Pleasant Valley Promenade 7
6240 Glenwood Avenue,
Raleigh,
NC
27612
6240 Glenwood Avenue,
Raleigh,
NC
27612
2 people
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Anybody know where there might be pics of the place’s interior from back when it was a theater? Or any other cool stories about it. On that note, is there anywhere I could find GCC memorabilia?
I had forgotten about that. I was working at another theater and had a friend who worked there at the time and supposedly he had killed his “partner” at an apartment complex nearby then headed over to the theater and killed himself at the part in A few good men where JT walsh commits suicide. Creepy.
From Boxoffice April 1993. Jan.5 1993 a gunman shot himself in the head at the Pleasant Valley Cinemas.While watching “A FEW GOOD MEN”,moviegoers thought it was part of the movie until they found a man slumped over a seat.Police said the man was a suspect in an earlier Raleigh shooting.The film includes a Suicide scene! Really surprized theatre folks in that area did not include this in earlier posts.
The company that re-opened Pleasant Valley as a discount house was called Entertainment Film Works (EFW). They signed leases and opened up a handful of closed theaters around the same time as Pleasant Valley. They didn’t pay their rent or bills at most of their locations. Some of landlords threw them out, and in some locations (like Pleasant Valley) they just suddenly closed and very quickly moved out, in some cases owing thousands. They closed Pleasant Valley with almost no notice. They actually opened the theater for the day that day. After the first set of films was started, the staff was informed that they were closing effective immediately. They actually did OK there, and it seemed to be getting better all the time. I am convinced that if it was run properly it could have thrived as a discount house. For some more info on EFW, search “EFW” on the website film-tech.com in the “film-yak” forum.
Photo of the Pleasant Valley Cinemas is on this site from 1992….
View link
The photo contains the only General Cinema Theatre operating in the Triangle area(Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill)
Once was reinstated as a discount theatre at one time to give competition to Blue Ridge Cinemas which was over on the other side of Raleigh near the state fairgrounds. The discount part of Pleasant Valley 7 didn’t work,and it closed for good after that. The area where the cinema used to be is now a Gold’s Gym.
The way the hallways were leading to the screens, it felt like I was walking through an airport terminal and the employees there were just awful.
When it closed in 2001,it fell prey to the megaplexes that were being built on that strip of Glenwood Avenue
which fell to the opening of the Raleigh Grande Cinema at the intersection of Glenwood Ave. and Lynn Road and further up the street on Glenwood Avenue the Brier Creek Cinemas 14 near RDU Airport.
Some interior photos here. Function should be gym:
http://tinyurl.com/555pwx
It’s a Golds Gym now :–(
I would have given anything to be able to go inside it one more time before they gutted it…it was brutal to watch.
I used to go there a lot when I was in high school in the early 90’s. It was closest to home but I hated it. More expensive than others and the seats were too close together- no legroom.
But my friends liked it, I guess because it was more expensive.
I was very excited when it reopened as a discount theater. Raleigh needs another one! I saw at least 6 movies there before it closed after 2-3 months. Pretty dissaponted that it closed. It didn’t help that it didn’t face a major road and they didn’t seem to advertise at all.
This theater was anything but typical for general Cinema oh sure the color scheme was there and the oak pannels hung on the wall but the floor was unlike any other GCC theater that I have currenly visited in that it is basicly in the shape of a seven. In that you enter into the very spacious lbby and go to your right there are 5 houses on the right hand side of the and two at the end of the hall on the left. The equipment has been sold for the site there were origanlly 3 stereo houses all of which were digital 1 dts 1 sdds and 1 dolby digital. The last I heard it was to become a gym. It’ll make a great one it has an exclusive three story parking garage dedicated to it’s use.
I want to amend my above comment.
I miss the theatre, lots of good memories.
But man I wish Curley hadnt hired the jackass that became my soon to be X husband.
I worked there for years, so sad when it closed down. I met my husband there in 1994. I cant believe that it wouldnt be a very successful discount theatre. I know that it opened as one a few eyars ago, but only lasted a few weeks.
It was built in 1987, closed in 2001. It still has all of it’s original GCC building style, and for a while, EFW theaters wanted to buy it, but for some reason never got around to it.