Villa Plaza 1-2-3
10501 Davisson Road SW,
Lakewood,
WA
98499
10501 Davisson Road SW,
Lakewood,
WA
98499
3 people
favorited this theater
Opened 1969. Closed in 1988. Originally was a two-screen theater but demand forced owners to convert the larger theater into two spaces. Small, shoebox-style theaters. Fell into decline as newer, bigger theaters sprung up in Tacoma and Pierce County. Theater was demolished when the Villa Plaza shopping center became the Lakewood Mall (which is now Lakewood Towne Center).
Contributed by
Kate DeWeese
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
Thanks much! Being one of those “I might eventually get to it” items on my thought list, I haven’t taking any steps towards contacting the TNT. I appreciate your offer.
My friends at the paper couldn’t find me copies of photos, but they could find me this information:
10501 DAVISSON RD. S.W., Lakewood (original address)
Built: Â 1969
Notes: Â Villa Plaza Cinema I & II
General Cinema Corp., builder
opened 7/1/1969 with “The April Fools” starring Jack Lemmon
The stories from the paper ran the following dates with the following headlines:
TNT 6/18/1969 2-in-1 cinema to have only one manager
TNT 7/1/1969 p.47 New theater opens tonight at Villa Plaza
I will have to go through old microfiche to find photos and complete story text.
Again, thanks for the information. Interesting comment about starting off with only one manager.
Our positions were:
Manager
Assistant Manager
Chief of Staff
Cashier (usually only one)
Doorman (including girls)
Candy Girls (yep, that’s what they were called)
If busy, we’d have all three managers; Manager, Asst. Manager and Chief of Staff…otherwise only one of the three of us were on for a given shift.
I love the trivia about “The April Fools”. I will have to rent it.
Doesn’t look promising about The Brady Bunch lore though.
Does Anyone remember the opening song they used to have- with the projected “C” cinema logo and circling bar and swish cymbals tish-tish-ta-tish-tish- and then the elctro horn da-na-na na-na-na doubee doubee do da-na na-na-na. I loved that song I wish I could find a clip of it or find out the name.
Oh I just found a link for it hurray!
http://tulsatvmemories.com/gccvill.html
Enjoy!
Closing movies in May 1988 were: 1. Sunset 2. Jack’s Back 3. Double Feature: Dead Heat & The Wrong Guys.
Don’t remember ever using girls as doormen at my GCC,unless they were giving the doorman a break,plus i never could find a girl yet that could tear tickets as fast as a guy and say"thank-you,hope you enjoy the Movie" 900 times a night.
I remember that a “Laura” trained me as a doorman when I started working there in 1978. I agree with your comment though that mostly they would only door while covering our breaks. In my Chief of Staff days I filled in for vacationing managers at pretty much all of GCC’s theaters from Everett down to Tacoma. Some of them had full time female “doormen”. Oh, and for those that remember her as our District Manager I hear that Linda Danisher (sp?) is a librarian now or at least she was as of a few years ago.
Some notable exclusive engagements late in its life were Return of the Jedi and Romancing the Stone. GCC played a lot of Fox and Universal films in the day.
I started there in 1982 when E.T. was playing to sold out crowds. I closed it in 1988 shortly after I was promoted to manager.