Cardinal Theatres I & II
4421 Six Forks Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27609
4421 Six Forks Road,
Raleigh,
NC
27609
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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 33 comments)
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.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
THE 70MM-6 TRACK DOBLY STEREO EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS:
Raleigh: Cardinal 1 & 2
Fayetteville: Bordeaux Triple
Greensboro: Terrace
Charlotte: Park Terrace
Winston-Salem: Thruway 1 & 2
www.in70mm.com/news/2003/empire/index.htm
I do remember seeing JAWS 3-D not to mention the pathetic GREASE 2 that played here at the Cardinal.
The last movie I saw here before it close in 1990 was the Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith flick WORKING GIRL.
Anyone interested [REMEMBERING Plitt Theatres] is on Facebook.
Described in this 1967 trade article: Boxoffice
Tinseltoes…..thanks for the Boxoffice link. I had forgotten about it. I am the Beverly Hall who managed the Cardinal at opening. I was only there less than 6 months and then transferred to the Richland Mall in Columbia, SC. Cardinal was a fabulous theatre.
The address for the Cardinal Theatre: 4421 Six Forks Rd.
The original Cardinal Theatre upon its opening in 1967 had a huge auditorium with a seating capacity of 750 that had a round “Ultravision” screen that had a 180 degree angle for showing bigger presentations that were capable of films that were in either 70MM and 35MM formats. By 1977 when this theatre was twinned,they kept the original “Ultravision” screen and basically equipped it with a Dobly Stereo Sound System in December of 1977 for its showing of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. This theatre was one of five theatres in the state in 1980 to get the full 70MM-6 Track Dobly Stereo engagement showing of “The Empire Strikes Back”,and in 1984 for “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” that was also in 70MM. This theatre closed in 1990 under Cineplex Odeon.
There is an great article that was mentioned from the Raleigh News and Observer’s Saturday July 1,1967 ad about the Cardinal Theatre grand opening. Beverly Hall was the manager of the theatre. The grand opening feature was the Doris Day and Richard Harris espionage comedy CAPRICE.