Northwest Plaza Cinema
500 Northwest Plaza,
St. Ann,
MO
63074
500 Northwest Plaza,
St. Ann,
MO
63074
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I better rephrase the first part of my previous post…
JAlex, what I meant to say was it sounded like you said the 4-screen theater at Northwest Plaza closed just after Wehrenberg took it over from General Cinema. The point I was trying to make was that the 4-screener stayed open for a while after Wehrenberg took it over. I’m pretty sure of that, but willing to listen to other facts and/or opinions on this.
My apologies for any confusion I might have caused.
Actually, I thought Wehrenberg kept the 4-screen outlot theater open for a while until the 9-screen theater inside the mall opened. I distinctly remember going to movies (one was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) at the 4-screen outlot and hearing the all-too-familiar Wehrenberg jingle. The 4-screener did close just before the 9-screener opened, but I don’t believe it was that soon.
Anyways, just saw a story today on the Post-Dispatch’s website saying Northwest Plaza will go into foreclosure on Sept 1:
http://tinyurl.com/n6ywjz
The demise of North St. Louis county continues…
In mid-October 1989 it was announced that Wehrenberg Theatres had purchased the General Cinema operations in the state of Missouri.
On October 29, the Northwest Plaza closed, some two days before the effective date of the takeover. Wehrenberg a few weeks later opened the Northwest Plaza 9 Cine in the newly remodeled, now enclosed, mall.
My mistake for the error…which pales by comparison to the countless other errors about St. Louis theatres made by my accuser.
;)
The retrofitting of the two-screener into four took place in April 1982.
The original single screen auditorium was split into two in time for Christmas 1974 when the films available were “Towering Inferno” and “Island at the Top of the World.” At this time publicity said the original 1800-seat auditorium was now two of about 800 seats.
As already noted, the venue opened as the Northwest Plaza Cinema.
Opening date was June 25, 1969. At opening, touted 1700 seats.
My grandparents lived near to here, so I saw a lot of movies at this theatre, as well as the St. Ann. I believe the last movie I saw there was “WarGames.” I don’t remember much about the place, other than it was huge to a child’s eyes. To this day, seeing the General Cinemas logo reminds me of this theatre.
I also seem to remember that it was the site of the very first screening of “Flash Gordon.”
The correct and advertised name for this GCC location was, I believe, Northwest Plaza Cinema, and it was located at the western-most side of the shopping center.
If I remember correctly, the original auditoriums were not twinned by adding walls down the center from rear to front. Rather, they were split from side to side. Because they were very steeply graded, this created two upper houses and two lower houses, with two separate projection booths – the original booth at the top of the upper auditoriums and the new lower booth essentially behind the screens of the upper auditoriums. Unusual. The projectionists walked countless miles up and down the aisle stairs from booth to booth many times each day.
Northwest Plaza Cinema was a strong performer for GCC in it’s day, with a very strong manager, Dave McCann, in charge during the ‘80s. He ran a very clean theatre, with a friendly and helpful staff.