The Park Plaza was torn down in the early eighties to make way for a Sesame Place amusement park which only lasted a few years. A Wal-Mart sits on the site of the Park Plaza.
This theatre in the sixties was renamed the Rex; I worked as a projectionist in the early seventies when it was a triple-XXX theatre. It closed not long after that. The booth was up a long flight of stairs which also led to the restrooms!
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).
The Park Plaza was torn down in the early eighties to make way for a Sesame Place amusement park which only lasted a few years. A Wal-Mart sits on the site of the Park Plaza.
This was one of the best multiplexes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in its day; 3 70MM screens and Dolby Stereo in every house.
This was the palatial theatre in downtown Fort Worth in the 50’s and 60’s after the closing of the Majestic. It was the home of the James Bond movies.
This theatre in the sixties was renamed the Rex; I worked as a projectionist in the early seventies when it was a triple-XXX theatre. It closed not long after that. The booth was up a long flight of stairs which also led to the restrooms!
This theatre building is still there but has been remodeled out-of-existence a number of times.
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).