I worked as a GM for Trans-Texas Amusements back in 92-93. This theater was their first attempt at building a brand new theater. In my experience there was no way that Trans-Texas could afford to build a new location. The rumors going around when I left was that this theater was actually bankrolled by Cinemark. And that it was Trans-Texas in name only. Trans-Texas was run by J C Mitchell, the brother of Cinemark founder Leroy Mitchell. And all of the Trans-Texas executives were former Cinemark people. Their headquarters were even in the same building in Dallas. They new that UA was planning the Lakepointe up theroad. And they wanted to split the resulting zone three ways instead of two. With Cinemark essentially controlling two-thirds of the zone. I wasn’t rally surprised that when Trans-Texas folded that the location immediately became a Cinemark.
I worked as the Assistant Manager of this theater from April of 1990 to it’s closing in January of 1992. From the accident reports retained on file in it’s office. This theater had been open in 1972. And the GM’s sig on the report was none other than my future GM at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5.
During it’s last few years as a dollar theater. It made it’s money off of one thing: Weekend Midnite showings of “The Rocky Horror Pictureshow”. We even managed to sell out the 500 seat auditorium a few times. That was alot of toilet paper and toast to clean up.
A small correction regarding the name. When this theater opened it was called simply just “The United Artists”. Which confused alot of customers. Most everyone thought that it was the “United Artists Northpark 8”. Since my theater in nearby Garland was called the similar sounding “United Artists Northstar 8” alot of people called us thinking that we were the Plaza. It was only named “Plaza” several years later to hopefully end the confusion.
An unusual partial cause of this theater’s downfall. The theater was opened with John Drennan as it’s GM. He was a well regarded GM with many years experience and had even managed the GCC Northpark 1 and 2 in the early 80’s. And he surrounded himself with some well seasoned Assistant Managers. Which included the former GM of the AMC Prestonwood, Bill Skinner. You would move on to be a GM for UA at the Town East 6 and then my Theater the UA Northstar at the end of 1993. Sometime around 2003 or 2004 Mr Drennan suffered a stroke and he could no longer work as a GM. In 2006 I briefly worked with him at the UA Lakepointe where he was held on just as a ticket taker. He was kept on just so he could keep his company insurance. Regal upper management were idiots. They should have allowed him to retire gracefully and keep a pension with insurance.
A small point of fact. Regal did not take over United Artists. In 2002 United Artists, Regal Cinemas, and Edwards Theaters all declared bankruptcy. at first it looked like Dallas billionair Tom Hicks and his group would buy out all three and combine them. We were told that he’d keep UA’s leadership on as head of the new company. What happened was that the Anshutz Group from Denver ended up buying all three and they went with Regal’s leadership team instead. Supposedly because they had a higher screen count. During my remaining time with UA, Regal essentially wrecked United Artists.
My theater Northstar was closed even though it was always profitable. UA owned both the building and the land it was on. We just paid a monthly shopping center maintenance fee to the shopping center. We had very low overhead. But we closed anyway.
Lakepointe on the other hand was bleeding cash. The first thing I looked at was their P&L reports. They had as many managers as employees. And even fewer customers. And it’s GM was just waiting for the place to die. They didn’t do any cleaning or maintenance on anything. I was glad to be gone after four months.
Two Assistant Managers I worked with at the UA Prestonwood later went on to be GMs here. Michael Graham in 1985 and Steve Wilcox a few years later. An employee from here, Bob Pinson, later worked with me as a junior Assistant Manager at the UA Northstar 8 in Garland. He was a real goofball.
I have one question about the Cine. Who was the genius that decided to build a open toilet in the projection booth? The booth was multilevel. And if you walked out of the office and looked down the booth and someone was on the toilet. You just saw the toilet goer’s head sticking up above the floor. A female Assistant and myself came over after closing one night to watch a screening and were shown upstairs. And were walking by the projector for the number 2 house (the small one). And I see Mike Graham’s head sticking up and he yells out “Stop!” The night got worse after that. The movie we screened was “The Golden Child”. Horrible.
I remember this theater from the days that I worked at the UA Prestonwood. The GM there was Billy Hill. The neighborhood around it was horrible. And the theater was constantly being robbed. We had nicknamed it the “Stop and Rob”.
While working for GCC in the late 80’s early 90’s I had an ongoing nit to pick with the GM of Northpark 1 and 2, Anna Carros. She also served as the City Manager for Dallas. She had claimed that her theater was the first commercial installation of THX Sound. It wasn’t. she said that the equipment tags had April of 1983 dates on them. She wasn’t GM there back then. She knew that I had previously worked at the UA Prestonwood. And I told her that their equipment had March of 83 dates on them.
Also I had an old issue of Box Office magazine with a Lucasfilm THX two page ad that listed all of the installations around the country and their dates. The first installation was the THX mixing stage in California. And the first commercial installation was House #1 at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5.
Ass for the Northpark’s perfect presentation record. I was working for GCC when “Die Hard” came out. And over a course of a few days, they had destroyed an entire reel of the movie. And I believe it was a 70 MM reel.
I wonder if they had the same problem with their soundhead that UA Prestonwood had when we ran “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”? We had lost about ten minutes of a reel due to a manufacturing defect in the 70 MM soundhead that constantly caused the film to chip an break at the same place. I was told by my GM that the print cost over $100,000 to replace. And that was in 1984.
The date of 1993 for UA giving up Medallion is incorrect. I was the GM of this theater for Trans Texas Amusements during March to May of 1992 before they moved me to Ft Worth Town Center Dollar Cinema 8. I had previously worked for UA and GCC. Medallion still had the UA Communications logos inlaid in tile in the lobby floor. They had pulled out the UA name though. One night a friend of mine that still worked for UA came by and saw the logo and just shook his head. “Ya’ll couldn’t afford to take out the entire logo?”
That theater was a mess. The box office cashiers were somewhat silly. There was a button under the box office counter. My first week there I asked them about it. They didn’t know what it was for. The cashier even pushed it. “See, nothing happens.” They didn’t ever make the connection that five minutes later the Dallas Police would show up.
I worked at this theater from November of 87 until April of 90. Mostly as Assistant Manager. Just went over to the Galleria Mall last week. The theater isn’t so much as demolished as entombed. The Bennigans next door is gone and the entire space that was in front of the theater entrance is now part of the food court. But the outside marque is still there. Although covered over and all black. I had come from the UA Prestonwood Creek. Which had been the busiest theater in their circuit. And expertly run as well. The Galleria was totally different. I believe that the GM, Bob Rogers had only started a couple of months prior. And the previous GM was Kevin Moore. He had left to open the GCC Collin Creek in Plano. And then got fired just because the DM didn’t like him. Galleria didn’t have any discipline at all and was a total mess. The Turkish Assistant I replaced was probably insane. he got moved to Caruth Plaza. Or second GM, Greg Attaway, told us that he’d had heard alot of wild stories about the guy.
While I was there he had an old guy that worked for th phone company come in on Thursday nights and pop popcorn for the entire week. And then take some guys out and change the marquee. He’d smoke cigars while popping and occasionally we’d find a cigar butt in the popcorn.
The company made all of the theaters display signs that said that their popcorn was popped fresh. It just wasn’t served fresh.
I briefly worked at this theater as assistant manager from July 93 until December 93. And replaced the above Jim Miller as Manager when he left for the West End. After being rudely fired for no reason. I then got hired on back with UA at the Northstar in Garland.
Hey Jim. You ever figure out how to pronounce “viscount”? Only new you for a short time. Glad to have met you.
The comment about the “2wenty” is incorrect. We did have the preshow at Northstar. And we got alot of complaints about it. We couldn’t start the projectors until the preshow ended. And the preshow slowly got longer over time. Making our shows start late. I mentioned it to a tech once and he could care less that we had complaints from our customers.
Just curious how you got this picture. I worked as the First Assistant Manager at UA Northstar until it closed. And I helped tear down it’s last films. And as far as I know. I was the only person taking pictures those days upstairs.
I worked as a GM for Trans-Texas Amusements back in 92-93. This theater was their first attempt at building a brand new theater. In my experience there was no way that Trans-Texas could afford to build a new location. The rumors going around when I left was that this theater was actually bankrolled by Cinemark. And that it was Trans-Texas in name only. Trans-Texas was run by J C Mitchell, the brother of Cinemark founder Leroy Mitchell. And all of the Trans-Texas executives were former Cinemark people. Their headquarters were even in the same building in Dallas. They new that UA was planning the Lakepointe up theroad. And they wanted to split the resulting zone three ways instead of two. With Cinemark essentially controlling two-thirds of the zone. I wasn’t rally surprised that when Trans-Texas folded that the location immediately became a Cinemark.
I worked as the Assistant Manager of this theater from April of 1990 to it’s closing in January of 1992. From the accident reports retained on file in it’s office. This theater had been open in 1972. And the GM’s sig on the report was none other than my future GM at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5. During it’s last few years as a dollar theater. It made it’s money off of one thing: Weekend Midnite showings of “The Rocky Horror Pictureshow”. We even managed to sell out the 500 seat auditorium a few times. That was alot of toilet paper and toast to clean up.
A small correction regarding the name. When this theater opened it was called simply just “The United Artists”. Which confused alot of customers. Most everyone thought that it was the “United Artists Northpark 8”. Since my theater in nearby Garland was called the similar sounding “United Artists Northstar 8” alot of people called us thinking that we were the Plaza. It was only named “Plaza” several years later to hopefully end the confusion. An unusual partial cause of this theater’s downfall. The theater was opened with John Drennan as it’s GM. He was a well regarded GM with many years experience and had even managed the GCC Northpark 1 and 2 in the early 80’s. And he surrounded himself with some well seasoned Assistant Managers. Which included the former GM of the AMC Prestonwood, Bill Skinner. You would move on to be a GM for UA at the Town East 6 and then my Theater the UA Northstar at the end of 1993. Sometime around 2003 or 2004 Mr Drennan suffered a stroke and he could no longer work as a GM. In 2006 I briefly worked with him at the UA Lakepointe where he was held on just as a ticket taker. He was kept on just so he could keep his company insurance. Regal upper management were idiots. They should have allowed him to retire gracefully and keep a pension with insurance. A small point of fact. Regal did not take over United Artists. In 2002 United Artists, Regal Cinemas, and Edwards Theaters all declared bankruptcy. at first it looked like Dallas billionair Tom Hicks and his group would buy out all three and combine them. We were told that he’d keep UA’s leadership on as head of the new company. What happened was that the Anshutz Group from Denver ended up buying all three and they went with Regal’s leadership team instead. Supposedly because they had a higher screen count. During my remaining time with UA, Regal essentially wrecked United Artists. My theater Northstar was closed even though it was always profitable. UA owned both the building and the land it was on. We just paid a monthly shopping center maintenance fee to the shopping center. We had very low overhead. But we closed anyway. Lakepointe on the other hand was bleeding cash. The first thing I looked at was their P&L reports. They had as many managers as employees. And even fewer customers. And it’s GM was just waiting for the place to die. They didn’t do any cleaning or maintenance on anything. I was glad to be gone after four months.
Two Assistant Managers I worked with at the UA Prestonwood later went on to be GMs here. Michael Graham in 1985 and Steve Wilcox a few years later. An employee from here, Bob Pinson, later worked with me as a junior Assistant Manager at the UA Northstar 8 in Garland. He was a real goofball. I have one question about the Cine. Who was the genius that decided to build a open toilet in the projection booth? The booth was multilevel. And if you walked out of the office and looked down the booth and someone was on the toilet. You just saw the toilet goer’s head sticking up above the floor. A female Assistant and myself came over after closing one night to watch a screening and were shown upstairs. And were walking by the projector for the number 2 house (the small one). And I see Mike Graham’s head sticking up and he yells out “Stop!” The night got worse after that. The movie we screened was “The Golden Child”. Horrible.
I remember this theater from the days that I worked at the UA Prestonwood. The GM there was Billy Hill. The neighborhood around it was horrible. And the theater was constantly being robbed. We had nicknamed it the “Stop and Rob”.
While working for GCC in the late 80’s early 90’s I had an ongoing nit to pick with the GM of Northpark 1 and 2, Anna Carros. She also served as the City Manager for Dallas. She had claimed that her theater was the first commercial installation of THX Sound. It wasn’t. she said that the equipment tags had April of 1983 dates on them. She wasn’t GM there back then. She knew that I had previously worked at the UA Prestonwood. And I told her that their equipment had March of 83 dates on them. Also I had an old issue of Box Office magazine with a Lucasfilm THX two page ad that listed all of the installations around the country and their dates. The first installation was the THX mixing stage in California. And the first commercial installation was House #1 at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5. Ass for the Northpark’s perfect presentation record. I was working for GCC when “Die Hard” came out. And over a course of a few days, they had destroyed an entire reel of the movie. And I believe it was a 70 MM reel. I wonder if they had the same problem with their soundhead that UA Prestonwood had when we ran “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”? We had lost about ten minutes of a reel due to a manufacturing defect in the 70 MM soundhead that constantly caused the film to chip an break at the same place. I was told by my GM that the print cost over $100,000 to replace. And that was in 1984.
The date of 1993 for UA giving up Medallion is incorrect. I was the GM of this theater for Trans Texas Amusements during March to May of 1992 before they moved me to Ft Worth Town Center Dollar Cinema 8. I had previously worked for UA and GCC. Medallion still had the UA Communications logos inlaid in tile in the lobby floor. They had pulled out the UA name though. One night a friend of mine that still worked for UA came by and saw the logo and just shook his head. “Ya’ll couldn’t afford to take out the entire logo?” That theater was a mess. The box office cashiers were somewhat silly. There was a button under the box office counter. My first week there I asked them about it. They didn’t know what it was for. The cashier even pushed it. “See, nothing happens.” They didn’t ever make the connection that five minutes later the Dallas Police would show up.
I worked at this theater from November of 87 until April of 90. Mostly as Assistant Manager. Just went over to the Galleria Mall last week. The theater isn’t so much as demolished as entombed. The Bennigans next door is gone and the entire space that was in front of the theater entrance is now part of the food court. But the outside marque is still there. Although covered over and all black. I had come from the UA Prestonwood Creek. Which had been the busiest theater in their circuit. And expertly run as well. The Galleria was totally different. I believe that the GM, Bob Rogers had only started a couple of months prior. And the previous GM was Kevin Moore. He had left to open the GCC Collin Creek in Plano. And then got fired just because the DM didn’t like him. Galleria didn’t have any discipline at all and was a total mess. The Turkish Assistant I replaced was probably insane. he got moved to Caruth Plaza. Or second GM, Greg Attaway, told us that he’d had heard alot of wild stories about the guy. While I was there he had an old guy that worked for th phone company come in on Thursday nights and pop popcorn for the entire week. And then take some guys out and change the marquee. He’d smoke cigars while popping and occasionally we’d find a cigar butt in the popcorn. The company made all of the theaters display signs that said that their popcorn was popped fresh. It just wasn’t served fresh.
I briefly worked at this theater as assistant manager from July 93 until December 93. And replaced the above Jim Miller as Manager when he left for the West End. After being rudely fired for no reason. I then got hired on back with UA at the Northstar in Garland. Hey Jim. You ever figure out how to pronounce “viscount”? Only new you for a short time. Glad to have met you.
The comment about the “2wenty” is incorrect. We did have the preshow at Northstar. And we got alot of complaints about it. We couldn’t start the projectors until the preshow ended. And the preshow slowly got longer over time. Making our shows start late. I mentioned it to a tech once and he could care less that we had complaints from our customers.
Just curious how you got this picture. I worked as the First Assistant Manager at UA Northstar until it closed. And I helped tear down it’s last films. And as far as I know. I was the only person taking pictures those days upstairs.