Red Rock 11 Theaters

I show the address for the Redrock Theatres as 5201 West Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, Nv.

Red Rock 11 closed in October 1999. The Red Rock 11 Theatres had 3 fires in less than a year. All caused by arson. The final fire caused damage to the main screen and auditorium.
Read the October 15th, 1999 story:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/1999/oct/15/509430442.html?Red%20Rock%2011%20Theaters

A photo of the January 1999 fire at Red Rock 11 Theatres:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/from.ed/1999/jan/04/photos/P000025055.jpg

January 1999 Fire forces evacuation at theaters->
Red Rock 11 Theatres News Story:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/1999/jan/04/508225078.html?Red%20Rock%2011%20Theaters

I was stationed at Nellis AFB during most of the 1980's and saw many a movie at the Red Rock 11. I have a lot of fond memories of that place and am truly saddened to see it become history.

I lived in Henderson, then N Las Vegas circa 1980 to 84.
At the time, the Red Rock 11 was a primo showplace. There were not yet the 20+ megaplexes that were to come. Two, four and six-plexes were the norm. So, 11 first run choices was an embarrassment of riches to we film fans.
It was a cool layout as well. Built like a Disneyesque mini town of the early 1900s. All red brick and black wrought iron, you literally strolled through a replica of small town mainstreet, the various auditoriums entrances serpentined thru out. The ceiling was a faux sky with painted whisps of clouds. Great date place. You would want to get there early just to hang around.
I also saw many of my fave movies there:
Omen II, The Fury, Scanners...too many to recall them all.
I DO remember going to some midnight show there and coming out to find someone had smashed my car windshield with a coke bottle. Bastard.
The parking lot was a real bitch to navigate, though. Due to the multiple expansions of screens, the parking lot snaked all this way and that. Pain to get out of there quickly.
But, still, was a cool environment for families and dates. Real sad end being so vandalized, then shuttered. Like many great places, the neighborhood goes to hell and dooms them.

I have the same memories as you, Paul, sans the broken windshield, thankfully! Back when it was just four theatres, my girlfriends and I saw "Jaws" on it's opening night there. Had to stand in line outside through the first entire showing because it was sold out. We didn't care - we were only 16! Just loved the old-fashioned look the place took on. The buildings (including the old neighborhood bar next door) were all razed earlier this year and a new strip mall has sprung up - looks like the shops will be inhabited any day now. They did a nice job revitalizing the property, but the theaters will always be a fond memory.

Wow. Hadn't thought about this theater in a long while... I visited Las Vegas with my Great Grandmother when I was all of 15 years old in the summer of 1980. My Great Uncle lived in North Las Vegas and we stayed with him for about a month. While there, I hooked up with an old friend of my Mother's and he took me to this multiplex to see the perposterous film "The Final Countdown" with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen about a modern nuclear powered air-craft carrier that somehow is catapulted back in time to just before the attack on Pearl Harbor and wrestles with the temptation to alter the course of history. Bad movie, but an interesting multiplex nonetheless - at a time when the concept of a multiplex of this size was a new one to me! Back in NY the most I'd been used to was the triplexes and quartets that had been carved from old neighborhood single screeners. The Sunrise Cinemas in Valley Stream, NY, had only just been open since the previous Christmas Holiday and even that complex featured only 6 screens. I'm almost positive the full compliment of 11 screens was in place at the Red Rock by August of 1980 when I visited.

Now that this memory has been liberated from the recesses of my mind, I have to figure out the name of the XXX theater near downtown Las Vegas (I think) where I snuck off one day on the bus and saw my first porn films - a double feature of "Debbie Does Dallas" and "Behind the Green Door!" If I'm not mistaken, I recall having passed the XXX theater while on the bus on the way to the Red Rock! So I kept a mental note of the bus route and convinced my Uncle to let me go wandering on my own downtown one afternoon! To my utter amazement he did! I rushed off, ducked in midway through one of the films and then stayed until the point I came in and rushed back to hop the bus back to NLV. It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me!

Hey Ed! The XXX theater you're thinking of was The Flick... Don't ask me how I know. ;-)

Thanks, Teri... I don't see The Flick listed here. Do you have enough info to list it? What was the location in reference to downtown LV? I know it wasn't on Fremont (at least not down near all the action by Golden Nugget, Four Queens, Binion's, etc.), but I seem to recall it was on an older type of downtown commercial strip mid-block amongst various storefronts.

Anyone recall what year the Redrock changed from a first-run theatre to a discount theatre?

Ed... It was on Fremont Street near 9th Street. The Orbit Inn was nearby... both places were across the street from and east of the El Cortez. It's probably not listed because it was never anything other than a small, dirty movie house.

Slater, if I had to guess, I'd say it was during the late '80s that the Red Rock 11 shifted to a discount theatre. Honestly, I don't recall ever paying discount prices for a movie at Red Rock, but that's probably because I stopped going to movies there once so many other theatres opened in town.

Thanks, Teri. And are you positive this is where those two films played in 1980? There is also a 5-Star Theater listed here that is supposed to have been porno at some point. As for not being listed because it was never more than a small, dirty movie house... you should check out some of the hole-in-the-wall porn houses listed on this site for New York City!

*LOL* Ed! Yeah, I'm positive... (I saw the films, too... ;-) And yes... The actual name of the other one was the Four Star Theatre (whoever listed it originally, had the wrong name). When I moved here in 1969, the Four Star showed second run 'regular' films. My family and I went to see "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," "Fistful of Dollars," and "For a Few Dollars More" at the Four Star. Later, in the early '80s, my ex and I went to a couple of big screen (it was always a single-screen, full-size theater) porn films (as opposed to 'video') there. The Four Star was very popular with Asian tourists. Sounds weird, but those were kinda the 'good old days'... before everything turned into tiny video theaters.

Great! Another cinematic mystery from my past is solved thanks to the members of CT! Thanks again, Teri. Now I have to wrack my brains and figure out where I saw the "Deep Throat" & "Devil in Miss Jones" double feature. Is it possible these two double features alternated at the Flick? I know I saw all four films in a movie theater - and I'm blanking out on where I saw these two. The only legitimate porn theater I can recall ever going to in NY was for a flick called "The Girl from S.E.X." and I was with a bunch of buddies. I definitely saw DT and DIMJ on the same bill and I was alone and very, very young. I was in LV for a month and might have easily gone back to the same theater to check it out. Could the Flick have been a twin featuring each double feature in separate auditoriums?

At any rate, Teri, you ought to create a listing for the Flick. I think you have enough info to start it up. Let others fill in the gaps with their comments, you know?

Heh heh heh... Yep... You saw those at The Flick, too. I'm trying to remember for sure, but they may have had two, separate small screens - one accessed to the right of the box office and one to the left.

I think I'll wait and let someone else create the listing. Since I haven't created any others, I don't really want the first one to be for a porno theater. *LOL* Glad I could help, though! :-)

* 1966 1 cinemas
* 1971 4 cinemas
* 1972 6 cinemas
* 1973 11 cinemas (most screens at the time until the Eaton Centre in Toronto,ON opened in 1979.)
* 1999 closed

Saw "Skatetown USA" & "The Great Muppet Caper",among others,here between spring '79 and fall '81.

The Red Rock was built and owned by Horst Schmidt. As I recall, the Red Rock 4 (1971) was the first multiplex theater in the world. Mr. Schmidt sold the Red Rock 11 to a theater chain after seeing the handwriting on the wall that single theater owners, like himself, would have a tough time competing.