
Parkway Theatre
1183 Silas Creek Parkway,
Winston-Salem,
NC
27127
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The Parkway Theatre was Winston-Salem’s first ever suburban cinema. Located in the Parkway Plaza Shopping Center at the intersection of Peters Creek Parkway and Silas Creek Parkway. It was also North Carolina’s first ever ‘Lounging Chair Theatre’ with a seating capacity of 700, with giant widescreen projection and full stereophonic sound. The opening attraction for the Parkway Theatre was the Rock Hudson, Leslie Caron feature “A Very Special Favor” on September 1, 1965.
Throughout the years, the Parkway Theatre was the place to see a great movie in Winston-Salem and it remained that way throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. A lot of great blockbusters played at this theatre when it was still a single screen movie house. By the mid-1980’s, it became a discount movie house when the cinema was twinned, and it was closed in the mid-1990’s.

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To Ret. AKC(NAC)CC Bob Jensen: I have done extensive research on this theatre and this information on the Parkway has been updated as of 3/20/2012.
The Parkway Theatre upon it’s opening was Winston-Salem’s first ever suburban theatre,and it was a first-run alternative to the Downtown moviehouses when it opened on September 1,1965. I have the original ads for its grand opening. The opening attraction on September 1,1965 was a Rock Hudson flick starring Leslie Caron “A Very Special Favor”. It was owned and operated until Schneider-Merl Theatres.
Not only ROSEMARY’S BABY played here but also THE FRENCH CONNECTION and ROCKY among many others that played at the Parkway Theatre when it was still a single screen cinema during the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The coming attractions for the PARKWAY THEATRE: From it’s grand opening on September 1, 1965
COMING SOON:
Yul Brenner and Marlon Brando in “MORITURI”
Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard “VON RYAN’S EXPRESS”
Natalie Wood in “INSIDE DAISY CLOVER”
Burt Lancaster in “THE HALLEJULAH TRAIL”
Dick Van Dyke in “THE ART OF LOVE”
COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR THE PARKWAY THEATRE was from the August 31,1965-September 1, 1965 edition of the Winston-Salem Journal,Winston-Salem,North Carolina.
CORRECTION ON THE ADDRESS:
The address for the Parkway Theatre needs to be:
1183 Silas Creek Parkway,Winston-Salem,NC 27127.
NOT: 1130 which needs to be corrected.
As an alternative to the Downtown movie-houses that Winston Salem offered,the PARKWAY THEATRE got a lot of first-run features. “Rosemary’s Baby” played here 1st run,and so did the original “Planet of the Apes” movie,and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. Also played here was the 1973 re-release of “The Sound of Music”. By 1982,Carmike Cinemas acquired this theatre from Martin Theatres and during that time its 750-seat single screener was split down the middle into two sections and it was renamed the Parkway Twin Theatres. By 1987,it was reduced under Carmike to showing second run films at discount prices where it remained until the Parkway’s closing in 1994.
THEATRE HISTORY:
1965-1976 Schneider-Merl Theatres
1976-1982 Martin Theatres
1982-1994 Carmike Cinemas
What’s in the spot of this theatre now in the shopping center? Anna’s Linens?
Ok, I will admit that I MAY not be old enough to remember a theater at Parkway Plaza or not, but I definitely know there wasn’t one there by the mid-80’s! The description of THIS theater however, does describe in detail, the history of the theater at PARKVIEW Shopping Center, especially the part about it being split into two theaters and the discount 2nd run format. Parkway Plaza has definitely not had a theater since 1985, at least.
This theater was gone by 1990. Carmike’s operating theaters in Winston-Salem in September 1990 were as follows: Marketplace 6, Thruway Twin, Reynolda Triple, University Twin (discount), and Parkview Twin (discount). The Parkway did not appear in the newspaper listings at that time; it was probably closed long before Carmike took over the Cineplex Odeon houses (Marketplace and Thruway).