This theatre opened at Christmas 1979; it was a typical of it’s time General Cinema tin-walled cracker-box style. It had a Dolby Stereo theatre but because these theatres were all long, the Dolby Stereo was pretty pathetic! Only the rows in the direct middle of the theatre could get a good stereo effect. Sit too close to the screen and no surround effect; sit too far back and too much surround! General Cinema; from sixties interest to seventies patheticism to eighties/nineties adequacy. R.I.P.!
I was the projectionist on the night of the “Beyond The Poseidon Adventure” premiere; the movie was pretty bad. Irwin Allen was there and came up to the booth before the show to check on everything. I was threading up the first reel when he opened the door and came in. He didn’t see me but I saw him; so being the jokester I am, I started exclaiming “Warning—-Danger Will Robinson!” (which was a line the robot in “Lost In Space” said in practically every episode). Needless to say, he was a bit startled but then a wide grin came on his face! Two things quite noticeable about him—-he was a small man and he wore white cotton gloves like film editors wore! Ah the good old days.
I was the relief projectionist from 1981-84 and it was still a single-screen theater, as it was when I left town in 1985. I’m not sure when it was twinned or became a five-plex but I do know they turned the pizza parlor on the side(the right side in the picture above) into another screen. Another great single-screen turned into junk!
This Euless history picture is not a picture of the construction of the Mid-Cities Drive-In! The Mid-Cities did not have a screen tower—-it had a corrugated metal screen held up by large poles! The screen was at the back of the lot and could barely be seen from the highway. The caption read built in 1950—-could this be the Belknap Drive-In in Haltom City? Although it opened in 1948, the screen tower in the picture could very well pass for the Belknap. The Mid-Cities was probably Euless' first and only drive-in.
The Mid-Cities Drive-in opened in the Spring of 1962 with an unusual double bill of “Judgement In Nuremberg” and “No Name On The Bullet”-an Audie Murphy western! I practically lived most of my older childhood at this drive-in as it was only a mile from where I lived. Most of the pictures played were geared to the family-especially in its early years. I remember the opening of “The Three Stooges In Orbit”-the cars were backed up quite a ways up the highway! That was also the days when new movies opened on Thursday instead of Friday as they do now.
Matt, the East Main was formerly the Chisholm Trail and can be found under that name in C.T. The Twin Highways was a single screen drive-in about a mile east of the East Main. It got it’s name because it was located between Davis Blvd. and Jefferson Blvd. coming out of Oak Cliff/Dallas. What made it unique was it had two entrances—one off of each highway! What made it an occasional problem was if there was very heavy rains, the lot flooded! It closed in the early ‘70’s.
This was the first theater I saw movies in. In the mid-to-late 50’s, this was the top theater in Harlingen showing the biggest Hollywood movies. Our family was good friends with the city manager of Interstate Theatres, Mike Gilbert. So we regularly attended the Arcadia and the Rialto. When Mike left the business, he became the Postmaster of Harlingen. I remember the interior as a slightly Spanish decor with wooden floors; which probably made the fire that destroyed it a lot bigger!
As I write this today, the Loew’s 20 & 287 is falling to the wrecker’s ball! It will be replaced by a Quik Trip mega-gas/convenience store. The demolition started at the rear of the building with the auditoriums eventually working its way to the front lobby. It should be gone totally in a couple of days!
Matt, “Gandhi” was a 1982 release but only in N.Y. and L.A., probably for Academy Award consideration (which worked out real well for them!). The rest of the country opened it in early ‘83.
Whenever I visit my family in Rochester, my cousin and I always take his two girls to see the latest family movie. I noticed this year that they’ve added a fourth screen; the more the merrier!
This theatre was still going in the summer of 1990; saw Back To The Future III there. In 1992, saw Twin Peaks:Fire Walk With Me at the Loew’s (formerly Roth’s) Tyson Corner 8; or was it 9?
Mark W: Your brother John trained me as a projectionist here in 1971. I fondly remember your Dad Rueben—didn’t he work the Texas Theatre with Bill Phillips?
This theatre opened in the late ‘60’s during Interstate Theatres last building boom. It played first-run features—saw All The President’s Men in '76. Not long after, in tandem with the Belaire Theatre in Hurst, it was twinned and later fourpled (four-screened).
I practically lived in this theatre in the early ‘60’s. But with more theatres being built in the suburbs where the audiences were, the Tower’s days were numbered. It was torn down in the late '60’s to make way for a new 7-11. It was directly on the corner of Belknap and Riverside—and was generally booked day-and-date with the Gateway.
The Stevens began playing Spanish-language movies in the late ‘60’s as this area became mostly Mexican-American. I was a projectionist here for a while in the early '70’s. This theatre was demolished in the '90’s replaced by new retail buildings.
This was originally an AMC theatre opened in the ‘80’s. When AMC got out of the multiplex business into the megaplex business, they shut it down—Starplex took over and then remodeled it into an all-stadium seating theatre. UA opened their own Hulen theatre about the same time but inside the mall—this is the Hulen Movie Tavern now.
It closed mostly because of the Loew’s bankruptcy but the parking was atrocious because of a too small lot! It was a nice theatre with 3 70MM screens—saw The Abyss and Doctor Zhivago there in 70.
This theatre actually opened in May 1979; I became a projectionist there in 1980. After UA ditched it in the early ‘90’s, someone else ran it for a while—probably until October 1997. The left part of the building became a hobby shop and the right part of the building became an English-style pub—the pub is still there but the hobby shop closed.
Two interesting things about this theatre: Apparently it wasn’t planned very well. The front of the building had the lobby and three small theatres; the rear had two large theatres with a smaller one in between. When building the large theatres, the screens were flush against the back wall; they made plans for the speaker in the center to be in a pod extending out on the building’s rear. However, this left no room for the left and right Dolby Stereo speakers; they were put on risers on either side of the screens. And because they wanted the two large theatres to be wide for optimum Panavision widescreen, the small screen in the middle was quite narrow—so narrow that they could only put in a 1.85:1 screen. Rather than letterbox only 'scope features, 2.35:1 was shown on a 1.85:1 screen! Hey, it didn’t matter because the movies were on platters—no changeovers—so who cared? And you wonder sometimes where movie showing is headed—although today, it’s a lot better than this!
This theatre opened at Christmas 1979; it was a typical of it’s time General Cinema tin-walled cracker-box style. It had a Dolby Stereo theatre but because these theatres were all long, the Dolby Stereo was pretty pathetic! Only the rows in the direct middle of the theatre could get a good stereo effect. Sit too close to the screen and no surround effect; sit too far back and too much surround! General Cinema; from sixties interest to seventies patheticism to eighties/nineties adequacy. R.I.P.!
This is apparently going to be a church very soon if not already.
This looks more like an aerial view of the McClendon Triple Drive-In further south on South Main.
I was the projectionist on the night of the “Beyond The Poseidon Adventure” premiere; the movie was pretty bad. Irwin Allen was there and came up to the booth before the show to check on everything. I was threading up the first reel when he opened the door and came in. He didn’t see me but I saw him; so being the jokester I am, I started exclaiming “Warning—-Danger Will Robinson!” (which was a line the robot in “Lost In Space” said in practically every episode). Needless to say, he was a bit startled but then a wide grin came on his face! Two things quite noticeable about him—-he was a small man and he wore white cotton gloves like film editors wore! Ah the good old days.
I was the relief projectionist from 1981-84 and it was still a single-screen theater, as it was when I left town in 1985. I’m not sure when it was twinned or became a five-plex but I do know they turned the pizza parlor on the side(the right side in the picture above) into another screen. Another great single-screen turned into junk!
This Euless history picture is not a picture of the construction of the Mid-Cities Drive-In! The Mid-Cities did not have a screen tower—-it had a corrugated metal screen held up by large poles! The screen was at the back of the lot and could barely be seen from the highway. The caption read built in 1950—-could this be the Belknap Drive-In in Haltom City? Although it opened in 1948, the screen tower in the picture could very well pass for the Belknap. The Mid-Cities was probably Euless' first and only drive-in.
I also left out the Strawbridge 12.
What about the Columbus Circle and Pembroke Mall?
The Mid-Cities Drive-in opened in the Spring of 1962 with an unusual double bill of “Judgement In Nuremberg” and “No Name On The Bullet”-an Audie Murphy western! I practically lived most of my older childhood at this drive-in as it was only a mile from where I lived. Most of the pictures played were geared to the family-especially in its early years. I remember the opening of “The Three Stooges In Orbit”-the cars were backed up quite a ways up the highway! That was also the days when new movies opened on Thursday instead of Friday as they do now.
Matt, the East Main was formerly the Chisholm Trail and can be found under that name in C.T. The Twin Highways was a single screen drive-in about a mile east of the East Main. It got it’s name because it was located between Davis Blvd. and Jefferson Blvd. coming out of Oak Cliff/Dallas. What made it unique was it had two entrances—one off of each highway! What made it an occasional problem was if there was very heavy rains, the lot flooded! It closed in the early ‘70’s.
This was the first theater I saw movies in. In the mid-to-late 50’s, this was the top theater in Harlingen showing the biggest Hollywood movies. Our family was good friends with the city manager of Interstate Theatres, Mike Gilbert. So we regularly attended the Arcadia and the Rialto. When Mike left the business, he became the Postmaster of Harlingen. I remember the interior as a slightly Spanish decor with wooden floors; which probably made the fire that destroyed it a lot bigger!
It’s totally down! All that’s left is to pick up the debris.
As I write this today, the Loew’s 20 & 287 is falling to the wrecker’s ball! It will be replaced by a Quik Trip mega-gas/convenience store. The demolition started at the rear of the building with the auditoriums eventually working its way to the front lobby. It should be gone totally in a couple of days!
OOps! My original comment about “Gandhi” was incorrect; it opened at Northpark in 1983, not 1973!
Matt, “Gandhi” was a 1982 release but only in N.Y. and L.A., probably for Academy Award consideration (which worked out real well for them!). The rest of the country opened it in early ‘83.
“Gandhi” played first-run in 70MM at the Northpark Cinema I beginning in early 1973.
Whenever I visit my family in Rochester, my cousin and I always take his two girls to see the latest family movie. I noticed this year that they’ve added a fourth screen; the more the merrier!
This theatre was still going in the summer of 1990; saw Back To The Future III there. In 1992, saw Twin Peaks:Fire Walk With Me at the Loew’s (formerly Roth’s) Tyson Corner 8; or was it 9?
Mark W: Your brother John trained me as a projectionist here in 1971. I fondly remember your Dad Rueben—didn’t he work the Texas Theatre with Bill Phillips?
This theatre opened in the late ‘60’s during Interstate Theatres last building boom. It played first-run features—saw All The President’s Men in '76. Not long after, in tandem with the Belaire Theatre in Hurst, it was twinned and later fourpled (four-screened).
I practically lived in this theatre in the early ‘60’s. But with more theatres being built in the suburbs where the audiences were, the Tower’s days were numbered. It was torn down in the late '60’s to make way for a new 7-11. It was directly on the corner of Belknap and Riverside—and was generally booked day-and-date with the Gateway.
The Stevens began playing Spanish-language movies in the late ‘60’s as this area became mostly Mexican-American. I was a projectionist here for a while in the early '70’s. This theatre was demolished in the '90’s replaced by new retail buildings.
This was originally an AMC theatre opened in the ‘80’s. When AMC got out of the multiplex business into the megaplex business, they shut it down—Starplex took over and then remodeled it into an all-stadium seating theatre. UA opened their own Hulen theatre about the same time but inside the mall—this is the Hulen Movie Tavern now.
It closed mostly because of the Loew’s bankruptcy but the parking was atrocious because of a too small lot! It was a nice theatre with 3 70MM screens—saw The Abyss and Doctor Zhivago there in 70.
This theatre actually opened in May 1979; I became a projectionist there in 1980. After UA ditched it in the early ‘90’s, someone else ran it for a while—probably until October 1997. The left part of the building became a hobby shop and the right part of the building became an English-style pub—the pub is still there but the hobby shop closed.
Two interesting things about this theatre: Apparently it wasn’t planned very well. The front of the building had the lobby and three small theatres; the rear had two large theatres with a smaller one in between. When building the large theatres, the screens were flush against the back wall; they made plans for the speaker in the center to be in a pod extending out on the building’s rear. However, this left no room for the left and right Dolby Stereo speakers; they were put on risers on either side of the screens. And because they wanted the two large theatres to be wide for optimum Panavision widescreen, the small screen in the middle was quite narrow—so narrow that they could only put in a 1.85:1 screen. Rather than letterbox only 'scope features, 2.35:1 was shown on a 1.85:1 screen! Hey, it didn’t matter because the movies were on platters—no changeovers—so who cared? And you wonder sometimes where movie showing is headed—although today, it’s a lot better than this!