name, the tradition carried on and was in used into the 2010s as the name of an adult theater at 7035 W. John W. Carpenter Freeway in Dallas.
The Ritz Theater operated for five decades at 105 E. Main Street in downtown Richardson. As the city grew, the theater tried to adapt. In 1948, owner J.B. Roberts invested $42,000 in the theater to expand seating and modernize the theater. The theater closed briefly in 1961 the theater’s image including a name change. But the last ten years saw the theater struggling to stay relevant with audiences before subsiding in 1972.
The Ritz was first rebranded in 1961 as the Electra Theater showing double features of second-run content. In 1965, the Electra tried to become an art house and only allowed adult-aged patrons. The experiment had its moments so the theater decided to rebrand once again in 1966 becoming the Holiday Art Theatre (often just referred to in marketing as the “Holiday”) showing repertory films from the “vaults.” The Holiday closed and that was it for film exhibition for the former Ritz. It became home to the Richardson Community Theater retitled the theater as the Richardson Playhouse in 1969. For three years, the theater put on live stage plays. When that ended in 1972, the theater passed to owners who as of the 2010s still held the theater. Elements of the theater are still present in the building which has been totally retrofitted. The balcony is still present as is the screen and rigging. But the days of presentation are behind the Ritz/Electra/Holiday Art/Richardson Playhouse as the building was home to business including Fluid Power Supply into the 2010s used as a business office by Stone Associates.
While I love the site and agree with everything said on behavior, the usability needs addressing. The notion that you can put in the name of a theater that you’re presumably doing research on (e.g, Dal-Sec) and the site’s search engine returns “no movie theaters found”, that’s not too user friendly… especially when the theater is actually in the database. A response of “no open theaters found; one closed theater found” or similar might be more approachable for users. But when the database consists of 80% closed items, to default to “open” seems counter to first-time or even veteran users. Few newbie users would venture to the tiny bar and know to hit the greyed-out “closed” if the theater was in that space. Again, love the site and appreciate the contributions of all.
Hunt Properties built the Dallas North Shopping Center in Plano which with an announced grocery store in 1962 at the corner of North Central Expressway and 15th Street. But the Center wouldn’t officially officially open until August 1967 when additional businesses including Mott’s Five and Dime and Illinois fast-food chain Mr. Quick joined the shopping complex connected with a climate-controlled sidewalk. Fifth grader Vickie Wesch then wrote a letter to Interstate Theater Circuit’s John Q. Adams saying that the shopping center and Plano needed a movie theater gathering 83 signatures on a petition to persuade the circuit. Kismet. Hunt Properties would build a movie theater in its North Shopping Center and leased it to Interstate Theaters. In 1969, Jack H. Morgan was the architect and drew plans. But ABC and Interstate would merge operations becoming ABC-Interstate necessitating a minor change and second set of architectural drawings. Construction began on May 4, 1970 with a ceremonial ground breaking using a shovel made of film reels and canisters. Plano Mayor Connor Harrington and Interstate President John Q. Adams were among the featured guests.
The delayed project would finally open as a stand-alone building in the Center technically on Janwood St. It was ABC-Interstate’s 84th Texas theater beginning service November 18, 1971 with the film “Scrooge.” Wesch, the student who had suggested the concept of the theater, received a one year’s free pass. The grand opening featured the burying of a time capsule in a crypt to be opened in 2005 on ABC Interstate’s 100th anniversary. (Spoiler alert: maybe they should have moved that date up by 20 or so years.) While the population was growing in Plano, picking a successful spot within the sprawling suburb proved challenging.
The Cameo was not a success story for Interstate. Fifth grader Wesch had apparently not done enough demographic research or crafted policies that would lead to success for the theater chain. During a showing of “The Cross and the Switchblade” in 1971, the blades were out as young patrons slashed theater seats. Another boy lit a sparkler during a show and underage smoking was a problem for the theater. Patrons complained that loud talking made movie-going a chore at the Cameo. ABC Interstate apologized for the six-month old theater which even they admitted now looked many, many years old. This forced the manager to quit and the city council to look into the situation. Even with a new manager on board, the theater was not profitable and was closed by the chain.
On June 7, 1974, ABC Interstate decided to give the Cameo property second life opening with “American Graffiti.“ The rebirth was not a success and ABC Interstate closed the property again. But by decade’s end, the population trends had improved. In 1979, Plitt Theaters which had acquired the Interstate circuit reopened the Cameo for the third time in the same decade with a grand re-re-opening on April 6, 1979 showing “The Deer Hunter” in the renamed Palisades Shopping Center. The circuit under its revised name of Plitt Southern decided to close the theater a fourth time — this time temporarily — to twin the theater and rebrand it as the Collin Creek Cameo.
The twin-screen theater launched with a grand re-re-re-opening in the shadow of the Collin Creek Mall whose first store had opened back on October 20, 1980. The theater’s longest stretch of being opened happened under Plitt Southern as they operated the Collin Creek Cameo to what appears to be the end of a 15-year, disappointing lease cycle that wasn’t renewed. The theater was shuttered as a downgraded, second-run discount house. Neither the Interstate Circuit nor the Cameo Theater had survived long enough to open the time capsule on the overly-optimistic 2005 date stated during the theater’s grand opening. In the realm of DFW film exhibition luminaries, the Collin Creek Cameo had but a cameo. Among its distinctions was having been closed four times by the same operator (not including the one for remodeling) and four celebrated openings. A rarity in this area. Its exit came via demolition as the Collin Creek’s footprint grew with many non-descript strip shopping centers supplanting the Palisades Shopping Center. The good news was that local moviegoers could go across the street and down a dead-end road if they had an awareness that General Cinema Corp. had constructed a six-screen theater well-hidden from the mall for which the circuit’s theater was named: the GCC Collin Creek VI.
The Little Theater was built in 1922 as an adobe 2-story live theatre. WW-2 found community theater in decline and the theater went dark. It was renamed the El Panamericano by new operator J.J. Rodriguez in October 1943 showing Spanish language films. Rodriguez then closed Cine Azteca, Dallas' first Spanish language movie theatre which had launched in 1937 because the diminutive theater was often well above capacity. Rodriguez operated this mega-successful movie theater appealing to what was known as the Little Mexico neighborhood in Dallas. But in 1965, Rodriguez got some business advice and rebranded the property to appeal to a more upscale audience. The Panamericano owner rolled the dice closing the theater temporarily and moved itself from middle class Hispanic theater to a high-end Festival Theater art house with adjoining Festival Lounge and Buccaneer Terrace. It opened Sept. 20, 1965 to sold out audiences. That didn’t last.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez took over the flagging Chisolm Trail Drive-In in Grand Prairie to continue his Spanish language film exhibition rebranding the ozoner as the Auto Vista opening March 29, 1965 with “La Bandida” and “Suenos de Oro.” (The Weisenburg Circuit would take over the short-lived Auto Vista and re-rebrand it as the East Main Drive-In, returning it to English language films.)
Rodriguez admitted that the high risk remodeling of his Panamericno to the Festival proved to be a mistake as the Hispanic population was moving out of the area and Oak Cliff audiences gravitated to the Stevens Theatre which had changed to Spanish language film and not the Auto Vista. The Buccaneer Terrace was closed shortly into its run. In 1968, Rodriguez tried changing to double feature adult art content and reopened the Terrace. But the property struggled and Rodriguez reverted to Spanish language film. But even that marketplace had changed with the Stevens king and – by the late 1970s – several more Spanish language theaters entered the DFW market and Little Mexico was virtually gone. The Festival was on life support and though Rodriguez managed to make it into July of 1981 he sold the Festival to real estate investors. A final live play was staged at the theatre as a last hoorah for the property in Oct. and Nov. of 1981 rekindling its roots as the Little Theater. The theater was demolished but is one of Dallas' most important cinema treasures for serving generations of Hispanic moviegoers.
United Artists purchased four acres of a 12-acre tract at the southeast corner of Beltline and what was once part of North Star Road in Garland in 1984 to build a multiplex. MPM Development would then build a 68,000 sq. ft. strip shopping center around the theater called North Star Crossing bringing additional traffic to the complex. The UA 8 North Star (often fused as Northstar 8 in ads) opened December of 1984 and, in its operation of just over 21 years, the theater remained a first-run house under the aegis of UA/Regal through its entire existence. The UA 8 South, the UA 8 Las Vegas Trail and UA 8 North Star were built much like the “second-generation” UA 8’s around the country: fairly non-descript but serviceable locations that weren’t destination multiplexes like the UA Plaza or the UA Galaxy but more neighborhood-centric and understated.
Unlike its first era of multiplexes, these UA 8’s had more soothing color palettes and indirect lighting. The smallest houses were 280 seaters with fairly uncomfortable chairs. At the 16-year mark, the North Star got some good news in that General Cinema closed its Richardson location in 2000 just 3.5 miles away which led to an uptick in customers at the North Star. For patrons, good news occurred when the UA MacArthur Marketplace megaplex mega-flopped in less than five years of service from 1999 to 2004. When the Regal shut the theater, the North Star was the recipient of the MacArthur seating. It was a nice improvement. Despite the new seating, the North Star wasn’t given a ringing endorsement from the chain. As Regal ramped up its digitally projected pre-show “2wenty” in most auditoriums in 2003/4, the North Star was largely left out of the transition which was a portent of things to come.
Regal shuttered aging UA multiplexes all over the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and beyond shortly after taking over United Artists. And when AMC opened its Firewheel Town Center Mall 18-screener in far east Garland on December 14, 2005, the North Star UA 8 was looking quite aged. Just one month after the AMC launch, the North Star closed for good on January 29, 2006. Few people bothered to show up for the final shows that evening. The property was updated for new business owners. First into the location in its post-theatrical life was a sports bar closing in 2011, then it was Legends Jumpin House closing in 2013, then it was briefly Quinceanera Reception Halls event center, then it was…. well, you get the idea. The theater’s conversion away from a multiplex – like so many others – has proven to be a challenge to the shopping center. And unlike the UA 8 Vegas Trails or UA 8 South that didn’t have the adjoining shopping center to be concerned with, those 8-plexes were more readily converted into stand-alone non-profit churches.
Veteran theater owner Bob Davis constructed the single screen Plano Drive-In in 1969. The theater was at the northeast corner of Parker Road and Central Expressway / U.S. 75. That caught the eye of the McLendon Theater Circuit which 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 retaining its moniker but converted it to a three-screen operation. At that point, McLendon also operated the Astro, Apollo, Gemini, Century, and East Main in Grand Prairie as their DFW ozoners.
This appears to be a 15-year lease situation common to land speculation of that era as Dallas' suburbs were moving northward. When former department chain Mervyn’s expanded into Dallas in 1984, they hosted a big event at the Plano Drive-In, the last major event at the Plano Drive-In. In 1985, the drive-in became home to overflow parking for the nearby Collin Creek Mall and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Park ‘n’ Ride allowing commuters to take express busses into Dallas. DART was working on building a mud-free / paved and modern transit center across the street on the southeast corner. Under their aegis, the drive-in was damaged in 1986 and actually repaired despite the fact that the facility would never be used for theatrical purposes again.
The DART center finally was completed in 1989 and the Drive-in was vacated. It was demolished and became home to a nondescript strip shopping center at 3300 N. Central Expressway that in the 2010s housed stores such as Ross Clothes for Less, Petsmart, and Sports Authority. To go back in time, a visit to historicalaerials.com and inputting the 3300 Central Expressway in Plano, TX in 1979 gives you a great look at the former three screen operation.
M.C. Cole opened the $3,000,000 Ridgewood Shopping Center in 1959 with 141,000 square feet of business space occupied by stores including Wyatt’s Grocery Store, Woolworth’s, and M.L. Green. Cole planned to add a second phase consisting of 141,000 square feet if the center succeeded. It did. The Ridgewood Theater was late in the second stage of the Center. Ground was broken in May of 1967 and the theater was architected by Kynn Cole and built by M.C. Cole’s Ranco Development Company for $350,000 for the Interstate Circuit. The 866-seat theater would be patterned after the Westwood in Richardson and Hurst’s Bellaire theaters for Interstate. The interior of the Ridgewood was Mediterranean style used antique brick and had floors with a basketweave design, quarry tile. Wall to wall screen with an overhead vertical lift curtain with automatically controlled maskings along with stereo sound and auto dimmers in lighting made for a modern, versatile theater. The exterior also used antique brick.
The theater launched on December 21, 1967 with Disney’s “The Happiest Millionaire.” Interstate created a 10-minute film on the city of Garland that ran prior to the show. The theater became the 85th for Interstate. Hal Burreson was the first manager of the Ridgewood. The theater was community-minded booking local live acts occasionally and allowing benefit screenings periodically. Under Burreson, only G rated films were booked with only one exception: “Midnight Cowboy.” Burreson moved to the Medallion in Dallas when it opened in 1969 and was replaced by William L. Moyer. With a new sheriff in town, the Ridgewood changed fairly quickly. Moyer decided he didn’t want to be Garland’s babysitter and eliminated G-rated films. The adult-only R-rated policy was put in because of damage kids were causing to Ridgewood’s seating, the high volume of underage smoking, the cutting of electrical cords and general rowdiness. On Friday nights, Moyer said that “adults couldn’t even hear the movies.”
But in Garland, that sort of anti-family policy didn’t sit too well. So a public meeting was scheduled to deal with the vandalism issue at the theater and Moyer reversed course on the theater’s adults-only policy. (And Moyer said it had nothing to do with a short-term downturn of ticket sales.) The theater hosted a private advance screening of “Living Free” with stars Elsa the lion in attendance and the World Premiere of Semi-Tough with author Dan Jenkins in attendance happened at the Northtown Six, Ridgewood and Village on Nov. 13, 1977. The large lobby space allowed Interstate to take advantage of a pinball craze to install pinball machines bringing additional revenue. Entering the 1980s, the pinball machines would be replaced by video games as pinball lost favor. By the end of 1977, Interstate (then ABC-Interstate) had contemplated downgrading the Ridgewood to discount, dollar status. But it said that wasn’t the right play for the theater or the community.
In 1978, ABC-Interstate sold the theater to Plitt group. The theater began a minor descent thereafter as the theater was relegated to discount, dollar status by Plitt, then it was twinned, and – most embarrassingly – closed by the fire marshal for life-threatening fire exit problems on October 14, 1984. Then theater manager Timothy Langevin was arrested on three counts of fire code violations. Though it reopened shortly thereafter, the Ridgewood halcyon days were over as it soldiered onward as a twin discount house existing in a multiplex world. It would finally close. The Ridgewood’s days were not over as it was used for live theater in two years for religious plays and functions in 2001 and 2002. It was booked as a special events center during the 2000s. And late in the 2000s, it became a club featuring live music which was not a success. As of the 2010s, the Westwood was vacant but seemingly ready for the next potential tenant with a dream.
Interstate reached the finish line with its Highland Park Village shopping center in 1935 with the name scheduled to be the Tower Theater named after its beacon tower. But that theater was ultimately named the Village using the shopping center’s namesake. But Interstate picked up the name for its modestly-priced $125,000 W. Scott Dunne architected final count 1,320 leather trimmed seat Tower Theater. An intriguing project found within the Tower Petroleum Building and extending beyond it. A wrecking ball was taken to one existing portion of the Tower Building with a few parts of the walls used in the theater which received a new steel frame construction. George P. O’Rourke Construction built the entrance right through the just- vacated Webb Waffle House in the Tower Building beginning in August of 1936. The auditorium was constructed thereafter opening February 19, 1937. The lobby of the theater had a giant aquarium by Irwin Waite with tropical fish, aquatic plants, wall to wall mirrors, and neon-lighted handrails. Eugene Gilboe painted the murals to match. Interior of the theater’s auditorium, however, was not close to matching. It was downright spartan as the themed palace days were ending. And the diminutive budget for such a downtown theater was clearly spent elsewhere.
The Tower opened with the film, “Rainbow on the River” with star Bobby Breen in attendance and reverted to being the second-week run for pictures leaving the Majestic or Palace after one week. It got a refresh when it was closed for nine months while a building extension to the larger Tower Petroleum Building was made called the Corrigan Tower above and around the theater beginning on March 14, 1951. When it reopened on Christmas of that year, the 1930s were gone replaced by new murals and cleaner look along with an air conditioning system. The lack of thematic movie palace elements helped the theater stay contemporary as did innovation. The new Tower agot into closed circuit sporting events staring with the Rocky Marciano Roland La Starza fight. It was a $50,000 experiment by Interstate. Theater Network Television (TNT) also played operas and symphonies via closed circuit which continued through 1955.
But the Tower hit its stride updating its projection in the 1950s and 1960s allowing for large format screenings with 70mm projection, stereo sound, exclusive sneak previews, and roadshows such as El Cid, The Happiest Millionaire, Patton, and Ben Hur. In fact, to many locals, the Tower was the “Ben Hur” theater. In November of 1959, William Wyler came to Dallas to show a sneak preview of the film. The Tower would go on to have Ben Hur for almost one full year. But as the Central Zone took off with Interstate’s Medallion and Wilshire, as well as General Cinema’s NorthPark, UA’s Ciné 150, and others, downtown theaters took a precipitous turn as population shifts and free parking at suburbans were in favor. Rather abruptly, the Tower was closed just after July 4, 1971 with the last feature of “The Seven Minutes.” Since that times out almost precisely to 35 years from the date of the previous tenant leaving the Tower Building and Interstate beginning, it would likely indicate an end of lease situation. The Tower’s lobby was retrofitted for a business soon thereafter. The auditorium stayed boarded up until December of 1978 when the spot below the Corrigan Tower was finally deconstructed.
The 100,000 square foot Eastgate Shopping Center opened in September of 1972 just off of Interstate 635 at 1450 Northwest Highway at Saturn Road. The twin-screen theater was an original tenant and began life with its moniker of “The Movies” officially at 1430 Northwest Highway. That wasn’t a hit so the theater closed and reopened on September 6, 1974 as Eastgate Cinemas 2 with “The Bootlegger” and “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” on screen two. The theater was still not a hit and was downgraded to dollar house status entering the 1980s.
Operated by William B. Boren’s fledgling circuit consisting of the Eastgate, Westgate Cinema in McKinney, Wilshire Showcase I & II in Euless, Cineworld 4 and Lancaster Showcase in Fort Worth and two theaters in Blackwell, OK, the writing was on the wall when nine film companies sued Boren in February of 1983 for not providing enough of the owed admission receipts for the period beginning in 1978 forward. The twin-screen era was ending in the multiplex world anyway and the Eastgate was a dead duck in May of 1984. Or was it?
On June 22d of 1984, the Eastgate became a twin screen adult theater and suddenly the theater had the attention of what had been an indifferent populace. Scoring with X-rated hits including Emanuelle and Caligula, the Eastgate was drawing audiences and raised eyebrows. Garland’s first adult theater was a hit! But clientele at nearby family establishments including Furr’s Cafeteria, a Hallmark card store, and a Christian book store launched a petition drive backed by the Garland Church of Christ. The complaints reached the owner of Eastgate Shopping Center, Hank Dickerson Realators.
The attention lead to great business and picketers protesting the operation. Members of Rev. Daniel Hicks' Four Square Gospel Church prayed for the future of morality in the city of Garland. And the sentiments of one city councilman summarized the situation, “I wouldn’t want my wife to go to a shopping center where there are customers of this type of facility.” On July 17th, the city of Garland hastily passed an ordinance banning X-rated films within 500 feet of a church, park, school, or residential area (or where oxygen is present) to zone the theater out of existence. On July 18th, Hank Dickerson sent an eviction notice. And within two weeks, the Eastgate and operator M&B Cinema of Houston with George Marules were in court facing immediate eviction. Eastgate manager Rick “X” explained the difference between X-rated fare originating in the adult art porno chic era and the more lewd XXX fare that the Eastgate would never show. Manager Rick pledged to show more art, foriegn and R-Rated films in the future and understood why a zoning ordinance would apply to an XXX theater.
The initial suit was dismissed because even to the Garland Justice of the Peace, the speed of the process was far too brisk to be fair to the operators of the cinema. But refiled a month later, the Emanuelle (Eastgate Cinema) v. Goliath (Garland) situation was back. Emanuelle’s slingshot was the First Amendment and marketplace of ideas v. the Goliath of overwhelming public sentiment and legal standing on public nuisance attributable to movie posters in public view and a very dubiously worded zoning ordinance. Goliath took down Emanuelle as the realtor and city of Garland got their way in a court ordered eviction of M&B and Eastgate Cinema. “I think it was a victory for the Lord Jesus in that darkness was dealt a destructive blow,” Rev. Hicks said, “I think it was a case of God hearing the prayers of his people.” What followed were police raids of adult video and novelty stores that sought to rid Garland of filth. And the controversial theater would close advertising as the slightly rebranded Eastgate Adult Cinema in its final days for clearer marketing purposes. The Eastgate was offered to anyone who wanted to bring some good-old family entertainment to the shopping center and the cleansed Garland citizenry. Of course, nobody wanted to do that and the Eastgate was history: a sleepy first 11.75 years and a rambunctious legally-challenged final .5 years.
The Cliff-Queen opened in 1914 at 616 E. Jefferson by W.J. Shivers with nearly 700 seats. E.H. Hulse was the next operator in 1915 followed soon thereafter by George M. Blackburn. The theater was the site of political speeches and bond rallies during World War I. W.W. Ard purchased and remodeled the theater in 1922 which probably explains the reduced number of seats.
L.L. Dunbar was the next and longest operator of the theater. Community-minded, during the Depression, the theater offered free shows to the poor and unemployed, gave 40,000 tickets over many years to servicemen (Dunbar said it was the only theater with such a policy in Texas), and always allowed firemen and police in free. But the theater ran into a couple of problems. Dunbar lost a court battle with ASCAP over music rights. On Oct. 14, 1944, the theater was padlocked for failure to correct fire hazards. Dunbar re-opened the theater in time for Christmas that year.
Gene Autry Enterprises took over the Cliff Queen, Kessler and opened the Hill in 1946 and operated the Beckley. The final operator was the Robb & Rowley Circuit which took over the Gene Autry Enterprises circuit and was operating the Heights, Beverly, Kessler, Midway, Rosewin, Stevens, Texas and Vogue in addition to the Cliff Queen.
The last show appears to be a double-feature of “Chicago Deadline” and “Arthur Takes Over” on March 12, 1950. The building is said to be vacant from that date forward. In March of 1958, the Cliff-Queen was identified as one of 20 buildings to be knocked over including the Oak Cliff City Hall and the 1888 constructed Hamilton Pharmacy Building. At the time of its closing, it was the second oldest theater in the city and the longest running suburban house.
The Odeon (Healy) Theater was built by J.S. Phillips at 1004 Main Street and operated by R.A. Healy. It opened as The Healy on June 14, 1910, a very modest $20,000 house. Complete with a $3,500 Wurlitzer Orchestrian and a smoker gallery to add excitement to the nitrate film projection. But Healy decided to sell the theater just months later. When it was purchased on Nov. 12, 1910 by Elmore Callaway, he held a contest to rename The Healy and child Priscilla Sedgwick won with her suggestion of the Odeon. (A file in the pictures section shows this.) Healy built a larger house at 911 Houston Street which was dubbed The New Healy Show House and then shortened later to The Healy Theater. The Odeon was a survivor as it was surpassed in terms of architecture and technology in the silent era but managed to transition into the sound era within a very competitive downtown Fort Worth theatrical district before closing in the 1930s.
The original Palace Theater in Dallas was a Nickelodeon just two blocks away on Elm Street. It closed in the early 1900s. The second Palace Theater was also on Elm Street and was renamed the Harlem Theater. But this entry is about the third Palace Theater to appear on Elm Street, that of Southern Enterprises’ Palace Theater, a $1,000,000 showplace designed by Thomas W. Lamb of Chicago and built by C.D. Hill of Dallas.
Many concepts within the design are attributed to S.L. “Roxy” Rothafel who patterned his ideas from the Rialto and Rivoli in New York including a small inner proscenium for the screen and an outer frame for a symphony orchestra. And to make sure people knew the theater cost a million bucks, the theater painted the phrase on top of the theater and placed it in early ads for Palace shows. Movie star Bebe Daniels was on hand March 2, 1921 for the laying of the building’s cornerstone. Its seating capacity of 3,000 would house the entire capacity of the Queen, Hippodrome, and Old Mill Theater combined. Its architecture was said to be of the Adam Design with its Roman Pantheon inspired columns and frieze around its dome. Tennessee gray marble and Gray McMullen marble were liberally utilized along with white and yellow terrazzo flooring as nice touches. Bathed in cream, browns, blues and golds, the theater had an opulent feel. An art gallery was just up the stairways which, themselves were marble with bronze bannisters. Historical periods were carried out in the Pantheon frieze work in the mezzanine while rest rooms were in the marble balcony with marble, fumed oak, and open fireplaces and mantels. Medallion lighting fixtures from the ceiling producing lighting effects. All seats were upholstered with air cushion spring bottoms, nineteen inches wide. And the views were unobstructed by posts as the theater was post-free.
The promised 40-piece Palace Orchestra was reduced to a 30-member group the outset but led by D.W. Griffith staff conductor Don Albert. The $50,000 Hope-Jones pipe organ was huge and featured a quartet of reed, stringed and brass instruments including seven violins, violas, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, cornets, trombones, harp, piano, and kettle drums. Coming just two months after The Majestic’s much-heralded opening, the theater had to deliver the goods. Along with the theater amenities was a staff of 66. Point made Southern Enterprises. As for projection, the projection was from a crow’s nest in the back wall of the balcony, a 136 foot throw from projection window to screen: one of the longest in the South. It would be home to Paramount and Realart films.
The theater opened Jun 11, 1921 with “Sentimental Tommy” with Carl Weisemann showing of the organ. WFAA broadcast from the theater. The fireproof construction turned out to be a saving grace as the neighboring Carreaud Bakery threatened to destroy the Palace in 1922. However, the building held up with $20,000 damage mostly due to water used to extinguish the bakery fire. Another fire in a neighboring business in 1923 caused an evacuation but no damage. A special booth was constructed called the “non-synch” room which was a double turntable for recordings to non-synchronized silent films. It was said to be outside the jurisdiction of the musicians union and thus could be operated with violating the musicians contract.
On March 13, 1926, Publix Theaters left the Melba and took control of Southern Enterprises and the Palace. Its first moves was to lower the orchestra into the pit and bring “New York produced shows” to the Palace. The Palace received a $200,000 makeover beginning in July of 1928 designed by George C. Perkins under Publix for its stage shows. The theater decided to put a lot more into the stage show presences while others were putting their capitol into sound systems. New dressing rooms, a counterweight rigging system for faster set set-up and striking, and glow system of illumination for lighting effects inside the auditorium along with a vastly expanded lobby and much larger outdoor sign – the largest in the South reportedly – among the changes. An improved organ with additional pipes and reeds for fuller presentations was added. The theater would be wired for Movietone sound for its ninth year of operation and Vitaphone, as well. The theater was renamed the Greater Palace, its official name at its grand re-opening that was four months behind schedule on January 11, 1929. In the talking picture era, Norma Shearer’s “Smilin’ Through’ played to 10,500 patrons in a single day which was impressive for 1932.
In 1934, the Interstate Theater Circuit took on the Palace and operated until its closure in 1970. In its thirtieth anniversary, changes which came in time for its 31st birthday included moving rest rooms to the main floor, a new color scheme in the recarpeting of the theater, Eugene Gilboe decorative murals, and wider seating reduced the overall count to 2,300. Between the 30th and 31st birthday, however, projectionist and former president of the projectionist’s union Julius J. Schaeffer – who worked at the Palace since 1921 – died at work. Schaeffer would miss the installation of wider angle screens put in in the form of Cinemascope in June of 1953 for demonstrations along with The Robe – Dallas’ first Cinemascope picture opening Sept. 24th of that year, the stage space was greatly reduced leading to fewer wide scale live events. However, the impressive 54'x22’ Cinemascope screen was the first in Dallas. 30,000 people saw The Robe that first week and it set a record for attendance that stood for years. That film was followed by the successful How to Marry a Millionaire.
The Palace fell victim to the growth of the Central Zone in Dallas which got a lot of the major films. Attendance dwindled and when the Palace’s lease expired in December of 1970, Interstate made no efforts to re-up. The theater closed December 3d and was sold and demolished. The final film, “Flap” was a forgettable choice and the decision to bulldoze the building a regrettable error despite eventually being replaced by the venerable Thanksgiving Tower. Sadly, the Palace was no more.
Vivian Meier’s shot of the theater can be found at http://www.vivianmaier.com/gallery/street-2/#slide-16
Here
For Dallas-based Rave Motion Pictures, the December 2000 opening of the Rave Hickory Creek 16 was exciting. It was the company’s first theater and located in their corporate backyard. The $12 million, 60,000 square foot property was well-positioned against the nearby UA/Regal Lakepoint Lewisville to the South and the Golden Triangle locations just to the North in Denton with the chain entering bankruptcy and years ahead of Cinemark’s refurbishing of its nearby Vista Ridge Mall to the South or the Denton ‘plex which would be built to the North almost five years later. The Cal Young architected theater was visually stunning upon its opening. Young’s modernistic architecture design was one of six winners of the 2001 National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA) Design Awards of Excellence program. Its auditoriums ranged from 100 to 300 seats.
Launching on December 21, 2000 with free admission to any movie Thursday in exchange for a donation of two cans of nonperishable food, the theater’s regular first-run policy began the next day. The theater chain would be aggressive in moving away from celluloid film and to digital projection well ahead of the competition. In 2005, Rave was the first to enter into the Real-D 3D era with exclusive North Texas screenings at its then three area theaters for 3D films including “Chicken Little” making it a focal point for 3D fans.
The Rave had its technology and architectural advantages going for it. People would drive past older, aged properties from all directions to get to the Rave. Regal would shutter its UA Golden Triangle theaters in Denton just to the North on October 13, 2003 making the Rave a destination point for then theater-less Denton. It would outlast Regal’s UA Lakepoint which would shutter just to the South. But the competition wasn’t rolling over. Cinemark would revitalize its aged Vista Ridge property and retain its nearby discount house to the South while building a megaplex in Denton just a few exits to the North. Studio Movie Grill would take on the Lakepoint as a dine and movie locale. And seven miles away to the West and South, AMC would enter the outer periphery of the Rave’s footprint with its Highland Village theater.
Rave’s aggressive move in 2009 to take on Showcase Cinemas to boost it to the fifth largest operator in the U.S. was short-lived as Cinemark would purchase 32 of the chain’s 35 theaters including the Hickory Creek on November 30, 2012. Obviously with four properties within exits of each other (the Vista Ridge Mall 15 Lewisville, the Lewisville 8 discount house, Cinemark 14 in Denton and the Rave Hickory Creek 16), something had to give. On July 18, 2013, Carmike would acquire the Hickory Creek property along with two other theaters in Louisville, KY and Voorhees, NJ. The Carmike Hickory Creek 16 continued operations with its new Carmike signage as pictured into the 2010s.
Claude V. Caver doesn’t get much credit for inventing the concept of the Drive-In in 1921 but that’s what he did in Comanche, TX getting a permit to build a screen on the town’s courthouse lawn while he remodeled his indoor theater. Residents enjoyed the novelty of watching films from their cars. But Caver moved to Dallas in 1928 to launch the Trinity Theater in the Trinity Heights annex within Dallas’ Oak Cliff. The MGM lion, Leo, visited the theater on December 13, 1929 as the first of three Dallas’ theaters in that year’s tour. In October of 1934, H.C. Houston purchased the theater from Caver and brought in cushioned seats, acoustical treatment, and new sound equipment among the improvements. As a not so welcome to the neighborhood, Houston was a defendant in a $5,300 lawsuit brought by a patron who tripped over a rug in the redecorated theater.
In 1940, Houston put in a new façade, new marquee, and ticket box. The white stucco front with red centerstrip and ornamental blue diamond shaped tiles was retained for over a decade. The King Scenic Company did the remodeling. William Fumm took over management of the theater in 1944. In post-war Dallas, the independent struggled mightily against chains which were operating superior theaters in Oak Cliff including R&R Theaters. The downturn led Fumm to drop the theater and it was closed for a short period.
In 1953, George P. Hamrah and Charles Hothoot reopened the theater renovating the property very slightly and opening February 12, 1953 with Bill Boyd and the Cowboy Ramblers making a personal appearance. The theater had a weekly Friday amateur stage show for months until Hothoot and Hamrah dropped the theater just seven months into their unsuccessful run. Mrs. Victor Jones bought the theater and installed Mrs. Lottie Burt Strong as its manager. Strong brought showmanship to the “new” Trinity regularly featuring Bobby “Uncle Ukie” Henshaw coming from the Malco Theater in Memphis after a long career in vaudeville and motion pictures. The theater also starred renowned organist Paul Jordan and singer/actress Deane Janis. Jones and Strong equipped the theater with new sound and Fox AstroLight CinemaScope-like capable screen. But widescreen and showmanship weren’t the ticket either for the new Trinity. So the theater closed again in early 1954.
At the unrelated White Theater, A.J. Vineyard had a four-day celebration and would also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the theater in the summer of 1954. But multiple armed robberies at the neighboring liquor store took their toll on Vineyard as the theater owner, himself, was a victim of one of the liquor store robberies. The theater, itself, also was robbed at the box office. So Vineyard left the White Theater’s high crime rate area and he bought the Trinity in August of 1954 rebranding it as the Ewing Theater opening November 4, 1954. The Ewing was short-lived as few tickets were sold during Vineyard’s very brief run and the lobby was quickly retrofitted as a retail television store in 1955. Following its theatrical life and short retail period, the Trinity became home to multiple places of worship including the Abundant Life Center (which suffered a major fire in 1962), the Temple Community Church and, more recently, the Lighthouse Gospel Center Church into the 2010s. As a result, the suburban Trinity had surpassed 85 years of service as of 2013.
The police blotter on the Trinity during its movie era was somewhat active. The safe was burgled many times at the Trinity. There was the $10 heist in 1930. The $319 getaway in 1936. A $15 loss in 1944. A 1951 led to a net gain with $0 taken and a tool set left behind with another 1951 safe robbery leading simply to safe damage. A bicycle locked in the theater for safe keeping was stolen through a hole in the roof in a rather dramatic theft. And a 16-year old beat a 40-year old patron to death at the theater over a comment made by the 16-year old about the man’s daughter which led the man to reprimand the boy about his comments and the boy to beat the man to death. Not good.
When AMC announced a multiplex in what was known as Dallas’ Central Zone of movie exhibition to open in November of 1988, United Artists wouldn’t be caught flat-footed. It purchased four acres of land in the shadow of the AMC NorthPark theater (soon changed to the AMC Glen Lakes) and across the street from the venerable General Cinema NorthPark III & IV in May of 1988. The $14 million, 106,000 square foot United Artists NorthPark was drawn up in 1988 and designed to make a splash. By the time the renamed United Artists Plaza opened on May 24, 1989, it was truly a destination theater despite being tucked away behind strip shopping centers. With eight screens and 3,600 seats all on the second floor and dining and entertainment on the ground floor, the UA was not a neighborhood multiplex but a theater people wanted to travel to and spend the night. To accommodate its projection of 20,000 guests per week, an entire three-level parking structure with spaces for 1,100 cars with large parking lots surrounding the complex.
Resplendent in neon and sporting 4 THX certified auditoriums, three with 70mm projection, United Artists was making a statement in the Central Zone. The second floor lobby was filled with a 13-foot video kiosk with two 9x9 CRT monitor video walls. The neon chandeliers glowed purple, rose, white and green. Long after the theater’s heyday, people remembered the memorable escalator ride to the theaters from the ground floor box office transporting you to the four snack bars on each wall, the video wall, lit glass blocks, chandeliers, and theaters. But the Plaza did allow the nearby AMC Glen Lakes to have one upper hand with some of its auditoriums having stadium seating while the UA had no theaters with stadium seating. But the United Artists was clearly gunning for the gracefully aging General Cinemas NorthPark I & II and III & IV in the battle royale while knowing it could outarchitect the AMC project.
“We are sparing no expense,‘ John Panzeca, vice president of United Artists Realty in charge of the company’s North Dallas project said upon its opening. “For years we built theaters that were little, rectangular boxes….I used to point with pride to how inexpensively I could get those projects to come in,” he said. “Today, it’s gone full circle. We have to compete with 48-inch televisions and cable and stereo sound at home. We have to make our theater a more interesting experience.” And the payout was there as the opening week gross for opening film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” was $145,000, a new Dallas record by almost 50% over the previous single-theater mark. Not resting on its laurels, the theater installed a Cinema Digital Sound System for the 70mm presentation of “Edward Scissorhands” in 1990; it was the only theater outside of New York or Los Angeles with the 5.1 disc-based system.
Theaters which took it on the chin in the C-Zone were the Caruth Plaza which shuttered, the Medallion which was downgraded to discount house and the former UA 150 roadshow turned UA Ciné art house. The Skillman theater would also suffer at the hands of the Plaza and, moreso, the UA Galaxy six years later. Theater staffs at the Glen Lakes, NorthParks and UA theaters were all coached well and moved hundreds of people briskly but with attention when they visited any of the zone’s theaters.
The 1994 opening of “The Firm” had the largest box office take in the United States at the Plaza in its opening week and the same was said to be true of “Clear and Present Danger.” In a two year stretch, Dallas would add 175 screens but the UA Plaza just kept going. It played a 31-hour run of Independence Day on July ¾, 1996. The marathon sold $31,000 in tickets at the Plaza in just the first 10 hours. One patron went for five showings including the 4:30 a.m. show.
But the Plaza shuttered restaurants on its first floor as the decade of the 90s continued. Drew Pearson’s 88 restaurant, Vincent’s Seafood were casualties. The General Cinema’s North Park complexes left the area in 1998. Then entertainment places within the Plaza’s first floor boarded up thereafter including the Virtual World gaming center, the Q-Zar arcade, and even United Artists’ own motion theater. The parking complex was so underutilized — generally deserted on weekdays — that the Dallas Area Rapid Transit would use it as remote parking for light rail users. The once vibrant video wall had badly color matched monitors and many monitors had simply flatlined. The two-sided wall became a poorly functioning single sided wall. Three snack bars of the four were permanently closed. Even the iconic first-floor box office was closed on most nights as tickets were sold at the snack bar. And the attraction board on the access road was often out of order. As such, the first part of the 21st Century wasn’t kind to the Plaza with Regal taking on the UA circuit in bankruptcy. Regal was obviously not in a position to spend any money on the property. When the AMC NorthPark 15 was announced, the Plaza was already sensing doom. Theaters lacking stadium seating were in collapse and the Regal shut the UA Plaza theater on Sunday December 5, 2004. The theater’s fall from grace was such that few came to see the last day’s features. The theater complex was converted into a church within a year which continued into the 2010s.
When Trammell Crow leased a space to AMC to build a new eight-screen theater in the lucrative Central Zone of Dallas film exhibition, the battle lines had been crossed. AMC had been a peripheral player in the Dallas market with nondescript multiplexes in outer Dallas neighborhoods. But to build adjoining Crow’s Glen Lakes Tower in a tight two-acre spot within the Central Zone was quite another thing entirely. While it had just landed in the periphery of the Zone when it took over the boutique neighborhood Highland Park Village theater, the AMC NorthPark was going to be the chain’s destination theater. Everyone knew it was movie theater war. Within weeks of the AMC project starting, United Artists was completing terms on a tract of land to build its own multiplex walking distance from the AMC NorthPark. They were both trying to unseat General Cinemas which, itself, had all but done in the Plitt/Interstate theaters which had dominated the Dallas marketplace for decades.
The AMC NorthPark was completed a bit ahead of schedule with a November 10th, 1988, champagne buffet and premiere screening of A Cry in the Dark benefiting Dallas Cares, an AIDS support group. The theater opened to the general public a day later. Two of the eight auditoriums seated 500 patrons and two more seated 400 each. Those four theaters were stadium-style seating which was supposedly one of the first five theaters in the country to have that many stadium seating houses in the same complex. Seating capacity in the sloped seating theaters ranged from 200 to 300 seats. The theaters had Sigma Torus Compound Curved Screens and AMC would brand the theaters as High Impact Theater Systems or HITS. (Obviously unimpressed, it didn’t take long for the neighboring General Cinema NorthPark to move the S to the front of that acronym for its disparaging take on its new competitor to the North.)
The bidding competition would heat up for the top films and AMC would change the name of its theater away from the NorthPark and to the Glen Lakes when a hue and cry was raised. A backroom settlement was reached between GCC an AMC which had the theater renamed as the Glen Lakes less than two months into its run. (Similarly, the planned UA NorthPark would become the Plaza upon its opening in May 1989.) Said an AMC ad upon its name change in January 1989, “So you won’t be confused when searching for the best.” Sell-out signs were common on weekends at the Glen Lakes. Traffic was tough around the theater in its hey day. Veteran AMC Glen Lakes goers had their own traffic routes to get to the theater. Some were patient and got in the line on the theater’s main entrance on the US-75 access road, others took the “secret” back entrance behind the Crow building, some through the Toys ‘r’ Us parking structure and then there was the Walnut Hill “overshoot” method north of the theater which wrapped around between the neighboring apartment complex and Toys ‘r’ Us.
Perhaps most impressive about the AMC Glen Lakes was its wide concession stand that had multiple positions with popcorn popping constantly and a team of workers who had to deal with massive lines of people quickly and graciously. In the Central Zone, employees had to bring their A-game. In the carnage of the new AMC Glen Lakes and the UA Plaza opening six months later were the shuttered Caruth Plaza, the downgrading of the UA Medallion to discount status, the UA Ciné’s move to full time art house and the UA’s Skillman’s large dropoff to the North of the Central Zone.
The Glen Lakes multi-screen environment allowed for special event screenings. It hosted USA Film Festival events for many years and including personal appearances by stars including Jackie Chan, Christopher Walken, Cyd Charisse, and Dennis Hopper and directors including Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, and John Frankenheimer. Classic screenings, sneak previews and even a Russian film festival graced the Glen Lakes' screens. A Star Trek convention event midnight screening of “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” drew a full house of Trekkies who met Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) on the film’s opening night.
The Glen Lakes out-survived the General Cinema NorthPark which closed In October 1998 and the UA Plaza which closed in December of 2004. AMC had won the larger prize decimating (then buying the carcass of) General Cinema and all but eliminating United Artists in Dallas. The metroplex had become largely an AMC and Cinemark area. For AMC, the Glen Lakes was the catalyst of its aggressive and successful expansion. But over at the Glen Lakes, euphoria over such factoids would be tempered as AMC had already announced a new AMC NorthPark 15 theater to go inside the venerable shopping mall even prior to the Plaza’s departure. The writing was on the wall for the badly-aging Glen Lakes. The challenging AMC NorthPark project would finally open on May 5, 2006 at midnight leaving the AMC Glen Lakes in the dust as of May 4, 2006: the theater’s final screenings shy of its 18th anniversary. The property would become home to Dave and Buster’s which moved from its old location just across the street.
The David Rockwell architected Loews Keystone opened at midnight March 21, 1997 during the height of the megaplex boom with showings of Selena and Liar Liar. The project was announced within weeks of the sister cinema to the south, Sony’s Loews Cityplace. But the Keystone’s stadium seating would keep the property viable well past the Cityplace’s demolition in 2008. The 16-plex boasted 80,000 square feet with 4,000 seats ranging from 100 to 500 seats. The screen size ranged from 17.6' x 31' to 25.6' by 49'.
Sony was all about synergy in the 1990s and incorporated Sony Dynamic Digital Sound 5.1 systems in each auditorium including 7.1 in the largest. The theater’s concession stand sold expanded items like fries, chicken tenders and buffalo wings and had an ice cream area for a period to expand past traditional popcorn, hot dogs and nachos.
But in 2006, AMC acquired Loews Cineplex and with AMC turning its attention to the nearby and higher-end all stadium-seating NorthPark 15 and AMC Valley View properties, the Keystone and other Loews properties were in jeopardy. While AMC prized some of the Sony/Loews locations in other cities the same could not be said for its Dallas-area portfolio. AMC would close the Loews Cityplace, the Loews Cinemas 20 & 287 in Arlington, and the Loews City View in Fort Worth after the merger but the Keystone was the chain’s first casualty as it was forced to sell the Loews Keystone Park before the merger could be finalized. Regal became the operator of the theater.
If AMC was ambivalent toward the Keystone, Regal seemed to have an operational malaise looking to wring anything it could from the property. The chain guided the Keystone to its unceremonious closure after its brief two year effort. Reduced price rush hour shows represented the most innovative part of the Regal Keystone operation. The theater closed following shows on October 17, 2010 with contents quickly removed. Regal’s lasting contribution to the Keystone could be found in door signage from the property owner detailing the operator’s non-payment on the lease and changed key / forced lockout. The theater was boarded up not long after the less than regal operation.
But the theater was given love from its next owner, the Studio Movie Grill which continued operation in the redecorated and reinvigorated Studio Movie Grill Spring Valley which opened October 12, 2012 with special screenings. Some thought it odd that SMG would open so close to its very successful SMG Royal just four exits to the South adjoining its headquarters. But SMG Spring Valley was opened to blunt the announced openings of the nearby Look Cinema and the even closer Alamo Movie Drafthouse in Addison just one exit to the North on Central Expressway. While the line in the sand had been drawn and booking competition returning to the area, it wasn’t clear which theater would have the upper hand as the 2010s continued.
When Rosebud Properties built the 14-screen Loews Cityplace, it was actually constructing the last non-stadium seating theater in Dallas. As noted by a number of commenters, this property was identical to many Sony properties which followed but the chain said this was the prototype for those theaters. Many theaters which were similar to it, including the nearby Loews Keystone Park project announced just a month after the Cityplace opening, would, however, include stadium seating. The 11-acre theater cost almost $10 million and was built in place of the former Neiman-Marcus warehouse facing the Target complex which, itself, had opened the prior year. Opening with fifty cent preview shows from December 15-18, 1995 (Sony’s Forget Paris, First Knight, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Net, and non Sony French Kiss, Batman Forever, Die Hard 3, Apollo 13, Dangerous Minds, Clueless, Mortal Kombat, Free Willy 2 and Species) and with a grand opening Dec. 22, 1995 (including Sony’s Jumanji, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, as well as Grumpier Old Men, Heat, Cutthroat Island, Sabrina, Tom & Huck, Toy Story, Balto, Sudden Death, Cutthroat Island, Waiting to Exhale Father of the Bride Part II), the Loews Cityplace was underway.
1995 was the start of the megaplex boom and Cityplace was the last of the megaplexes in DFW to open that year preceded by the AMC Grand 24, the Cinemark 17, the Cinemark Grapevine Tinseltown 17 and the UA Grand Prairie 10 among them. Its auditoriums ranged from a low end 184-seater to the larger 525-seat theaters with about 4,000 overall seats. As a Sony property, the theater was all about synergy: it trumpeted its 5.1 Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) system, gave away Sony music cassettes at the opening, offered prize packages with Sony home theater gear and Sony TVs, Sony Walkmans, Sony 8mm camcorders, featured virtually all of Sony/Columbia/TriStar films released, and claimed to be the first theater in Dallas to display 7.1 SDDS. The Cityplace was the first theater in inner-city Dallas since the opening of the O’Neill West End Cinema and the Cityplace siphoned what little business the West End was getting until that theater’s closure in August 2001.
But in 2006, AMC acquired Loews Cineplex and with AMC turning its attention to the nearby and higher-end all stadium-seating NorthPark 15 and with competition from the nearby art houses Landmark Magnolia and Angelika Film Center Dallas, the Cityplace and other Loews properties were in jeopardy. A sign of the times for the area occurred when a car rammed through the window of the theater after it closed and the made off with one item: the theater’s ATM banking unit.
AMC loved some of the Sony/Loews locations in other cities but not so much its Dallas-area portfolio. AMC would close the Loews Cityplace, the Loews Cinemas 20 & 287 in Arlington, and the Loews City View in Fort Worth after the merger and was forced to sell the Loews Keystone Park before the merger could be finalized (it was sold to Regal). Officially, the Loews Cityplace closed forever January 6, 2008 and the theater was bulldozed shortly thereafter as was the Loews 20 & 287. Rosebud Properties owned the Cityplace theater property and had sold it to a developer which turned the space into apartments and retail including an L.A. Fitness. The 12 year plus 3 week lifespan seemed too brief to many who lived near the theater which was still in fairly nice condition upon closure.
The $18 million AMC Grand was built by Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT) in a warehouse district of Dallas not far from what was once considered restaurant row. The 24-screen megaplex revolutionized theater business and inspired 24+ screen movie theater in urban markets around the nation. Expecting 1.5 million customers its first year, the Grand doubled its clientele. So successful was the concept that four “Gourmet Cinema” auditoriums playing independent and foreign films and one screen playing interactive Interfilm Technology releases such as “Ride For Your Life” were quickly repurposed as additional screens for blockbuster, multi-screen releases within just three weeks of the complex’s opening. AMC knew it had a blockbuster, itself, in the Grand concept.
The 85,000 square foot theater bucked the DFW trend by General Cinema to simply add a multiplex near the footprint of another successful multiplex as they had at Redbird Mall, Town East Mall, Richardson, Irving Mall, Carollton, and others in the area. The Grand’s stadium seating in all 24 houses, multichannel audio in all houses, and 13-acres of exclusive parking with valet was a destination finding people driving as much as an hour to come to that theater. With showings in the early morning and shows into the late hours, patrons likely showed up without paying close attention to the showtimes for the opening weekend of a smash hit. AMC replicated the success in DFW with the 30-screen Mesquite, 30-screen Grapevine Mills, and 24-screen Stonebriar. Meanwhile, 10-16 screen plexes opened all over the metro area by operators including AMC, United Artists, and Cinemark which along with the 24+ screen theaters would blunt the destination status of the Grand.
The uniqueness of the Grand was gone and the momentum of restaurants hopping across to the area and having success was on the downward slope as the first decade of the 2000s was closing. Restaurants and nightspots near the Grand were closing and restaurant row was in retreat, as well. The Grand’s parking lot was often virtually empty on weekdays and the writing was on the wall for the property. EPT had built 95 other megaplexes built during the ‘plex boom period but suffered its first non-renewal when AMC decided to walk away from the Grand as its 15-year lease lapsed. Almost unthinkable ten years earlier that this significant theater could have fallen so far so fast, but it was true. On Halloween 2010, AMC said “trick” and no treat closing up shop hastily. Its lease officially lapsed at the end of November as it carted its possessions away.
EPT found a new operator in Southern Cinemas who shockingly decided to spend millions of dollars to re-tool a portion of the space as the downsized 14-screen AmStar Grand Theatre 14. And almost equally shocking was that another person thought that a Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill would thrive in the other section of the complex. Southern Cinemas found Grand Opening festivities ominous as employees in tuxedos and security guards well outnumbered patrons with many of the advertised shows simply not playing on the second day of the Grand grand re-opening celebration. Things didn’t ever improve as the theater – despite high technology and dependable presentation – was a quick casualty limping badly to a two-year ending. A challenging environment for the once-king of the Dallas box office. Further, the theater housed the area’s only motion-controlled seating with its D-Box installation so Dallas/Fort Worth was motion-seat-less, to boot. Toby Keith’s Bar was also a casualty closing at the end of 2013 despite signs indicating that a re-opening was possible.
Surprisingly, Studio Movie Grill decided to take a stab at rekindling the magic quickly retrofitting the EPT Grand property as a dining-experience theater and opening just months later on December 16, 2013. The Studio Movie Grill Northwest Highway was hoping to somehow buck the trend of a faded cinema treasure location.
The venerable 183 Drive In opened in Irivng in 1950 designed by architect Raymond Smith. The 450-car drive-in theater was a rarity lasting almost 35 years just into the home video era. Irving Mayor Hans Smith co-owned the drive-in with W.P. Gandy at its opening. The owners of the Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie, Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Fischer, then bought the 183 Drive-In and the Irving Theater in November 1959. In the 1960s, Jerry A. Meagher’s Meagher Theatres Circuit took on the 183 Drive-In and the Irving Theater, created the Chateau indoor theater, Buena Vista, Park Plaza Drive –In and would take on the unique Texas Stadium Drive-In from McLendon.
The theater may be best known for its role in the 1988 documentary, “The Thin Blue Line” by Errol Morris and real-life trial of Randall Dale Adams. Adams was wrongfully convicted of murdering police office Robert W. Wood and sentenced to die by lethal injection. Adams had gone with another man, David Ray Harris who had stolen the car they were in, to the 183 Drive-In where they watched “The Student Body” and “Swinging Cheerleaders.” The investigation would lead to Harris who – in turn – would pin the murder on his 183 Drive-in partner, Adams. There was no doubting the staying power of the 183 Drive-In which closed in 1984 with almost 35 years of ozone service.
The Irving Mall opened August 4, 1971. Following a soft launch open house, the General Cinema Irving Mall I-II opened on the mall’s main level on Nov. 17, 1971 with “Something Big” on the 900-seat screen I and “Doctor Zhivago” on the smaller 450-seat screen II. The 900-screen theater was divided into two at the end of 1976 to form the Irving I-II-III. On October 26, 1984, on the mall’s lower floor at the food court, General Cinema added the Irving Mall IV-V-VI-VII.
General Cinema closed the I-II-III in August 1997 to expand into what would be the its only attempt at approaching a modern-build megaplex in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area before its operations were overtaken by AMC. The 14-screen stadium seating Irving Mall 14 was part of a $20 million renovation of the Simon DeBartolo Irving Mall which was trying to compete against strip shopping centers across the street and across the highway. On September 25, 1998, the Irving Mall IV-V-VI-VII ceased leaving the mall theater-less for almost three months. General Cinema also closed the Collin Creek Mall cinema the same day. Those followed the July 1998’s closing of NorthPark III & IV and Prestonwood Town Center as the megaplexes were decimating General Cinema’s failing multiplex business plan. The Irving Mall 14 would have a free soft launch on December 16, 1998 and then open on Dec. 18, 1998.
The move did prompt AMC to shut down its neighboring six-screen dollar house less than a year later. But by 2000/1, General Cinema was in free fall collapse in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closing theaters all over the nation including virtually every theater in the DFW area. The theater chain was down to just 73 theaters nationwide from its high of 621 theaters when purchased by AMC in Dec. 2001 (approved in 2002). The General Cinema signage was quickly removed from the Irving Mall location on a Thursday night where moviegoers could choose between AMC “Ticket” cups and bags or General Cinema “Popcorn Bob” cups and popcorn bags. Then on Friday, the theater opened as the AMC Irving Mall 14 which operated thereafter. While other shuttered General Cinemas became home to movie theaters, the Irving was the only continuously operated theater passing from General Cinema to AMC in DFW.
Under Dalian Wanda’s takeover of AMC, the AMC Irving was almost shockingly selected for a $6.1 million transformation including a bar, high end recliner seats which led to theaters having just 50 to 130 seats in them. The adjoining, enclosed game rooms were repurposed. AMC paid two thirds of the remodel and Simon Malls which operates the entire property paid for the other third. Total seating went from 3,056 seats in the 14-screener to just 1,152 seats. In July of 2013, the Irving Planning and Zoning Commission approved the liquor license and the theater operated continuously to its relaunch in October of 2013 with its first nine luxury suites. Despite the remodel, a few of the General Cinema coming attraction lit signs were still being used within the theater unchanged since 1998.
For more than seven years, the New American Cinema began using the Festival for late night Saturday and some Sunday matinees of what were considered “underground films” in December of 1968 and running into 1976. Maurice Levy scheduled the screenings using cult classics (e.g,. “Freaks” and “Reefer Madness”), repertory fare including classic cartoon shows and serials, experimental and independent contemporary films that just wouldn’t get booked elsewhere (e.g, “White House Madness” in 1975). The regular art run for the Festival wasn’t one year; it started in 1965 with first-run, changing to art double feature second-runs in 1968, but bookings change over to Mexican Cinema after a brief hiatus in October of 1971 — other than the New American Cinema special screenings. Not wanting the remodeling to go to waste, Rodriguez used the tagline, “Cine Mexicano de lujo” or “Mexican Cinema of luxury” in ads to provide brand differentiation from the Stevens Theater which had swiped away Rodriguez’s audience when the Panamericano switched to art fare back in the 1960s.
This picture is a shot of a firefighter who entered the theater just days after its March of 1933 relaunch and refurnishing as the Fair Theater. He’s in standing water as the theater suffered major hail damage, shattering the glass doors and windows. Five feet of water flooded the newly remodeled theater closing for a short period.
Phil Isley Circuit opened the Major Theater with “California” on May 28, 1947 with Monte Hale and Chill Wills making a personal appearance. The 1,200 seat theater had a cry room and free parking. At the end of June 1964, the Major closed briefly and became an independent under Ramon Garcia Lence of the Casa View, Arapaho Drive-In and REX cinema. During September of 1965, the Major went from suburban double-features to adult fare. In October of 1965, the theater’s name was changed to the Lido Theater — a very successful and oft-raided adult theater that added live shows in 1966. That theater went into 1970 when operators mulled over the impact of a Texas obscenity law that had survived a legal challenge. It was subleased and had a very brief run as a Hispanic Theater for three months in 1970 and reverted to playing X-rated fare that same year.
On March 18, 1971, it rebranded as more of an XXX adult house under new ownership and rediscovering its audience. With the neighboring Tamlo Club and Show Lounge which had live shows and some XXX films, the neighborhood drew crowds. The Lido continued all the way into the 1980s until city restrictions were placed on adult theaters within 1,000 feet of a city park. With the home video revolution occurring, it could have been a challenging marketplace for the Lido moving forward with or without the restrictions.
In 1991, the Lido reverted back to its original name, the Major Theater. It started with live shows and then mixed in films with many fewer seats. It made a little news by showing Dial M for Murder in 3-D. Since the film had been shown flat at the Majestic in 1954, it was Dallas' first chance to see the Hitchcock film in 3D. The theater closed in 1992 and re-opened in 1993 showing classic films. The lineage was that the Edison Theater had opened as a revival house that moved to the Granada Theater. The Major was the follow-up location after the Granada changed its operation. Partners Rob Clements and Bryce Gonzalez changed from retro movies to live shows beginning July 15, 1995. That appears to have lasted just over a year. In 1998, the Propel Group doing web development and digital media opened and was still in the space as of the 2010s. As for the Lido name, the tradition carried on and was in used into the 2010s as the name of an adult theater at 7035 W. John W. Carpenter Freeway in Dallas.
The Ritz Theater operated for five decades at 105 E. Main Street in downtown Richardson. As the city grew, the theater tried to adapt. In 1948, owner J.B. Roberts invested $42,000 in the theater to expand seating and modernize the theater. The theater closed briefly in 1961 the theater’s image including a name change. But the last ten years saw the theater struggling to stay relevant with audiences before subsiding in 1972.
The Ritz was first rebranded in 1961 as the Electra Theater showing double features of second-run content. In 1965, the Electra tried to become an art house and only allowed adult-aged patrons. The experiment had its moments so the theater decided to rebrand once again in 1966 becoming the Holiday Art Theatre (often just referred to in marketing as the “Holiday”) showing repertory films from the “vaults.” The Holiday closed and that was it for film exhibition for the former Ritz. It became home to the Richardson Community Theater retitled the theater as the Richardson Playhouse in 1969. For three years, the theater put on live stage plays. When that ended in 1972, the theater passed to owners who as of the 2010s still held the theater. Elements of the theater are still present in the building which has been totally retrofitted. The balcony is still present as is the screen and rigging. But the days of presentation are behind the Ritz/Electra/Holiday Art/Richardson Playhouse as the building was home to business including Fluid Power Supply into the 2010s used as a business office by Stone Associates.
While I love the site and agree with everything said on behavior, the usability needs addressing. The notion that you can put in the name of a theater that you’re presumably doing research on (e.g, Dal-Sec) and the site’s search engine returns “no movie theaters found”, that’s not too user friendly… especially when the theater is actually in the database. A response of “no open theaters found; one closed theater found” or similar might be more approachable for users. But when the database consists of 80% closed items, to default to “open” seems counter to first-time or even veteran users. Few newbie users would venture to the tiny bar and know to hit the greyed-out “closed” if the theater was in that space. Again, love the site and appreciate the contributions of all.
Hunt Properties built the Dallas North Shopping Center in Plano which with an announced grocery store in 1962 at the corner of North Central Expressway and 15th Street. But the Center wouldn’t officially officially open until August 1967 when additional businesses including Mott’s Five and Dime and Illinois fast-food chain Mr. Quick joined the shopping complex connected with a climate-controlled sidewalk. Fifth grader Vickie Wesch then wrote a letter to Interstate Theater Circuit’s John Q. Adams saying that the shopping center and Plano needed a movie theater gathering 83 signatures on a petition to persuade the circuit. Kismet. Hunt Properties would build a movie theater in its North Shopping Center and leased it to Interstate Theaters. In 1969, Jack H. Morgan was the architect and drew plans. But ABC and Interstate would merge operations becoming ABC-Interstate necessitating a minor change and second set of architectural drawings. Construction began on May 4, 1970 with a ceremonial ground breaking using a shovel made of film reels and canisters. Plano Mayor Connor Harrington and Interstate President John Q. Adams were among the featured guests.
The delayed project would finally open as a stand-alone building in the Center technically on Janwood St. It was ABC-Interstate’s 84th Texas theater beginning service November 18, 1971 with the film “Scrooge.” Wesch, the student who had suggested the concept of the theater, received a one year’s free pass. The grand opening featured the burying of a time capsule in a crypt to be opened in 2005 on ABC Interstate’s 100th anniversary. (Spoiler alert: maybe they should have moved that date up by 20 or so years.) While the population was growing in Plano, picking a successful spot within the sprawling suburb proved challenging.
The Cameo was not a success story for Interstate. Fifth grader Wesch had apparently not done enough demographic research or crafted policies that would lead to success for the theater chain. During a showing of “The Cross and the Switchblade” in 1971, the blades were out as young patrons slashed theater seats. Another boy lit a sparkler during a show and underage smoking was a problem for the theater. Patrons complained that loud talking made movie-going a chore at the Cameo. ABC Interstate apologized for the six-month old theater which even they admitted now looked many, many years old. This forced the manager to quit and the city council to look into the situation. Even with a new manager on board, the theater was not profitable and was closed by the chain.
On June 7, 1974, ABC Interstate decided to give the Cameo property second life opening with “American Graffiti.“ The rebirth was not a success and ABC Interstate closed the property again. But by decade’s end, the population trends had improved. In 1979, Plitt Theaters which had acquired the Interstate circuit reopened the Cameo for the third time in the same decade with a grand re-re-opening on April 6, 1979 showing “The Deer Hunter” in the renamed Palisades Shopping Center. The circuit under its revised name of Plitt Southern decided to close the theater a fourth time — this time temporarily — to twin the theater and rebrand it as the Collin Creek Cameo.
The twin-screen theater launched with a grand re-re-re-opening in the shadow of the Collin Creek Mall whose first store had opened back on October 20, 1980. The theater’s longest stretch of being opened happened under Plitt Southern as they operated the Collin Creek Cameo to what appears to be the end of a 15-year, disappointing lease cycle that wasn’t renewed. The theater was shuttered as a downgraded, second-run discount house. Neither the Interstate Circuit nor the Cameo Theater had survived long enough to open the time capsule on the overly-optimistic 2005 date stated during the theater’s grand opening. In the realm of DFW film exhibition luminaries, the Collin Creek Cameo had but a cameo. Among its distinctions was having been closed four times by the same operator (not including the one for remodeling) and four celebrated openings. A rarity in this area. Its exit came via demolition as the Collin Creek’s footprint grew with many non-descript strip shopping centers supplanting the Palisades Shopping Center. The good news was that local moviegoers could go across the street and down a dead-end road if they had an awareness that General Cinema Corp. had constructed a six-screen theater well-hidden from the mall for which the circuit’s theater was named: the GCC Collin Creek VI.
The Little Theater was built in 1922 as an adobe 2-story live theatre. WW-2 found community theater in decline and the theater went dark. It was renamed the El Panamericano by new operator J.J. Rodriguez in October 1943 showing Spanish language films. Rodriguez then closed Cine Azteca, Dallas' first Spanish language movie theatre which had launched in 1937 because the diminutive theater was often well above capacity. Rodriguez operated this mega-successful movie theater appealing to what was known as the Little Mexico neighborhood in Dallas. But in 1965, Rodriguez got some business advice and rebranded the property to appeal to a more upscale audience. The Panamericano owner rolled the dice closing the theater temporarily and moved itself from middle class Hispanic theater to a high-end Festival Theater art house with adjoining Festival Lounge and Buccaneer Terrace. It opened Sept. 20, 1965 to sold out audiences. That didn’t last.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez took over the flagging Chisolm Trail Drive-In in Grand Prairie to continue his Spanish language film exhibition rebranding the ozoner as the Auto Vista opening March 29, 1965 with “La Bandida” and “Suenos de Oro.” (The Weisenburg Circuit would take over the short-lived Auto Vista and re-rebrand it as the East Main Drive-In, returning it to English language films.)
Rodriguez admitted that the high risk remodeling of his Panamericno to the Festival proved to be a mistake as the Hispanic population was moving out of the area and Oak Cliff audiences gravitated to the Stevens Theatre which had changed to Spanish language film and not the Auto Vista. The Buccaneer Terrace was closed shortly into its run. In 1968, Rodriguez tried changing to double feature adult art content and reopened the Terrace. But the property struggled and Rodriguez reverted to Spanish language film. But even that marketplace had changed with the Stevens king and – by the late 1970s – several more Spanish language theaters entered the DFW market and Little Mexico was virtually gone. The Festival was on life support and though Rodriguez managed to make it into July of 1981 he sold the Festival to real estate investors. A final live play was staged at the theatre as a last hoorah for the property in Oct. and Nov. of 1981 rekindling its roots as the Little Theater. The theater was demolished but is one of Dallas' most important cinema treasures for serving generations of Hispanic moviegoers.
United Artists purchased four acres of a 12-acre tract at the southeast corner of Beltline and what was once part of North Star Road in Garland in 1984 to build a multiplex. MPM Development would then build a 68,000 sq. ft. strip shopping center around the theater called North Star Crossing bringing additional traffic to the complex. The UA 8 North Star (often fused as Northstar 8 in ads) opened December of 1984 and, in its operation of just over 21 years, the theater remained a first-run house under the aegis of UA/Regal through its entire existence. The UA 8 South, the UA 8 Las Vegas Trail and UA 8 North Star were built much like the “second-generation” UA 8’s around the country: fairly non-descript but serviceable locations that weren’t destination multiplexes like the UA Plaza or the UA Galaxy but more neighborhood-centric and understated.
Unlike its first era of multiplexes, these UA 8’s had more soothing color palettes and indirect lighting. The smallest houses were 280 seaters with fairly uncomfortable chairs. At the 16-year mark, the North Star got some good news in that General Cinema closed its Richardson location in 2000 just 3.5 miles away which led to an uptick in customers at the North Star. For patrons, good news occurred when the UA MacArthur Marketplace megaplex mega-flopped in less than five years of service from 1999 to 2004. When the Regal shut the theater, the North Star was the recipient of the MacArthur seating. It was a nice improvement. Despite the new seating, the North Star wasn’t given a ringing endorsement from the chain. As Regal ramped up its digitally projected pre-show “2wenty” in most auditoriums in 2003/4, the North Star was largely left out of the transition which was a portent of things to come.
Regal shuttered aging UA multiplexes all over the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and beyond shortly after taking over United Artists. And when AMC opened its Firewheel Town Center Mall 18-screener in far east Garland on December 14, 2005, the North Star UA 8 was looking quite aged. Just one month after the AMC launch, the North Star closed for good on January 29, 2006. Few people bothered to show up for the final shows that evening. The property was updated for new business owners. First into the location in its post-theatrical life was a sports bar closing in 2011, then it was Legends Jumpin House closing in 2013, then it was briefly Quinceanera Reception Halls event center, then it was…. well, you get the idea. The theater’s conversion away from a multiplex – like so many others – has proven to be a challenge to the shopping center. And unlike the UA 8 Vegas Trails or UA 8 South that didn’t have the adjoining shopping center to be concerned with, those 8-plexes were more readily converted into stand-alone non-profit churches.
Veteran theater owner Bob Davis constructed the single screen Plano Drive-In in 1969. The theater was at the northeast corner of Parker Road and Central Expressway / U.S. 75. That caught the eye of the McLendon Theater Circuit which 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 retaining its moniker but converted it to a three-screen operation. At that point, McLendon also operated the Astro, Apollo, Gemini, Century, and East Main in Grand Prairie as their DFW ozoners.
This appears to be a 15-year lease situation common to land speculation of that era as Dallas' suburbs were moving northward. When former department chain Mervyn’s expanded into Dallas in 1984, they hosted a big event at the Plano Drive-In, the last major event at the Plano Drive-In. In 1985, the drive-in became home to overflow parking for the nearby Collin Creek Mall and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Park ‘n’ Ride allowing commuters to take express busses into Dallas. DART was working on building a mud-free / paved and modern transit center across the street on the southeast corner. Under their aegis, the drive-in was damaged in 1986 and actually repaired despite the fact that the facility would never be used for theatrical purposes again.
The DART center finally was completed in 1989 and the Drive-in was vacated. It was demolished and became home to a nondescript strip shopping center at 3300 N. Central Expressway that in the 2010s housed stores such as Ross Clothes for Less, Petsmart, and Sports Authority. To go back in time, a visit to historicalaerials.com and inputting the 3300 Central Expressway in Plano, TX in 1979 gives you a great look at the former three screen operation.
M.C. Cole opened the $3,000,000 Ridgewood Shopping Center in 1959 with 141,000 square feet of business space occupied by stores including Wyatt’s Grocery Store, Woolworth’s, and M.L. Green. Cole planned to add a second phase consisting of 141,000 square feet if the center succeeded. It did. The Ridgewood Theater was late in the second stage of the Center. Ground was broken in May of 1967 and the theater was architected by Kynn Cole and built by M.C. Cole’s Ranco Development Company for $350,000 for the Interstate Circuit. The 866-seat theater would be patterned after the Westwood in Richardson and Hurst’s Bellaire theaters for Interstate. The interior of the Ridgewood was Mediterranean style used antique brick and had floors with a basketweave design, quarry tile. Wall to wall screen with an overhead vertical lift curtain with automatically controlled maskings along with stereo sound and auto dimmers in lighting made for a modern, versatile theater. The exterior also used antique brick.
The theater launched on December 21, 1967 with Disney’s “The Happiest Millionaire.” Interstate created a 10-minute film on the city of Garland that ran prior to the show. The theater became the 85th for Interstate. Hal Burreson was the first manager of the Ridgewood. The theater was community-minded booking local live acts occasionally and allowing benefit screenings periodically. Under Burreson, only G rated films were booked with only one exception: “Midnight Cowboy.” Burreson moved to the Medallion in Dallas when it opened in 1969 and was replaced by William L. Moyer. With a new sheriff in town, the Ridgewood changed fairly quickly. Moyer decided he didn’t want to be Garland’s babysitter and eliminated G-rated films. The adult-only R-rated policy was put in because of damage kids were causing to Ridgewood’s seating, the high volume of underage smoking, the cutting of electrical cords and general rowdiness. On Friday nights, Moyer said that “adults couldn’t even hear the movies.”
But in Garland, that sort of anti-family policy didn’t sit too well. So a public meeting was scheduled to deal with the vandalism issue at the theater and Moyer reversed course on the theater’s adults-only policy. (And Moyer said it had nothing to do with a short-term downturn of ticket sales.) The theater hosted a private advance screening of “Living Free” with stars Elsa the lion in attendance and the World Premiere of Semi-Tough with author Dan Jenkins in attendance happened at the Northtown Six, Ridgewood and Village on Nov. 13, 1977. The large lobby space allowed Interstate to take advantage of a pinball craze to install pinball machines bringing additional revenue. Entering the 1980s, the pinball machines would be replaced by video games as pinball lost favor. By the end of 1977, Interstate (then ABC-Interstate) had contemplated downgrading the Ridgewood to discount, dollar status. But it said that wasn’t the right play for the theater or the community.
In 1978, ABC-Interstate sold the theater to Plitt group. The theater began a minor descent thereafter as the theater was relegated to discount, dollar status by Plitt, then it was twinned, and – most embarrassingly – closed by the fire marshal for life-threatening fire exit problems on October 14, 1984. Then theater manager Timothy Langevin was arrested on three counts of fire code violations. Though it reopened shortly thereafter, the Ridgewood halcyon days were over as it soldiered onward as a twin discount house existing in a multiplex world. It would finally close. The Ridgewood’s days were not over as it was used for live theater in two years for religious plays and functions in 2001 and 2002. It was booked as a special events center during the 2000s. And late in the 2000s, it became a club featuring live music which was not a success. As of the 2010s, the Westwood was vacant but seemingly ready for the next potential tenant with a dream.
Interstate reached the finish line with its Highland Park Village shopping center in 1935 with the name scheduled to be the Tower Theater named after its beacon tower. But that theater was ultimately named the Village using the shopping center’s namesake. But Interstate picked up the name for its modestly-priced $125,000 W. Scott Dunne architected final count 1,320 leather trimmed seat Tower Theater. An intriguing project found within the Tower Petroleum Building and extending beyond it. A wrecking ball was taken to one existing portion of the Tower Building with a few parts of the walls used in the theater which received a new steel frame construction. George P. O’Rourke Construction built the entrance right through the just- vacated Webb Waffle House in the Tower Building beginning in August of 1936. The auditorium was constructed thereafter opening February 19, 1937. The lobby of the theater had a giant aquarium by Irwin Waite with tropical fish, aquatic plants, wall to wall mirrors, and neon-lighted handrails. Eugene Gilboe painted the murals to match. Interior of the theater’s auditorium, however, was not close to matching. It was downright spartan as the themed palace days were ending. And the diminutive budget for such a downtown theater was clearly spent elsewhere.
The Tower opened with the film, “Rainbow on the River” with star Bobby Breen in attendance and reverted to being the second-week run for pictures leaving the Majestic or Palace after one week. It got a refresh when it was closed for nine months while a building extension to the larger Tower Petroleum Building was made called the Corrigan Tower above and around the theater beginning on March 14, 1951. When it reopened on Christmas of that year, the 1930s were gone replaced by new murals and cleaner look along with an air conditioning system. The lack of thematic movie palace elements helped the theater stay contemporary as did innovation. The new Tower agot into closed circuit sporting events staring with the Rocky Marciano Roland La Starza fight. It was a $50,000 experiment by Interstate. Theater Network Television (TNT) also played operas and symphonies via closed circuit which continued through 1955.
But the Tower hit its stride updating its projection in the 1950s and 1960s allowing for large format screenings with 70mm projection, stereo sound, exclusive sneak previews, and roadshows such as El Cid, The Happiest Millionaire, Patton, and Ben Hur. In fact, to many locals, the Tower was the “Ben Hur” theater. In November of 1959, William Wyler came to Dallas to show a sneak preview of the film. The Tower would go on to have Ben Hur for almost one full year. But as the Central Zone took off with Interstate’s Medallion and Wilshire, as well as General Cinema’s NorthPark, UA’s Ciné 150, and others, downtown theaters took a precipitous turn as population shifts and free parking at suburbans were in favor. Rather abruptly, the Tower was closed just after July 4, 1971 with the last feature of “The Seven Minutes.” Since that times out almost precisely to 35 years from the date of the previous tenant leaving the Tower Building and Interstate beginning, it would likely indicate an end of lease situation. The Tower’s lobby was retrofitted for a business soon thereafter. The auditorium stayed boarded up until December of 1978 when the spot below the Corrigan Tower was finally deconstructed.
The 100,000 square foot Eastgate Shopping Center opened in September of 1972 just off of Interstate 635 at 1450 Northwest Highway at Saturn Road. The twin-screen theater was an original tenant and began life with its moniker of “The Movies” officially at 1430 Northwest Highway. That wasn’t a hit so the theater closed and reopened on September 6, 1974 as Eastgate Cinemas 2 with “The Bootlegger” and “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” on screen two. The theater was still not a hit and was downgraded to dollar house status entering the 1980s.
Operated by William B. Boren’s fledgling circuit consisting of the Eastgate, Westgate Cinema in McKinney, Wilshire Showcase I & II in Euless, Cineworld 4 and Lancaster Showcase in Fort Worth and two theaters in Blackwell, OK, the writing was on the wall when nine film companies sued Boren in February of 1983 for not providing enough of the owed admission receipts for the period beginning in 1978 forward. The twin-screen era was ending in the multiplex world anyway and the Eastgate was a dead duck in May of 1984. Or was it?
On June 22d of 1984, the Eastgate became a twin screen adult theater and suddenly the theater had the attention of what had been an indifferent populace. Scoring with X-rated hits including Emanuelle and Caligula, the Eastgate was drawing audiences and raised eyebrows. Garland’s first adult theater was a hit! But clientele at nearby family establishments including Furr’s Cafeteria, a Hallmark card store, and a Christian book store launched a petition drive backed by the Garland Church of Christ. The complaints reached the owner of Eastgate Shopping Center, Hank Dickerson Realators.
The attention lead to great business and picketers protesting the operation. Members of Rev. Daniel Hicks' Four Square Gospel Church prayed for the future of morality in the city of Garland. And the sentiments of one city councilman summarized the situation, “I wouldn’t want my wife to go to a shopping center where there are customers of this type of facility.” On July 17th, the city of Garland hastily passed an ordinance banning X-rated films within 500 feet of a church, park, school, or residential area (or where oxygen is present) to zone the theater out of existence. On July 18th, Hank Dickerson sent an eviction notice. And within two weeks, the Eastgate and operator M&B Cinema of Houston with George Marules were in court facing immediate eviction. Eastgate manager Rick “X” explained the difference between X-rated fare originating in the adult art porno chic era and the more lewd XXX fare that the Eastgate would never show. Manager Rick pledged to show more art, foriegn and R-Rated films in the future and understood why a zoning ordinance would apply to an XXX theater.
The initial suit was dismissed because even to the Garland Justice of the Peace, the speed of the process was far too brisk to be fair to the operators of the cinema. But refiled a month later, the Emanuelle (Eastgate Cinema) v. Goliath (Garland) situation was back. Emanuelle’s slingshot was the First Amendment and marketplace of ideas v. the Goliath of overwhelming public sentiment and legal standing on public nuisance attributable to movie posters in public view and a very dubiously worded zoning ordinance. Goliath took down Emanuelle as the realtor and city of Garland got their way in a court ordered eviction of M&B and Eastgate Cinema. “I think it was a victory for the Lord Jesus in that darkness was dealt a destructive blow,” Rev. Hicks said, “I think it was a case of God hearing the prayers of his people.” What followed were police raids of adult video and novelty stores that sought to rid Garland of filth. And the controversial theater would close advertising as the slightly rebranded Eastgate Adult Cinema in its final days for clearer marketing purposes. The Eastgate was offered to anyone who wanted to bring some good-old family entertainment to the shopping center and the cleansed Garland citizenry. Of course, nobody wanted to do that and the Eastgate was history: a sleepy first 11.75 years and a rambunctious legally-challenged final .5 years.