Medallion 5 Theatre
125 Medallion Center,
Dallas,
TX
75214
125 Medallion Center,
Dallas,
TX
75214
1 person
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The Medallion Theatre was a one screen large theatre until sometime in the 1980’s, when it was cut into five screens. It closed sometime later.
Contributed by
mbhuens1
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
OOps! My original comment about “Gandhi” was incorrect; it opened at Northpark in 1983, not 1973!
James, I echo the first part of your comment – oops! And, you are correct.
One aspect of the description was wrong; it might have opened as a single screen, but sometime in the 70’s it became a double screen. I distinctly recall either having to go right to one screen or left to another; somewhat like the General Cinema Theater at Northpark. I did not know this was an Interstate Theater at first. Our family knew the man who ran Interstate for Dallas/Fort Worth, Raymond Willie. My dad was in advertising and used my sister and I in an ad campaign for Interstate’s showing of the Disney movie, “In Search of the Castaways” with Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier. I have pictures of the publicity.
I lived in Dallas not far from the Medallion until mid-Summer 1979 and it was still a single-screen theatre at that time. I saw the ALIEN sneak preview in 70mm there on 4/7/79; then saw it there again upon its release in late May.
The Medallion was still a single screen as late as summer 1979 when it showcased the exclusive first run of “Alien.”
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!
I only ever went to this theater once and saw Halloween H2O. I remember the theater seemed on its last legs. There is a Kohl’s in that spot now.
The Medallion was supposed to be the first in a new generation of prestige first-run venues for Interstate Theatres that would replace the old downtown theatres, all of which were on their last legs due to shifting demographics and lack of parking space; ironically, it was the last such venue Interstate built due to the company’s failure to read the coming trend toward multiplex venues. It opened in 1969 with the Dallas exclusive run of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
The Dallas Public Library’s Interstate Theatres Collection includes four sheets of plans for the Medallion Theatre in Dallas, by architect Jack H. Morgan. They are dated October 24, 1968, so construction probably began not long after that date.
A photo I took of the Medallion Theatre back in January of 2005. A KOHL’s occupies the lot today.. Enjoy..
Randy A Carlisle – Historical Photographer