Park Plaza Twin Cinema

3001 36th Street,
Port Arthur, TX 77640

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Park Plaza Twin Cimema Theater

The Park Plaza Twin Cinema was the first theatre in the Port Arthur, Texas area that had more than one screen. Seating was provided for 660 and 440.

Contributed by Chet Cuccia

Recent comments (view all 4 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 2, 2006 at 9:58 pm

Litigation was afoot in August 1975:

Hayes Inc. Files Anti-Trust Suit

BEAUMONT – A $6.5 million antitrust suit was filed in federal court
Friday charging that a New Orleans man and his employers have prevented competition among movie theaters in Port Arthur and stymied development of a shopping center by Hayes Inc. of Port
Arthur. Named as defendants in the suit were T G. Solomon of New Orleans. Gulf States Theatres Inc.. Gulf States Theatres of Texas and Piqua Industries, Inc.
Lloyd L Hayes, Hayes Inc, Park Plaza Twin Theatres Inc. and Mid-County Enterprises Inc. are the plaintiffs.

Hayes and Hayes Inc are saying they suffered over 5 million in damages as a result of Solomon’s “maneuvering”, while Park Plaza claims it lost over $500,000 in revenues from what they call his “anticompetitive and unfair tactics ”.

Mid-County Enterprises say the defendants overt threats prevented
them from building a planned drive-in theater and lost them over $1 million. They are asking the court restrain defendants from further alleged violations of anti-trust laws and for recovery of damages in triplicate.

Also during this same period of time, the suit says that Hayes contacted investors with the idea of building a drive-in
theater on the northwest side of Port Arthur. Mid County Enterprises Inc. was organized June 19, 1972 and they leased a tract of and along U.S. Hwy 69 planning to build a drive-in theater there.

But this plan was halted, they say, when Solomon told them if they build the drive-in, he would retaliate by building one directly across the road from them. Since defendants already owned the
Don Drive-In, and the newly-formed corporation would not have been able to undergo a sustained period of loss, the drive-in idea was aborted, the complaint states.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on July 12, 2009 at 1:43 am

The opening of the Plaza was advertised in the Port Arthur News on June 19, 1968. Opening features were “Bandolero” and “The One, the Only, Genuine, Original Family Band”.

rivest266
rivest266 on September 19, 2009 at 8:19 pm

Thanks, Ken MC. I uploaded the grand opening ads at View link

stevendm
stevendm on August 17, 2014 at 6:50 pm

I worked there for a few years starting in 1983. The small auditorium had 440 rocking seats and the larger auditorium had 660 standard theater seats. My starting salary was $5 for a 6 hour shift.

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