Cardinal Theatres I & II
Six Forks Road and Lassiter Mill Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27609
Six Forks Road and Lassiter Mill Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27609
4 people
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Located at the intersection of Six Forks Road at Lassiter Mill Road in the North Hills Shopping Center, the Cardinal Theatre was one of the premiere showcase moviehouses in Raleigh and when it opened on July 1, 1967 with Doris Day in “Caprice”. The theatre operated as a single screen theatre with its huge auditorium equipped with state of the art seating and brilliant widescreen projection for showcasing Hollywood’s best. It had great 70mm projection.
The Cardinal Theatre showed only first-run features and family films and it remained a single screen theatre until a second screen seating 625 was built adjacent to this huge astounding auditorium. It opened on July 24, 1977 with “For the Love of Benji”. It remained that way until the Cardinal Theatres I & II closed in 1990.
The smaller additional screen has now been demiolished, leaving the original auditorium in retail use as a Blockbuster store.
Contributed by
raymond
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Recent comments (view all 28 comments)
Seth, The building that Bonefish is in IS the actual building that the original, large auditorium of Cardinal was in! They have torn down the lobby as well as the smaller screen (Cardinal 2), though the smaller screen was there and used by Blockbuster before the big shopping center uplift a few years ago.
It also really bothers me that the description of the theater for this page lists that the original auditorium was split, when in fact it was left perfectly intact when the 2nd auditorium was added. Also, the Cardinal was never equipped for Cinerama projection. Cardinal 1 was equipped with standard 5/70mm projection equipment. How do you get this changed?
You hope someone at CT catches it I guess. I had the same problem and someone spotted my post and the change was made.
This is going to be corrected very soon. Watch for details. Correction: The Cardinal Theatre opened to the public on Saturday July 1, 1967,not in 1965.
Construction began in 1965,but the cinema didn’t opened until 1967. It was a two screen theatre on June 24, 1977 when it was known as the Cardinal Theatres I & II.
The opening attraction for the June 24, 1977 opening of the Cardinal I & II was the WWII action flick
“A Bridge Too Far” with Sean Connery, Robert Redford and Hardy Kruger(Screen 2).
Screen 1,the original auditorium had the general release of “For The Love of Benji” on June 24, 1977.
It was also known as the Cardinal Theatre of North Hills when it opened on Saturday July 1, 1967 as a 750 seat single screen theatre owned and operated by Wilby-Kincey Corporation. The main attraction and the premiere opening of the Cardinal Theatre was the Doris Day-Richard Harris flick “Caprice”. Other coming attractions to the Cardinal were Otto Preminger’s “Hurry Sundown”,“A Guide for the Married Man”,and the roadshow enagement of “Camelot”.
By 1977,a second auditorium with 625 seats was built that was adjacent to the huge original auditorium that seated 750,bringing the total of seats to 1,375. The grand opening attractions for the newly restored Cardinal I & II were in screen I:“For The Love Of Benji”,and in Screen II: “A Bridge Too Far” premiere on June 24, 1977. The original auditorium was equipped with full Dobly Stereo for its enagement of “The Empire Strikes Back”,which was one of five theatres in North Carolina that showed it in 70MM-6 Track Dobly Stereo on May 21, 1980.
It remained the Cardinal I & II until its closing in 1990.
HISTORY: Cardinal Theatre of North Hills in Raleigh
1967-1971 Wilby Kincey Corporation
1971-1978 ABC Southeastern Theatres
1978-1986 Plitt Southern Theatres
1986-1990 Cineplex Odeon Corporation
Thanks raysson,Did you ever work for ABC or Plitt?You might have said so somewhere on CT.
HISTORY:
Located in the midtown section of Raleigh,North Hills opened in 1965 as a strip shopping center,but was expanded into a indoor mall by 1966. When North Hills opened in 1966,it became one of the largest malls in the Triangle,not to mention the state’s second indoor shopping center(following Charlottetowne Mall which opened in 1959).
North Hills had a retangular design with two floors. The upper level opening onto Six Forks Road with was the main entrance,and the lower level facing a parking deck onto Lassiter Mill Road. When it opened in 1966,North Hills Mall had three main anchor department stores: One was Penney’s,aka JC Penney that was located on the other side facing Lassiter Mill Road.
The others were Ivey’s Department Store(later Dillard’s),and a F.W. Woolworth’s that was in the middle of the mall on its upper level that was really huge with full scale pharmacy and restaurant. The speciality stores were a World Bazaar, Ronson’s,
Montaldo’s, Nowell’s Men Shop, Kerr Discount Drugs, and on the side next to Ivey’s was K&W Cafeteria.
The “plaza” strip was across the street from the mall.
It was anchored by a Winn Dixie grocer,and specialty shops and services along the intersection of Lassiter Mill and Six Forks Roads. The Cardinal Theatre was on the opposite end of the “plaza” facing Six Forks Road at the intersection of Lassiter Mill.
Nice updates in the comments. Brings back memories of riding my bike to North Hills. Any pics available? My mom has a bunch when her and her friends got dressed up and went to see Grease. I will try to find them and post them.