Plaza Theatre

Does the article say why the spire was removed?

I don’t remember the Plaza ever showing 2nd run, though they did do a few holiday themed special features. I saw a Halloween night showing of The Exorcist there in 1982 or 1983. But also saw the sneak preview of Blue Thunder (don’t remember it? Nobody else does either.) at about the same time. And if I’m not mistaken, I saw Dirty Dancing there, first run.

Here’s a new link to my photo of the Plaza on it’s last night of business.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crackdog/2680869840/

Me and my friends have a lot of fond memories of the Plaza. I remember seeing Peter Pan there in the ‘70s. Later in the 80s I started going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Midnights on Saturday. I must have seen that movie a thousand times in that theatre! A friend of mine was the projectionist and I got to see every nook and cranny of the building at one time or another. The projectists booth was one of the old steel lined rooms they used to use back when fires were common in theatres. There was an old stage hidden behind the screens and the original carbon arc projectors were dumped back there after they were no longer used. The “cry” rooms were used for storage by the late 80s, but they were still there. I got to climb onto the marquee a few times and saw where they stored the letters. There were catwalks above the ceilings and on a few occasions we sneaked into the theatre after hours and watched movies. Very creepy in there at night. A rumor started to go around that there was a ghost of a guy that was murdered in the theatre years before. Being teenagers, we let this story go to our heads and actually started believing our own bullshit. One night we held a seance in the lobby and to this day my frieds swear that they heard something moving in the building! I think it’s all hogwash, but go figure. On the theatre’s final night, me and some friends held a vigil for the theatre in honor of all the memories we had. I have some photos from the vigil and will post them when I can. After the final showing got out, the manager let us in to have one last look around. It was cool. I managed to swipe one of the marquee letters and I still have it. The very last movies that were shown there were: Dirty Dancing and The Principal.

The Plaza opened on April 25, 1952 as a 1200 seat single screen theatre. I don’t know if the theatre was split down the middle or if the balcony was enclosed when it was converted into a “twin” cinema in 1972. It is still a treat to visit and am grateful to the Bookstar folks for the work they put into restoring it. You can view a couple of recent shots of the Plaza at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maincourse/

Yes, the Bookstar is still open. Considering all the money I’ve given them the past few years, I can’t see them going out of business any time soon.

:–)

The plaza was a superior movie theatre built in what a friend called Mamie Eisenhower Modern. The exterior was clad in travertine marble (along with the rest of the Poplar Plaza shopping center) with an eccentric stainless steel finial atop the marble clad vertical sign. The long lobby lead patrons past the adjacent storefronts to a broad orchestra foyer. The restrooms feature curving walls, curving leather settees and tinted mirrors. The audiorium opened up in a broad single floor with a cinemascope screen braced by backlit stainless steel spirals. Behind the screen was a tiny stage, really only big enough to hold the big Altec Lansing speakers. Room was provided behind the stage for expansion should live theatre ever come to the Plaza, but a real stage house was never built.

This is the theatre where the catch phrase “Elvis has left the building” comes from. The plaza’s facilities included party rooms and private viewing rooms on an upper floor. Elvis could go see a movie here without anyone seeing him, at least that’s what he hoped. Seems one night word got out that he was in the theatre and it started a panic. He slipped out a side door and the manager wound up shouting that memorable phrase in an effort to calm the crowd.

The Plaza got twinned in the late 1970’s (?) to compete with the newer, and considerably plainer, Malco Quartet (an early 4-plex) directly across the street.

The Plaza finally closed in the late 1980’s. The whole shopping center changed hands soon thereafter. In an in-explicable renovation, the entire shopping center was stripped of its travertine marble cladding and painted beige. Bookstar took the Plaza and did an exemplary renovation on the interior. The only major change being that they leveled the floor to create a sales area. The auditorium, lobby, orchestra foyer, restrooms, even the box office were all lovingly repaired, renovated and restored. The only loss was the funky finial atop the vertical sign which – after much public outcry – went to the a local museum.

The Plaza was an easy walk from Memphis State Univeristy, but not enough students made the 10-minute trip to keep this lovely hall operating.