Shields South Mall was announced in 1971 and Woolworth’s big box store, Woolco, would join Safeway Grocers in being there at the opening along with Furr’s Cafeteria. Spectro Theaters Circuit signed on in 1972 to add a four-screen theater to open at Christmas of 1972. Spectro was a subsidiary of U.S. Cinema Corporation which had the MacArthur Park and Northpark quads.
When the mall opened, retailers randomly switched between calling the plaza, South Shields Mall and Shields South Mall. Behind schedule, Spectro’s The Movies! turned out to be a twin-screen venue inside the mall. The theatre definitely opened there on October 19, 1973 as The Movies! and it preferred the South Shields variant. So sometimes it was referred to as The Movies! I & II South Shields to distinguish it from Moore’s The Movies!
The Movies! launched with Roger Moore as James Bond in “Live and Let Die” and the Oklahoma City shot feature “30 Dangerous Seconds” starring Robert Lansing. The theatre was not a success but was the Mall would not let it live and then die. Instead, it found a new operator which rebranded as the South Shields Mall Twin launching on November 9, 1979 as a sub-run discount house.
The multiplex, especially 6- and 8-screen venues were in vogue and mini-neighborhood enclosed malls were passé by the mid-1980s with regional and larger malls decimating the aging centers and multiplexes hurting twin-screeners. With 10-year leases coming due in 1982/3, a number of Shields Mall retailers in the inner part of the mall left and the original Woolco began its going out of business sale in November of 1982 closing in 1983 as the Shields Mall reached greyfield status. The inner stores were uprooted when the “Mall” concept finally failed and BSW Architects of Tulsa took on what would be a $1 million renovation that took the retail location formerly known as South Shields Mall to totally outdoor Shields Plaza.
BSW’s designs would uproot the twin-screen theatre and everyone else in the interior section of the plaza. When the movie operator left and found its new home at the New Airline Twin launching on April 11, 1986, certainly the days of movie exhibition were over at the Shields shopping complex. But BSW also didn’t let the theatre live and let die. Instead, it gave a spot to a low-cost $400,000 8-plex replacement that would launch as the Super Saver South Shields 8 which ran from February 6, 1987 to MI cinemas operation in 1999 to closure on May 2, 2000.
South Shields Mall was a minor shopping center that opened in 1972. It contained the South Shields 2 / The Movies in 1979. But the “Mall” concept failed and BSW Architects of Tulsa took on what would be a $1 million renovation that took the retail location from South Sheilds Mall to totally outdoor Shields Plaza. BSW’s designs uprooted the twin screen theatre and gave a spot to a low-cost $400,000 8-plex replacement that would launch as the Super Saver South Shields 8.
The discount sub-run house was operated by Super Saver Cinemas along with the Lakeshore Mall. Super Saver proclaimed them as “Oklahoma’s Most Luxurious Theaters.” Divergent opinions were easy to find but they were certainly the most luxurious theaters located in the Shields Plaza and Lakeshore Mall. In 1999, MI Theatres, which operated the Northpark 7, added the Lakeshore Mall and Shields Plaza. They upped the discount moniker pledging not only $1.50 admission with $1 Tuesdays but also $1 concessions across the board. But by that time, the megaplexes including the AMC Quail Springs 24 and the Cinemark Tinseltown USA were destroying the aging multiplexes.
MI dropped the Lakeshore first on January 6, 2000. The Shields Plaza was unceremoniously shuttered on May 2, 2000.
Announced as the Rand Theaters Rivercenter Mall 9 in 1989, the project was one of the fledgling circuit’s most ambitious projects. The mall had launched with an IMAX theater in 1988. Dillards had purhcased the existing former Joske’s Department Store during the mall’s construction deciding to take just a portion of the future anchor. Tony Rand’s company took an upper portion for the multiplex.
But Rand was making national news for all of the wrong reasons that year and it was the Rand Nakoma 8 elsewhere in San Antonio that brought the circuit to an end with tales of shady business practices that landed him in jail. Fortunately, AMC stepped into the unfinished project and completed what would become a successful theater that continued into the 2020s with the circuit operating both the IMAX and the multi-screen theater.
This ozoner launched August 27, 1959 with “Some Like it Hot” in CinemaScope. Owned by Adrian Mueting, he held a name-the-theater contest won by Mary Kneifl who suggested “Hi-Vue.”
The AMC Elmwood Plaza 8 launched in the multiplex era on April 13th, 1984 on a 20-year lease. It closed at the end of that lease on January 4, 2004. AMC cited megaplexes such as the 18-screen NCG Cinemas at Eastwood Towne Center as the key factor in the non-renewal. It was converted to the Zap Zone, a gaming center that included laser tag later in 2004. It was still operating in the 2020s.
On September 28, 1957 rebooted as the Palms Theatre. On October 12, 1961 rebooted as the Downtown Art Theatre and later the Downtown Arts Theatre. Closed in 1970 as part of an urban renewal project.
Loton Todd announced the construction of the Motor Movie Drive-In Theatre in November of 1951. He, his wife, and daughters launched the Motor Movie on May 1, 1952 with Lew Ayres and Marilyn Maxwell in “New Mexico.”
Just a quick update. The Marblehead Auditorium Theatre discontinued movies after the February 15, 1931 silent film presentation of William Haines in “Way Out West” as it couldn’t afford to convert to sound. The venue was used for a handful of sporadic live events. But on October 10, 1936, ir re-emerged with a sound system playing talkies starting with Barbara Stanwyck in “A Message to Garcia” and Buster Keaton in “Grand Slam Opera.”
New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place closed along with the rest of the circuit on March 16, 2020 for COVID-19 pandemic. The Alamo Drafthouse chain declared bankruptcy and announced permanent closure of three locations on March 3, 2021. The New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place joined the Kansas City and one Austin location on that list.
The Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet closed along with the circuit’s other locations on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alamo Drafthouse then declared bankruptcy and announced permanent closure of three locations on March 3, 2021. Seven months shy of its 100th Anniversary, the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet joined the New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place and one Austin location on that list.
Alamo Drafthouse declared bankruptcy and announced permanent closure of three locations on March 3, 2021. The flagship Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz was sadly on that list and was joined by the New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place and Kansas City’s venerable Mainstreet Theatre.
Cineworld Corp. of Sioux City, Iowa, decided to build the first of a chain of theaters at this location in Fort Worth with 4 identically-sized 200-seat auditoriums or 800 seats in total. It launched May 27, 1970. The circuit said it had five other theaters in development in Kentucky, Arizona and one in DFW including the Tuscon Cineworld at Monterey Village.
Cineworld closed in 1974. But Ted Conley’s Petite Amusements of Kansas (which became Texas-based T&S Theatres) took over and reopened the location on August 2, 1974. The T & S circuit, so named for Ted and wife, Shirley, sold off the Cineworld and its other locations to Texas Cinema Corporation (which would merge with Cinemark in 1979). But Cineworld was quickly jettisoned from the company’s portfolio so T&S came back to operate the four-screen operation before T&S’s permanent closure on July 10, 1980.
The Cineworld found a new operator in the Boren Theatre Circuit which took on the location with its final ads running to 1986 - likely when it closed. However, the local newspaper still carried it as an active location into February of 1988 - which could well be true.
After becoming the Capri Theatre on February 26, 1960 and tried second-run Hollywood fare to no success. Then the theatre switched to an “artistic adult” film theater. It then gravitated to an operation that switched between an adult theatre showing XXX films and it also became a Hispanic Theatre showing Spanish language films and hosting live events through 1976.
The Borzoi Theatre replaced the Capri as a repertory, double feature house launching April 15, 1977 with “8 ½” and “Cassonova ‘70.” The short-lived effort closed December 31, 1977. On April 21, 1978, the theatre relaunched as a repertory house under its original name, the Heights Theatre.
W.C. Austin gave it a run with “Gold Diggers of 1935” and the original “King Solomon’s Mine” on a double bill. The popular theatre had a productive final four months in 1983 hosting the public radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” hosting the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Student Film Festival and having a high-profile charity film screening as one of its final shows. The Heights finally closed on May 8, 1983 The Heights sent theatre seats to the Ritz in Austin prior to its demolition in 1983. It also put the words, “Think Film” on the marquee for its demolition for the West Freeway expansion.
he Majestic appears to have launched February 2, 1912 with the Bison film, “The Missionary’s Gratitude.” The Majestic went out of business in 1917 when Trevor Faulkner created the new Cozy Theatre. The location became the W.I. Cook Hardware store from 1917 to 1940. Vera King took on the location and converted it back to a movie theater called the Gentry Theatre. Its first day was on May 15, 1941, appropriately opened with Bob Wills in “Take Me Back to Oklahoma.”
Pettigrew and Worley were the architects for the long-running theatre. Wealthy Cunningham was the final operator of the Bowie running it as a double-feature, sub-run discount house at $1.50 per admission. The first show would repeat with the second show getting one showtime. The theatre went to weekend only operations and had cult films at midnight. She closed up shop after the September 26, 1982 double feature of “Star Trek II” and “Quest for Fire” making “Star Trek II” the final film shown there. A portion of the seats went to the Cornerstone Theater on the south side. In 1985, a salvage sale was held prior to the theater’s conversion to a bank.
The Tower Theatre closed at the end of a 25-year lease on January 1, 1967 with Dean Martin in “Texas Across the River.” The Interstate Circuit said it would put its efforts toward the Wedgwood Theatre would launch that same year.
Shields South Mall was announced in 1971 and Woolworth’s big box store, Woolco, would join Safeway Grocers in being there at the opening along with Furr’s Cafeteria. Spectro Theaters Circuit signed on in 1972 to add a four-screen theater to open at Christmas of 1972. Spectro was a subsidiary of U.S. Cinema Corporation which had the MacArthur Park and Northpark quads.
When the mall opened, retailers randomly switched between calling the plaza, South Shields Mall and Shields South Mall. Behind schedule, Spectro’s The Movies! turned out to be a twin-screen venue inside the mall. The theatre definitely opened there on October 19, 1973 as The Movies! and it preferred the South Shields variant. So sometimes it was referred to as The Movies! I & II South Shields to distinguish it from Moore’s The Movies!
The Movies! launched with Roger Moore as James Bond in “Live and Let Die” and the Oklahoma City shot feature “30 Dangerous Seconds” starring Robert Lansing. The theatre was not a success but was the Mall would not let it live and then die. Instead, it found a new operator which rebranded as the South Shields Mall Twin launching on November 9, 1979 as a sub-run discount house.
The multiplex, especially 6- and 8-screen venues were in vogue and mini-neighborhood enclosed malls were passé by the mid-1980s with regional and larger malls decimating the aging centers and multiplexes hurting twin-screeners. With 10-year leases coming due in 1982/3, a number of Shields Mall retailers in the inner part of the mall left and the original Woolco began its going out of business sale in November of 1982 closing in 1983 as the Shields Mall reached greyfield status. The inner stores were uprooted when the “Mall” concept finally failed and BSW Architects of Tulsa took on what would be a $1 million renovation that took the retail location formerly known as South Shields Mall to totally outdoor Shields Plaza.
BSW’s designs would uproot the twin-screen theatre and everyone else in the interior section of the plaza. When the movie operator left and found its new home at the New Airline Twin launching on April 11, 1986, certainly the days of movie exhibition were over at the Shields shopping complex. But BSW also didn’t let the theatre live and let die. Instead, it gave a spot to a low-cost $400,000 8-plex replacement that would launch as the Super Saver South Shields 8 which ran from February 6, 1987 to MI cinemas operation in 1999 to closure on May 2, 2000.
South Shields Mall was a minor shopping center that opened in 1972. It contained the South Shields 2 / The Movies in 1979. But the “Mall” concept failed and BSW Architects of Tulsa took on what would be a $1 million renovation that took the retail location from South Sheilds Mall to totally outdoor Shields Plaza. BSW’s designs uprooted the twin screen theatre and gave a spot to a low-cost $400,000 8-plex replacement that would launch as the Super Saver South Shields 8.
The discount sub-run house was operated by Super Saver Cinemas along with the Lakeshore Mall. Super Saver proclaimed them as “Oklahoma’s Most Luxurious Theaters.” Divergent opinions were easy to find but they were certainly the most luxurious theaters located in the Shields Plaza and Lakeshore Mall. In 1999, MI Theatres, which operated the Northpark 7, added the Lakeshore Mall and Shields Plaza. They upped the discount moniker pledging not only $1.50 admission with $1 Tuesdays but also $1 concessions across the board. But by that time, the megaplexes including the AMC Quail Springs 24 and the Cinemark Tinseltown USA were destroying the aging multiplexes.
MI dropped the Lakeshore first on January 6, 2000. The Shields Plaza was unceremoniously shuttered on May 2, 2000.
Announced as the Rand Theaters Rivercenter Mall 9 in 1989, the project was one of the fledgling circuit’s most ambitious projects. The mall had launched with an IMAX theater in 1988. Dillards had purhcased the existing former Joske’s Department Store during the mall’s construction deciding to take just a portion of the future anchor. Tony Rand’s company took an upper portion for the multiplex.
But Rand was making national news for all of the wrong reasons that year and it was the Rand Nakoma 8 elsewhere in San Antonio that brought the circuit to an end with tales of shady business practices that landed him in jail. Fortunately, AMC stepped into the unfinished project and completed what would become a successful theater that continued into the 2020s with the circuit operating both the IMAX and the multi-screen theater.
Closed for year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the theater reopened on March 19, 2021.
This ozoner launched August 27, 1959 with “Some Like it Hot” in CinemaScope. Owned by Adrian Mueting, he held a name-the-theater contest won by Mary Kneifl who suggested “Hi-Vue.”
Closed as a $1 discount, sub-run house on November24, 1988 with “Die Hard,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” “Cocktail” and “Alien Nation.”
The AMC Elmwood Plaza 8 launched in the multiplex era on April 13th, 1984 on a 20-year lease. It closed at the end of that lease on January 4, 2004. AMC cited megaplexes such as the 18-screen NCG Cinemas at Eastwood Towne Center as the key factor in the non-renewal. It was converted to the Zap Zone, a gaming center that included laser tag later in 2004. It was still operating in the 2020s.
On September 28, 1957 rebooted as the Palms Theatre. On October 12, 1961 rebooted as the Downtown Art Theatre and later the Downtown Arts Theatre. Closed in 1970 as part of an urban renewal project.
Update - Also known as the Louisville Picture Theatre in the 1930s
Lembach and Wiese luanched the Majestic Theatre on November 9, 1915 with a live play.
Loton Todd announced the construction of the Motor Movie Drive-In Theatre in November of 1951. He, his wife, and daughters launched the Motor Movie on May 1, 1952 with Lew Ayres and Marilyn Maxwell in “New Mexico.”
In 1958, the former Ashton Theatre was converted to the office for the Bureau of Reclamation.
Just a quick update. The Marblehead Auditorium Theatre discontinued movies after the February 15, 1931 silent film presentation of William Haines in “Way Out West” as it couldn’t afford to convert to sound. The venue was used for a handful of sporadic live events. But on October 10, 1936, ir re-emerged with a sound system playing talkies starting with Barbara Stanwyck in “A Message to Garcia” and Buster Keaton in “Grand Slam Opera.”
Update: Demolished in 2017.
New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place closed along with the rest of the circuit on March 16, 2020 for COVID-19 pandemic. The Alamo Drafthouse chain declared bankruptcy and announced permanent closure of three locations on March 3, 2021. The New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place joined the Kansas City and one Austin location on that list.
The Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet closed along with the circuit’s other locations on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alamo Drafthouse then declared bankruptcy and announced permanent closure of three locations on March 3, 2021. Seven months shy of its 100th Anniversary, the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet joined the New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place and one Austin location on that list.
Alamo Drafthouse declared bankruptcy and announced permanent closure of three locations on March 3, 2021. The flagship Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz was sadly on that list and was joined by the New Braunfels Alamo Drafthouse Market Place and Kansas City’s venerable Mainstreet Theatre.
The Clinton Theatre launched June 12, 1947 with Gregory Peck in “The Macomber Affair.”
The Panhandle Drive-In launched May 12, 1954 with Gig Young in “Arena” and Janet Leigh in “Fearless Fagan.”
Cineworld Corp. of Sioux City, Iowa, decided to build the first of a chain of theaters at this location in Fort Worth with 4 identically-sized 200-seat auditoriums or 800 seats in total. It launched May 27, 1970. The circuit said it had five other theaters in development in Kentucky, Arizona and one in DFW including the Tuscon Cineworld at Monterey Village.
Cineworld closed in 1974. But Ted Conley’s Petite Amusements of Kansas (which became Texas-based T&S Theatres) took over and reopened the location on August 2, 1974. The T & S circuit, so named for Ted and wife, Shirley, sold off the Cineworld and its other locations to Texas Cinema Corporation (which would merge with Cinemark in 1979). But Cineworld was quickly jettisoned from the company’s portfolio so T&S came back to operate the four-screen operation before T&S’s permanent closure on July 10, 1980.
The Cineworld found a new operator in the Boren Theatre Circuit which took on the location with its final ads running to 1986 - likely when it closed. However, the local newspaper still carried it as an active location into February of 1988 - which could well be true.
After becoming the Capri Theatre on February 26, 1960 and tried second-run Hollywood fare to no success. Then the theatre switched to an “artistic adult” film theater. It then gravitated to an operation that switched between an adult theatre showing XXX films and it also became a Hispanic Theatre showing Spanish language films and hosting live events through 1976.
The Borzoi Theatre replaced the Capri as a repertory, double feature house launching April 15, 1977 with “8 ½” and “Cassonova ‘70.” The short-lived effort closed December 31, 1977. On April 21, 1978, the theatre relaunched as a repertory house under its original name, the Heights Theatre.
W.C. Austin gave it a run with “Gold Diggers of 1935” and the original “King Solomon’s Mine” on a double bill. The popular theatre had a productive final four months in 1983 hosting the public radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” hosting the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Student Film Festival and having a high-profile charity film screening as one of its final shows. The Heights finally closed on May 8, 1983 The Heights sent theatre seats to the Ritz in Austin prior to its demolition in 1983. It also put the words, “Think Film” on the marquee for its demolition for the West Freeway expansion.
he Majestic appears to have launched February 2, 1912 with the Bison film, “The Missionary’s Gratitude.” The Majestic went out of business in 1917 when Trevor Faulkner created the new Cozy Theatre. The location became the W.I. Cook Hardware store from 1917 to 1940. Vera King took on the location and converted it back to a movie theater called the Gentry Theatre. Its first day was on May 15, 1941, appropriately opened with Bob Wills in “Take Me Back to Oklahoma.”
May 10, 1983 - W.C. Austin closes yet prepares for demolition by posting “Think Film” on the Heights marquee and leaves some one sheets as reminders.
Pettigrew and Worley were the architects for the long-running theatre. Wealthy Cunningham was the final operator of the Bowie running it as a double-feature, sub-run discount house at $1.50 per admission. The first show would repeat with the second show getting one showtime. The theatre went to weekend only operations and had cult films at midnight. She closed up shop after the September 26, 1982 double feature of “Star Trek II” and “Quest for Fire” making “Star Trek II” the final film shown there. A portion of the seats went to the Cornerstone Theater on the south side. In 1985, a salvage sale was held prior to the theater’s conversion to a bank.
The Tower Theatre closed at the end of a 25-year lease on January 1, 1967 with Dean Martin in “Texas Across the River.” The Interstate Circuit said it would put its efforts toward the Wedgwood Theatre would launch that same year.