Preston Royal Theatre
114 Preston Royal Shopping Centre,
Dallas,
TX
75230
114 Preston Royal Shopping Centre,
Dallas,
TX
75230
2 people
favorited this theater
The Preston Royal Theatre was designed by Harold Berry, architect and opened in 1958. The theatre was probably converted into a twin sometime between 1975 and 1985. The theatre was closed by McClendon Theatres in 1995 and is currently leased to Blockbuster video.
Contributed by
Jack Coursey
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Actually, “Village” was never part of this theater’s name. It was located in the “village”, but it was simply known as “Preston Royal”. What ever happened to the Park Forest?
The Park Forest is now an antique mall. Here’s a photo of what it looks like today:
View link
Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ov3nkz
I was a projectionist here in the mid-70’s when it was still a first-run screen—I also worked the Park Forest also. This theatre would book 70MM as much as possible—it ran Woodstock in 70 in Spring 1970 for quite a few months. I ran both That’s Entertainments, The Wind And The Lion and return runs of Patton and Camelot all in 70MM!
Camelot trivia: this film’s original running was something like 193 minutes. When it was was reissued around 1976, we played it—unfortunately, Warner Bros. decided to shorten it in order to play more shows (shades of the 1954 Judy Garland A Star Is Born!). We played it one show a night starting about 7:30 with an end time around 11. When I checked the 70MM print, I thought something didn’t seem right—shouldn’t it have had more reels?—but the show must go on! Imagine the manager, the audience and my surprise when the show ended around 10! Warners’s had taken out the Overture, Intermission, the second-half overture and the walk-out music at the end plus a couple of songs and quite a bit of the movie story itself to make a compact 143 minutes! Everyone was pissed and, needless to say, it only played a week and was kicked out for Patton!
This theatre was twinned in the early-to-mid ‘80’s and that was it.
I am quite doubtful of the 1995 closing date. I got into home video in 1985 and was soon (at least by 86 or 87) renting videos there at the Blockbuster, so the Theater had to be gone by then.
@ jamestv: I benefitted from your superb projection of “The Wind and the Lion” and you have my compliments! Great picture on the big screen, great projection, great house! Also saw “Where Eagles Dare” here in 1968, but can’t recall whether it was/was not in 70mm. As far as you know, is the original length “Camelot” on DVD, or is it lost?