Midland Plaza Cinema

Phase I of the Midland Plaza opened on April 8, 1970 Kroger, SuperX Drugs, a Grant’s store and a Pizza Hut with the center fireplace feature. Phase II had a United General automated cinema as the main feature announced in 1971.

The franchisee was Dr. Hakki S. Tamimie - who believed that a one-button cinema would be a goldmine. United General was similar Network Cinemas' Jerry Lewis Cinemas only its advisory board shills were Debbie Reynolds, Glenn Ford, and Agnes Morehead. Dr. Tamimie had nine other franchises of NGC ready to build. The closest the doctor came to the first million in the cinema industry was the opening film, “Walt Disney’s The $1 Million Duck” with Dean Jones on June 21, 1971.

Within a year and a half, the Midland Cinema was out of business with a lawsuit in the courts; this time with United General suing the franchisee. By 1975, United General was heading toward conspiracy and fraud convictions and the end of its scheme with virtually every other franchisee suing them. Similarly, Network Cinema and its similar though not identical Jerry Lewis Cinema scheme had been exposed a year earlier with it going into bankruptcy.

Under new operators, the Midland Plaza Cinema roared back with ‘The Class of '41’ on June 21, 1973. Kerasotes took on the venue operating until 1985 when a realignment placed a number of area facilities under the GKC moniker (George Kerasotes Corporation Theatres). GKC closed the theatre at end of lease on September 27, 1987 with “The Fourth Protocol.”

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