Not to nitpick, but the GCC Valley View actually closed on January 5, 1992. I know because I was there. We had one week’s notice. Unlike the several other local GCCs that closed that day.
Also Dillards was on the North wing, JC Penneys on the West, Foleys/Macys on the West, and Sears on the SouthEast. I shopped that mall hundreds of times and my family went to the Sears before the mall was even built.
Having been a General Manager of three of those type theaters; GCC Valley View, Trans Texas Medallion 5 and Trans Texas Ft Worth Dollar Cinema 8. I say good riddance. All three locations were run on the cheap by their owners. And GCC would not fix anything. I wish that I could go back and erase 1990 to 1994 from my history.
Does anyone know who the current GM is there? The last I heard was it was Waymon Lister. He had been First Assistant for Bill Skinner (my GM at UA Northstar 8) back in 97 to 98.
Medallion went from three screens to five sometime in late 1991. I started as GM there in February 1992 and had been hired by Trans Texas president Bill Knight. Number Five auditorium had actually been the next door pizza bar. Trans Texas cut a doorway through the wall and installed a sloped concrete floor. Which looked brand new when I first inspected it. You could see where the pizza ovens had been down near the screen along with the outline of the bar. The original entrance had been walled off.
I was working for UA when they bought it and converted it from one screen to three. They split the auditorium across the middle and installed a second projection booth. They twinned the back half. Leaving a almost cube shaped main auditorium. Which Trans Texas later twinned.
Trans Texas also ripped out the downstairs office and moved it upstairs. And they ripped out the island style concession stand that UA had and built one along the wall. You could still see where the island had been because they patched it with the wrong color tile.
Just curious if this was the theater operated by Ricky Chambers in the mid to late 80s? He also operated a film delivery service that serviced my theater the UA Prestonwood Creek 5 in Dallas. And later he serviced my two Trans Texas theaters in 1992-93. I remember one night at the Prestonwood that Ricky showed us some pictures of storm damage at his theater. Probably 86 or 87.
Sad to see it go. Another theater that I have worked at that has seen the wrecking ball. Worked there when it was the UA Lakepointe from February to June 2006. Wasa fired without cause after I filed a complaint with corporate HR against the GM and the District Manager.
I wonder if anybody ever found the 6000 foot reel of old trailers, dating back to the late 70s, that I had stashed behind the roof ladder?
The GCC Caruth Plaza closed in January 1992 on the same day as my theater, GCC Valley View I and II. By then the UA Medallion had closed and reopened as the Trans Texas Medallion dollar theater. My first gig as an official General Manager.
Both articles for the GCC Redbird theaters leave out one very important thing. I worked as a Assistant Manager for GCC in Dallas from late 1987 to early 1992. Beginning at the Galleria and then the Valley View nearby.
In 1990 GCC committed an illegal act. To guarantee playing the Disney movie “Dick Tracy” they guaranteed grosses to the distributor in order to shove out the competition. And the movie bombed and they lost their shirts. Then the government got involved and fined them. As a result GCC started closing locations nationwide to free up cash. We would get every other month a company directory that listed all theaters by state and include a list of new theaters and closed theaters. Starting in the end of 1990 in every issue of the directory had a huge list of newly closed locations. In January 1992 it was our turn. The first week of January saw the closing of my Valley View. Along with the Caruth Plaza, Richardson Square Mall, Burleson, Ft worth Town Center 8 (a relatively new location) and many others. Fortunately the Ft Worth location reopened as the Trans Texas Dollar Cinema 8, which a few months later I became the General Manager of.
Later on I went back to school and took Accounting. GCC is listed in the textbook TWICE under bad accounting practices. Once for this and again for when they earlier sold off their Pepsi bottling division back to Pepsi and reported the sale as operating income for the theater division. Which the feds also fined them for.
Somebody beat me to it. Drove by last week to see that the theater along with most of the mall is now a huge pile of debris. All that’s left is the core food court are and other sections adjacent to the still open AMC Valley View. Looks really strange. I remember as a kid when just the Sears store was there. Now essentially all of it is gone.
My tag says CaptainRob. Rob as in Robert Murphy. Assistant Manager of the UA Northstar 8 from January 1, 1994 until it’s closing in January of 2006. I was then transferred to the UA Lakepointe 10 in Lewisville. I was hired by the GM Bill Skinner, whom I knew from his AMC days at the Prestonwood and later at the UA Town East 6. I has previously worked with the previous GM Mike Graham when he was an Assistant Manager at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5. I was shocked at the circumstances at which he had to leave the Northstar. I worked with John Devine and later Paula Jackson (who had previously been Assistant Manager, aka Paula Eargle) as GMs prior to Mr Skinner’s return in 1998.
The November 1994 date I gave may have been a soft opening for the Northstar. I still vividly remember building up all of those prints for the Northstar while I was at Prestonwood. And the GM picking up the prints in his pickup. I think his name was John Colvin (or was it Clemons?) I learned my projectionist skills from our head projectionist Jim Bowman. Who later transferred over to Northstar as Assistant Manager/projectionist. I went over to Northstar and her gave me a tour.
One early employee of Northstar I worked with was DJ Sneed. Who came back part time as a projectionist when John Devine was there. She stayed on part time until the end.
Hey Roy. I (Robert Murphy) worked with you at the Galleria from 1987 to 89 when Bob Rogers was GM. Then I got shoved over to Valley View in 90. After Valley View closed I got calls for a few years from “Brother” Bill Whatley checking up on me. It’s ashamed that the only way you can tell there was ever a theatre at Galleria is the old blacked out marquee on the NorthWest corner of the mall property.
The clock is now ticking down for the old Valley View. Demolition of the mall officially began this past Friday morning with a groundbreaking ceremony for the new development project and the tearing down of the parking garage outside of the theater and Dillards. The old Sangar Harris/Foleys/Macys building was torn down over the past few months.
It’s quite clear to me what this theaters problem was. Nobody new it was there. I’m a long time theater guy and this location was just about four miles from my house. And I didn’t know it was there. I only found it when I was going to a computer/networking store the next block over. I saw it’s dinky little sign and thought it was just a small little community arts theater. I went by again last week and decided to check it out and it was closed. I learned a long time ago. The customers won’t come if they don’t know you’re there.
Just wanted to add:
Jeff Lynn was one of those people that I wished I had never met. He had a core group of manager friends that he let get away with murder. And the rest of the GMs and Assistants were on his hit list. Which I landed on after complaining about the remodel at Galleria. None of the employees were given any overtime and I was straight salary and got virtually nothing extra. I normally worked 40 to 45 hours per week. And during the remodel I worked 84 hours one week and 87 the other week. All I got was a stupid company reward of $100 before taxes four months later.
Another story was that Lynn and his boss the local Regional VP, Steve Colson, (a moron by the way) conspired to set up the first GM of the Collin Creek and fire him. Colson came in late one night to the theater as a casual visit since he lived nearby. And had someone load up a large box full of candy from the stand. And he took it home with him. Lynn showed up the next day when Moore was there and did a surprise audit. Found him short and fired him for it. And they also fired the Assistant that had been working the night before. I knew her. I had replaced her at Galleria.
Colson’s only qualification was tha this wife was the daughter of one of the executives in Boston. And he spent a week or so in a theater to learn how it worked.
By the way, Lynn’s office was at Northpark 3 & 4 on the East side of the freeway. And the GM there was Mickey Lang. His sister Robin was the GM at the GCC Prestonwood. And their brother Stuart I had worked with all of my time at the UA Prestonwood. Stuart’s last day was actually my last day as well. When I later worked at UA Northstar in Garland. Mickey was the GM of the Richardson 6 across the street from Richardson Square Mall. I always let him and his employees in for free. Sometimes Robin would come along too. After GCC closed down, we hired his Assistant and several of his employees. They were all very good.
As for the old DM for UA. That would have been Bob Kirby. Any time he came to visit Prestonwood Creek. He had a key to the back door and snuck in and snuck out.
Oh, a story about Kevin Moore from Teddy Ford was that the Christmas after he had been set up and fired. He showed up at the unofficial GM Christmas party and got drunk. Went over to Colson’s house and trenched his front yard with his pickup truck.
My GM at UA Prestonwood was John Atchley. I first started in May 1983 was Assistant Manager there from January 85 until August 87. I went back to UA in January 94 at UA Northstar 8 in Garland. Was Tony the GM that got arrested in the lobby of the UA Prestonwood? Around 96 or 97 I was in a training seminar for UA management and got teamed with the Regional VP, Chris Taylor. Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. He said that he had been the GM of the UA Prestonwood before Atchley. I’m not sure if he was right before Atchley or not. And he told me the story f the GM there getting arrested for embezzling. he said that one day while the GM was in the Conc stand they called all of the employees into the storeroom and the cops were hiding around the corner in the hallway. And they swooped out and nabbed him.
I worked for Teddy Ford at the GCC Valley View from Spring 90 to about Spring 91. Maybe a little less. Teddy was a nice guy. But he was a lunatic. And never should have been a GM. I was told by one of our projectionists that Teddy had been an assistant for so long that the higher ups felt sorry for him. And they made him GM of all of the local theaters that would soon be closing. He was the last GM at Lochwood, Richardson Sq, officially Valley View but not really, and Caruth Plaza. He was the lat GM AT Valley View. And when he left they made me ‘in charge’ but I reported to the GM of Galleria, Greg Attaway. I did all of the paperwork and stayed at a Assistant Manager title and pay. I later ran across Teddy ten years later when he was working at the Barnes and Noble bookstore at Richardson Square Mall. Which has since been torn down. Teddy was a character and did alot of things that should have gotten him fired. He constantly told this story of when he was at the old Redbird 6 as either the GM or Assistant. And about these male employees he had that would go up on the roof on Thursday nights and smoke pot before they all screened the new movies. And this was while some of them were changing the marquee on the front of the building. And one night one of these high employees decided to try to jump to the marquee from the roof. The guy missed and landed head first in front of the box office. Killing him. And that people would come by for weeks to see where the guy died and hit the sidewalk. We asked Teddy fora few details. Like the employees were all on the clock and he was the manager on duty. These guys were all breaking the law and he knew about it. And one of them died on his watch. It just didn’t register with him.
Some of our employees once asked Teddy if he had ever been in a mental hospital or said that he belonged in one. And he volunteered that he had spent a year out at the state mental hospital in Terrell. Go figure.
Just walked in to the MacArthur on Tuesday afternoon. The first time I’ve stepped into a Regal theater since 2006. Was curious who the GM was. And they told me he was an old acquaintance of mine. Todd Hecht, previously of the Burleson 14. And my predecessor at the Trans Texas Dollar Cinema 8 in South ft Worth back in 1992.
The MacArthur still says “Hollywood Theaters” over the front doors like in the above picture. But it’s Regal Entertainment Group everywhere inside. We talked for about thirty minutes and I learned that all of the people that engineered, or even contributed to, my departure back in 2006 are now gone. I’ve learned that a property development company has purchased the Galaxy in Dallas and the Fossil Creek in Ft Worth. So I expect them to close in the next few years. The company also bought the UA Grand Prarie theater and it’s already closed. Not to mention the Burleson theater. Why does Regal buy up all of these theaters only to turn around and close them? UA used to be the biggest player in the DFW market in the 80’s and 90’s. When these last two theaters close. It will leave only one last remaining original UA theater in North Texas. The MacArthur.
I only worked with Todd for three days way back in 92. I hope he has a good long run here. And Regal doesn’t sell it out from under him. Good Luck.
I really have to strongly disagree with this opening date for the Northstar. At the time I was working as a projectionist at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5, that was straight down Belt Line Road. Northstar’s projection booth wasn’t finished enough to build up their opening prints. So we at Prestonwood built all eight of them up. And screened them. Which was the only time I saw “Beverly Hills Cop” in a movie theater. When all of the prints were ready to go to the Northstar. The GM came over in his pickup and we loaded all of them up. I distinctly remember this was the week before Thanksgiving 1984. I’m almost positive that the opening date was the Friday before Thanksgiving 1984.
Not to brag, if it’s even bragging. If anybody is an expert on the UA Northstar 8. It’s me. Out of the just over 21 years that theater was open, I worked 12 of them.
This theater’s layout was that there was a lobby between the two auditoriums. The huge auditorium was on the left and the smaller 750 seat one was on the right. I remember going there as a little kid and it was always a twin.
In regards to the cost figure of the “Indiana Jones” print. My former GM was known to exaggerate. Any GCC/UA manager from the DFW area in that era would probably agree with me.
I was the GM of the Trans-Texas FT Worth Town Center Dollar Cinema 8 in 1992 just up South Freeway from here. I can confirm that this used to be the Trans-Texas Burleson 6 or 8. Before 1992 it had been owned by General Cinema. You can clearly see from the outside where the theater has been added to over the years. I used to call employees into movies here. And it was notorious for being able to hear the trains pass by in the auditoriums. Like me, the GM at the time had been a former GCC manager.
A good friend of mine that I had worked with at UA Prestonwood became the GM here the week after “Twister” opened at the beginning of the Summer 1996. And I helped him move to Ft Worth from Dallas. And got a chance to look around the theater. I was currently working at the virtually identical UA Northstar 8 in Garland. Ft Worth had just gone through the infamous “Mayfest” hailstorm that damaged alot of homes and businesses in the area. And this theater had extensive damage as well. He had told me that when he was checked in that half of the ceiling tiles in the building were down with holes punched through the roof. The day I was there looking around all of the holes were patched and the tiles were replaced in the auditoriums. But upstairs they were still down. I saw up close the holes punched through the steel roof. They were as big as baseballs. And had been patched over with asphalt.
It has been mentioned in several threads here that many DFW area UAs were identical. Such as this one, Northstar 8, South 8, Bowen 8, and Berkeley Square 8, and essentially Bedford 10. I’ve been to most of them over the years and they all had unique features and decorations to make them individualized. Compared to GCC that I had also worked for. Alot of their theaters featured their new standard design of blue, burgundy and battleship gray. And you could stand in any lobby and not tell which theater you were standing in.
Just to add that I went by Valley View Mall recently and walked around. This mall is now a huge collection of art galleries. The AMC theater on top is almost dead. I took what will probably be the last pictures of the former GCC Valley View. This mall is reportedly scheduled to come down in the next month or so. The theater’s space is currently being used for storage.
I was working for Peterson Theaters when this theater opened in 1993. It was opened under the guise of Peterson-O'Neil Theaters in a partnership between the two companies of some kind. It’s first GM was Jim Miller, whom I replaced at his previous job as GM at the Casa Linda. Before West End opened he gave me a tour of it. It was basically two five-screens stacked on top of each other. And it was really pretty inside. Unfortunately Jim got canned about the same time that I was. And I’m just as sure for made-up reasons like I was.
I first went to this theater when “Star Trek 6” opened. This theater didn’t have true stadium seating as seen in future theaters. It was a hybrid. With the front half of the auditorium being normal style seating with a gently sloping floor. And the back half being stadium style with a steeply sloping floor with steps. Unfortunately when combined with the curved Torus screen. Which was not perforated. Made for horrible acoustics. The screen was held in place with a vacuum system behind it. Causing all of the speakers that were normally behind the screen to be mounted in the ceiling above the screen. The sound system in these auditoriums would have a noticeable echo off the screen. The more empty the auditorium, the more noticeable the echo. The Spring before “Mulan” opened, there was an event held by the movie companies featuring their Summer product. This was for all of the local Theater management. Which I attended along with my GM. The event ended with a screening of “Mulan” in the main auditorium. Before the screening my GM and I went into the empty auditorium and I demonstrated the echo. I took out my theater keys and dropped them on the concrete floor in the aisle about midway up the stadium portion. And there was a very load echo. There were some other people in there at the time and they noticed also.
As I have mentioned in another thread. The UA nearby opened as just “The United Artists” and later changed to the “United Artists Northpark”. But the term “Plaza had originally referred to the entire entertainment complex downstairs.
I was the GM of this theater for Trans-Texas Amusements from May of 92 until February of 93. The last GM for GCC was hired on as the first GM for Trans-Texas. He was Todd Hecht. Whom I believe is the current GM for a theater in Burleson. I worked as a trainee here the opening weekend for Trans-Texas. They figured that since I had just come from GCC in Dallas that this was a good place to learn their system. When I left my final day Todd joked that I’d probably be back as GM. Surprise; he was right. Tod only lasted a couple of months and was replaced by someone that had worked there a long time. As a box office cashier. She had been his Assistant for two months. When I took over at the end of May, this theater was so screwed up and had several employees stealing. The previous GM couldn’t even do a proper inventory to figure out how much had been stolen. This theater didn’t fail due to lack of business. During my time here it was very busy. And on $.50 Tuesdays we always broke 4000 in attendance.
The problem was three things. The people that came here didn’t hardly buy anything at the concession stand. And on Tuesdays they only showed up with their $.50. The weekend in February that I worked had alot of attendance of college students from TCU just North of us. As GM there were no more college students coming here. Todd had stopped by my first weekend to see how things were going and he filled me in. All of their customers from the GCC days slowly stopped coming after the changeover. And all of the very poor people that lived in the area started coming. And they would come in and watch their movie and leave without buying anything. Second, This theater was located in the most dangerous part of Ft Worth. I was told by the local police that I hired as security that the shopping center was on the boundary between two big local gangs. And as a result we were constantly having problems. The police were constantly pulling people out of the auditoriums for disrupting movies. And our video games got broken into so many times that I finally got the OK to have them removed. We were even featured on an episode of “Cops”. We also had a gang shootout inside the mall just a few doors down from us one weekend. It got to where the Ft Worth Police gang unit would stand outside the entrance to our theater inside the mall on the weekends.
Third: When Todd came back he told me that he left due to a lack of support from the corporate office. And that they were always shorting his commission paycheck. Which is illegal by the way. And that’s what they did to me. At the time Trans-Texas had about a dozen theaters. and only two, mine and Burleson, that had GMs with prior theater experience. I learned later that the Burleson GM, a former GCC GM, quit the same week that I did. After I lost an Assistant Manager. They sent me a new one from another theater that they said was the best one they had ever seen. After a short while I discovered that he liked to take alot of breaks outside at his car. Where he kept bottles of Wild Turkey in his trunk. I had the pleasure of firing him. But he refused to leave. And I had to call my boss in Dallas and have him tell the guy where to go. I thought that I was going to have to have him arrested. I shortly found out that it was common knowledge in the company that this guy was bad news.
Not to nitpick, but the GCC Valley View actually closed on January 5, 1992. I know because I was there. We had one week’s notice. Unlike the several other local GCCs that closed that day. Also Dillards was on the North wing, JC Penneys on the West, Foleys/Macys on the West, and Sears on the SouthEast. I shopped that mall hundreds of times and my family went to the Sears before the mall was even built.
Having been a General Manager of three of those type theaters; GCC Valley View, Trans Texas Medallion 5 and Trans Texas Ft Worth Dollar Cinema 8. I say good riddance. All three locations were run on the cheap by their owners. And GCC would not fix anything. I wish that I could go back and erase 1990 to 1994 from my history.
Does anyone know who the current GM is there? The last I heard was it was Waymon Lister. He had been First Assistant for Bill Skinner (my GM at UA Northstar 8) back in 97 to 98.
Medallion went from three screens to five sometime in late 1991. I started as GM there in February 1992 and had been hired by Trans Texas president Bill Knight. Number Five auditorium had actually been the next door pizza bar. Trans Texas cut a doorway through the wall and installed a sloped concrete floor. Which looked brand new when I first inspected it. You could see where the pizza ovens had been down near the screen along with the outline of the bar. The original entrance had been walled off. I was working for UA when they bought it and converted it from one screen to three. They split the auditorium across the middle and installed a second projection booth. They twinned the back half. Leaving a almost cube shaped main auditorium. Which Trans Texas later twinned. Trans Texas also ripped out the downstairs office and moved it upstairs. And they ripped out the island style concession stand that UA had and built one along the wall. You could still see where the island had been because they patched it with the wrong color tile.
Just curious if this was the theater operated by Ricky Chambers in the mid to late 80s? He also operated a film delivery service that serviced my theater the UA Prestonwood Creek 5 in Dallas. And later he serviced my two Trans Texas theaters in 1992-93. I remember one night at the Prestonwood that Ricky showed us some pictures of storm damage at his theater. Probably 86 or 87.
Sad to see it go. Another theater that I have worked at that has seen the wrecking ball. Worked there when it was the UA Lakepointe from February to June 2006. Wasa fired without cause after I filed a complaint with corporate HR against the GM and the District Manager. I wonder if anybody ever found the 6000 foot reel of old trailers, dating back to the late 70s, that I had stashed behind the roof ladder?
The GCC Caruth Plaza closed in January 1992 on the same day as my theater, GCC Valley View I and II. By then the UA Medallion had closed and reopened as the Trans Texas Medallion dollar theater. My first gig as an official General Manager.
Both articles for the GCC Redbird theaters leave out one very important thing. I worked as a Assistant Manager for GCC in Dallas from late 1987 to early 1992. Beginning at the Galleria and then the Valley View nearby. In 1990 GCC committed an illegal act. To guarantee playing the Disney movie “Dick Tracy” they guaranteed grosses to the distributor in order to shove out the competition. And the movie bombed and they lost their shirts. Then the government got involved and fined them. As a result GCC started closing locations nationwide to free up cash. We would get every other month a company directory that listed all theaters by state and include a list of new theaters and closed theaters. Starting in the end of 1990 in every issue of the directory had a huge list of newly closed locations. In January 1992 it was our turn. The first week of January saw the closing of my Valley View. Along with the Caruth Plaza, Richardson Square Mall, Burleson, Ft worth Town Center 8 (a relatively new location) and many others. Fortunately the Ft Worth location reopened as the Trans Texas Dollar Cinema 8, which a few months later I became the General Manager of. Later on I went back to school and took Accounting. GCC is listed in the textbook TWICE under bad accounting practices. Once for this and again for when they earlier sold off their Pepsi bottling division back to Pepsi and reported the sale as operating income for the theater division. Which the feds also fined them for.
Somebody beat me to it. Drove by last week to see that the theater along with most of the mall is now a huge pile of debris. All that’s left is the core food court are and other sections adjacent to the still open AMC Valley View. Looks really strange. I remember as a kid when just the Sears store was there. Now essentially all of it is gone.
My tag says CaptainRob. Rob as in Robert Murphy. Assistant Manager of the UA Northstar 8 from January 1, 1994 until it’s closing in January of 2006. I was then transferred to the UA Lakepointe 10 in Lewisville. I was hired by the GM Bill Skinner, whom I knew from his AMC days at the Prestonwood and later at the UA Town East 6. I has previously worked with the previous GM Mike Graham when he was an Assistant Manager at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5. I was shocked at the circumstances at which he had to leave the Northstar. I worked with John Devine and later Paula Jackson (who had previously been Assistant Manager, aka Paula Eargle) as GMs prior to Mr Skinner’s return in 1998. The November 1994 date I gave may have been a soft opening for the Northstar. I still vividly remember building up all of those prints for the Northstar while I was at Prestonwood. And the GM picking up the prints in his pickup. I think his name was John Colvin (or was it Clemons?) I learned my projectionist skills from our head projectionist Jim Bowman. Who later transferred over to Northstar as Assistant Manager/projectionist. I went over to Northstar and her gave me a tour. One early employee of Northstar I worked with was DJ Sneed. Who came back part time as a projectionist when John Devine was there. She stayed on part time until the end.
Hey Roy. I (Robert Murphy) worked with you at the Galleria from 1987 to 89 when Bob Rogers was GM. Then I got shoved over to Valley View in 90. After Valley View closed I got calls for a few years from “Brother” Bill Whatley checking up on me. It’s ashamed that the only way you can tell there was ever a theatre at Galleria is the old blacked out marquee on the NorthWest corner of the mall property.
The clock is now ticking down for the old Valley View. Demolition of the mall officially began this past Friday morning with a groundbreaking ceremony for the new development project and the tearing down of the parking garage outside of the theater and Dillards. The old Sangar Harris/Foleys/Macys building was torn down over the past few months.
It’s quite clear to me what this theaters problem was. Nobody new it was there. I’m a long time theater guy and this location was just about four miles from my house. And I didn’t know it was there. I only found it when I was going to a computer/networking store the next block over. I saw it’s dinky little sign and thought it was just a small little community arts theater. I went by again last week and decided to check it out and it was closed. I learned a long time ago. The customers won’t come if they don’t know you’re there.
Went by this theater last week at about 5:30 PM to check it out. And it was closed. No signage or anything.
Just wanted to add: Jeff Lynn was one of those people that I wished I had never met. He had a core group of manager friends that he let get away with murder. And the rest of the GMs and Assistants were on his hit list. Which I landed on after complaining about the remodel at Galleria. None of the employees were given any overtime and I was straight salary and got virtually nothing extra. I normally worked 40 to 45 hours per week. And during the remodel I worked 84 hours one week and 87 the other week. All I got was a stupid company reward of $100 before taxes four months later. Another story was that Lynn and his boss the local Regional VP, Steve Colson, (a moron by the way) conspired to set up the first GM of the Collin Creek and fire him. Colson came in late one night to the theater as a casual visit since he lived nearby. And had someone load up a large box full of candy from the stand. And he took it home with him. Lynn showed up the next day when Moore was there and did a surprise audit. Found him short and fired him for it. And they also fired the Assistant that had been working the night before. I knew her. I had replaced her at Galleria. Colson’s only qualification was tha this wife was the daughter of one of the executives in Boston. And he spent a week or so in a theater to learn how it worked. By the way, Lynn’s office was at Northpark 3 & 4 on the East side of the freeway. And the GM there was Mickey Lang. His sister Robin was the GM at the GCC Prestonwood. And their brother Stuart I had worked with all of my time at the UA Prestonwood. Stuart’s last day was actually my last day as well. When I later worked at UA Northstar in Garland. Mickey was the GM of the Richardson 6 across the street from Richardson Square Mall. I always let him and his employees in for free. Sometimes Robin would come along too. After GCC closed down, we hired his Assistant and several of his employees. They were all very good. As for the old DM for UA. That would have been Bob Kirby. Any time he came to visit Prestonwood Creek. He had a key to the back door and snuck in and snuck out. Oh, a story about Kevin Moore from Teddy Ford was that the Christmas after he had been set up and fired. He showed up at the unofficial GM Christmas party and got drunk. Went over to Colson’s house and trenched his front yard with his pickup truck.
My GM at UA Prestonwood was John Atchley. I first started in May 1983 was Assistant Manager there from January 85 until August 87. I went back to UA in January 94 at UA Northstar 8 in Garland. Was Tony the GM that got arrested in the lobby of the UA Prestonwood? Around 96 or 97 I was in a training seminar for UA management and got teamed with the Regional VP, Chris Taylor. Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. He said that he had been the GM of the UA Prestonwood before Atchley. I’m not sure if he was right before Atchley or not. And he told me the story f the GM there getting arrested for embezzling. he said that one day while the GM was in the Conc stand they called all of the employees into the storeroom and the cops were hiding around the corner in the hallway. And they swooped out and nabbed him. I worked for Teddy Ford at the GCC Valley View from Spring 90 to about Spring 91. Maybe a little less. Teddy was a nice guy. But he was a lunatic. And never should have been a GM. I was told by one of our projectionists that Teddy had been an assistant for so long that the higher ups felt sorry for him. And they made him GM of all of the local theaters that would soon be closing. He was the last GM at Lochwood, Richardson Sq, officially Valley View but not really, and Caruth Plaza. He was the lat GM AT Valley View. And when he left they made me ‘in charge’ but I reported to the GM of Galleria, Greg Attaway. I did all of the paperwork and stayed at a Assistant Manager title and pay. I later ran across Teddy ten years later when he was working at the Barnes and Noble bookstore at Richardson Square Mall. Which has since been torn down. Teddy was a character and did alot of things that should have gotten him fired. He constantly told this story of when he was at the old Redbird 6 as either the GM or Assistant. And about these male employees he had that would go up on the roof on Thursday nights and smoke pot before they all screened the new movies. And this was while some of them were changing the marquee on the front of the building. And one night one of these high employees decided to try to jump to the marquee from the roof. The guy missed and landed head first in front of the box office. Killing him. And that people would come by for weeks to see where the guy died and hit the sidewalk. We asked Teddy fora few details. Like the employees were all on the clock and he was the manager on duty. These guys were all breaking the law and he knew about it. And one of them died on his watch. It just didn’t register with him. Some of our employees once asked Teddy if he had ever been in a mental hospital or said that he belonged in one. And he volunteered that he had spent a year out at the state mental hospital in Terrell. Go figure.
Just walked in to the MacArthur on Tuesday afternoon. The first time I’ve stepped into a Regal theater since 2006. Was curious who the GM was. And they told me he was an old acquaintance of mine. Todd Hecht, previously of the Burleson 14. And my predecessor at the Trans Texas Dollar Cinema 8 in South ft Worth back in 1992. The MacArthur still says “Hollywood Theaters” over the front doors like in the above picture. But it’s Regal Entertainment Group everywhere inside. We talked for about thirty minutes and I learned that all of the people that engineered, or even contributed to, my departure back in 2006 are now gone. I’ve learned that a property development company has purchased the Galaxy in Dallas and the Fossil Creek in Ft Worth. So I expect them to close in the next few years. The company also bought the UA Grand Prarie theater and it’s already closed. Not to mention the Burleson theater. Why does Regal buy up all of these theaters only to turn around and close them? UA used to be the biggest player in the DFW market in the 80’s and 90’s. When these last two theaters close. It will leave only one last remaining original UA theater in North Texas. The MacArthur. I only worked with Todd for three days way back in 92. I hope he has a good long run here. And Regal doesn’t sell it out from under him. Good Luck.
I really have to strongly disagree with this opening date for the Northstar. At the time I was working as a projectionist at the UA Prestonwood Creek 5, that was straight down Belt Line Road. Northstar’s projection booth wasn’t finished enough to build up their opening prints. So we at Prestonwood built all eight of them up. And screened them. Which was the only time I saw “Beverly Hills Cop” in a movie theater. When all of the prints were ready to go to the Northstar. The GM came over in his pickup and we loaded all of them up. I distinctly remember this was the week before Thanksgiving 1984. I’m almost positive that the opening date was the Friday before Thanksgiving 1984. Not to brag, if it’s even bragging. If anybody is an expert on the UA Northstar 8. It’s me. Out of the just over 21 years that theater was open, I worked 12 of them.
This theater’s layout was that there was a lobby between the two auditoriums. The huge auditorium was on the left and the smaller 750 seat one was on the right. I remember going there as a little kid and it was always a twin. In regards to the cost figure of the “Indiana Jones” print. My former GM was known to exaggerate. Any GCC/UA manager from the DFW area in that era would probably agree with me.
I was the GM of the Trans-Texas FT Worth Town Center Dollar Cinema 8 in 1992 just up South Freeway from here. I can confirm that this used to be the Trans-Texas Burleson 6 or 8. Before 1992 it had been owned by General Cinema. You can clearly see from the outside where the theater has been added to over the years. I used to call employees into movies here. And it was notorious for being able to hear the trains pass by in the auditoriums. Like me, the GM at the time had been a former GCC manager.
A good friend of mine that I had worked with at UA Prestonwood became the GM here the week after “Twister” opened at the beginning of the Summer 1996. And I helped him move to Ft Worth from Dallas. And got a chance to look around the theater. I was currently working at the virtually identical UA Northstar 8 in Garland. Ft Worth had just gone through the infamous “Mayfest” hailstorm that damaged alot of homes and businesses in the area. And this theater had extensive damage as well. He had told me that when he was checked in that half of the ceiling tiles in the building were down with holes punched through the roof. The day I was there looking around all of the holes were patched and the tiles were replaced in the auditoriums. But upstairs they were still down. I saw up close the holes punched through the steel roof. They were as big as baseballs. And had been patched over with asphalt. It has been mentioned in several threads here that many DFW area UAs were identical. Such as this one, Northstar 8, South 8, Bowen 8, and Berkeley Square 8, and essentially Bedford 10. I’ve been to most of them over the years and they all had unique features and decorations to make them individualized. Compared to GCC that I had also worked for. Alot of their theaters featured their new standard design of blue, burgundy and battleship gray. And you could stand in any lobby and not tell which theater you were standing in.
Just to add that I went by Valley View Mall recently and walked around. This mall is now a huge collection of art galleries. The AMC theater on top is almost dead. I took what will probably be the last pictures of the former GCC Valley View. This mall is reportedly scheduled to come down in the next month or so. The theater’s space is currently being used for storage.
I was working for Peterson Theaters when this theater opened in 1993. It was opened under the guise of Peterson-O'Neil Theaters in a partnership between the two companies of some kind. It’s first GM was Jim Miller, whom I replaced at his previous job as GM at the Casa Linda. Before West End opened he gave me a tour of it. It was basically two five-screens stacked on top of each other. And it was really pretty inside. Unfortunately Jim got canned about the same time that I was. And I’m just as sure for made-up reasons like I was.
I first went to this theater when “Star Trek 6” opened. This theater didn’t have true stadium seating as seen in future theaters. It was a hybrid. With the front half of the auditorium being normal style seating with a gently sloping floor. And the back half being stadium style with a steeply sloping floor with steps. Unfortunately when combined with the curved Torus screen. Which was not perforated. Made for horrible acoustics. The screen was held in place with a vacuum system behind it. Causing all of the speakers that were normally behind the screen to be mounted in the ceiling above the screen. The sound system in these auditoriums would have a noticeable echo off the screen. The more empty the auditorium, the more noticeable the echo. The Spring before “Mulan” opened, there was an event held by the movie companies featuring their Summer product. This was for all of the local Theater management. Which I attended along with my GM. The event ended with a screening of “Mulan” in the main auditorium. Before the screening my GM and I went into the empty auditorium and I demonstrated the echo. I took out my theater keys and dropped them on the concrete floor in the aisle about midway up the stadium portion. And there was a very load echo. There were some other people in there at the time and they noticed also. As I have mentioned in another thread. The UA nearby opened as just “The United Artists” and later changed to the “United Artists Northpark”. But the term “Plaza had originally referred to the entire entertainment complex downstairs.
I was the GM of this theater for Trans-Texas Amusements from May of 92 until February of 93. The last GM for GCC was hired on as the first GM for Trans-Texas. He was Todd Hecht. Whom I believe is the current GM for a theater in Burleson. I worked as a trainee here the opening weekend for Trans-Texas. They figured that since I had just come from GCC in Dallas that this was a good place to learn their system. When I left my final day Todd joked that I’d probably be back as GM. Surprise; he was right. Tod only lasted a couple of months and was replaced by someone that had worked there a long time. As a box office cashier. She had been his Assistant for two months. When I took over at the end of May, this theater was so screwed up and had several employees stealing. The previous GM couldn’t even do a proper inventory to figure out how much had been stolen. This theater didn’t fail due to lack of business. During my time here it was very busy. And on $.50 Tuesdays we always broke 4000 in attendance. The problem was three things. The people that came here didn’t hardly buy anything at the concession stand. And on Tuesdays they only showed up with their $.50. The weekend in February that I worked had alot of attendance of college students from TCU just North of us. As GM there were no more college students coming here. Todd had stopped by my first weekend to see how things were going and he filled me in. All of their customers from the GCC days slowly stopped coming after the changeover. And all of the very poor people that lived in the area started coming. And they would come in and watch their movie and leave without buying anything. Second, This theater was located in the most dangerous part of Ft Worth. I was told by the local police that I hired as security that the shopping center was on the boundary between two big local gangs. And as a result we were constantly having problems. The police were constantly pulling people out of the auditoriums for disrupting movies. And our video games got broken into so many times that I finally got the OK to have them removed. We were even featured on an episode of “Cops”. We also had a gang shootout inside the mall just a few doors down from us one weekend. It got to where the Ft Worth Police gang unit would stand outside the entrance to our theater inside the mall on the weekends. Third: When Todd came back he told me that he left due to a lack of support from the corporate office. And that they were always shorting his commission paycheck. Which is illegal by the way. And that’s what they did to me. At the time Trans-Texas had about a dozen theaters. and only two, mine and Burleson, that had GMs with prior theater experience. I learned later that the Burleson GM, a former GCC GM, quit the same week that I did. After I lost an Assistant Manager. They sent me a new one from another theater that they said was the best one they had ever seen. After a short while I discovered that he liked to take alot of breaks outside at his car. Where he kept bottles of Wild Turkey in his trunk. I had the pleasure of firing him. But he refused to leave. And I had to call my boss in Dallas and have him tell the guy where to go. I thought that I was going to have to have him arrested. I shortly found out that it was common knowledge in the company that this guy was bad news.