Newspaper ad from the Des Moines Register, May 27,1977
“Begins Tonight! Star Wars. Star Wars will presented with DOLBY SOUND a special new sound system that the River Hills has installed that will astound your mind with the ULTIMATE QUAD SYSTEM. Adults $3.00, Children under 12 $1.25”
Playing at the Riviera Twin- The Godfather and The Godfather Part II.
I remember the Waterloo fondly, because that was where I first saw Star Wars in June of 1977. Star Wars opened there, then moved to the College Square Cinema sometime later that summer for the rest of it’s original run. It became a porno theater (yes, there were such things!) about 1979. Changed back to a regular first run in 1982 and closed that fall
It has the distinction of being one of the few mall theaters that is not attached to the mall! I remember many a hot summers and cold winters trudging across the parking lot to JC Penny to wait for my mother to pick me up.
Before it “officially” re-opened in the fall of 1993, they had special screening on the four weekends leading up to to the grand re-opening to test the new sound systems. They showed The Empire Stirkes Back, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Top Gun and Days Of Thunder. Also they will occasionally show limited-run (one week) revival screenings in the spring and fall between tentpole season. One of those was Lawrence Of Arabia and I got to see it in all of it’s 70mm glory.
And yes, it is still the biggest regular theater screen in Des Moines. The only one larger is the IMAX Dome that opened downtown a few years ago.
As I recall in the late ‘90’s after the Movies 12 opened in Ames, The Mall I&II, North Grand 5, and Varsity were bought by Cinemark from Central States Theaters (which ran all the theaters in Ames at the time), there was talk about the Mall II turning into a discount theater. Eventually, Cinemark made the North Grand the discount theater and closed the Mall II. It was gutted and turned into store space, first a Sam Goody, now it’s an exercise equipment store.
Problem with the Century was it was located in the middle of a flood plain so kept getting flooded. The last time it got flooded was 1998 and never reopened.
The Polk County Convention Complex now stands where the Des Moines Theatre was.
The Polk County Convention Complex now stands where the Paramount was.
Newspaper ad from the Des Moines Register, May 27,1977
“Begins Tonight! Star Wars. Star Wars will presented with DOLBY SOUND a special new sound system that the River Hills has installed that will astound your mind with the ULTIMATE QUAD SYSTEM. Adults $3.00, Children under 12 $1.25”
Playing at the Riviera Twin- The Godfather and The Godfather Part II.
The Varsity II closed at the end of 2008. No word yet what will happen to the theater.
I remember the Waterloo fondly, because that was where I first saw Star Wars in June of 1977. Star Wars opened there, then moved to the College Square Cinema sometime later that summer for the rest of it’s original run. It became a porno theater (yes, there were such things!) about 1979. Changed back to a regular first run in 1982 and closed that fall
It has the distinction of being one of the few mall theaters that is not attached to the mall! I remember many a hot summers and cold winters trudging across the parking lot to JC Penny to wait for my mother to pick me up.
Before it “officially” re-opened in the fall of 1993, they had special screening on the four weekends leading up to to the grand re-opening to test the new sound systems. They showed The Empire Stirkes Back, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Top Gun and Days Of Thunder. Also they will occasionally show limited-run (one week) revival screenings in the spring and fall between tentpole season. One of those was Lawrence Of Arabia and I got to see it in all of it’s 70mm glory.
And yes, it is still the biggest regular theater screen in Des Moines. The only one larger is the IMAX Dome that opened downtown a few years ago.
As I recall in the late ‘90’s after the Movies 12 opened in Ames, The Mall I&II, North Grand 5, and Varsity were bought by Cinemark from Central States Theaters (which ran all the theaters in Ames at the time), there was talk about the Mall II turning into a discount theater. Eventually, Cinemark made the North Grand the discount theater and closed the Mall II. It was gutted and turned into store space, first a Sam Goody, now it’s an exercise equipment store.
The building where the Sierra Three was now holds a Gold’s Gym franchise. It opened in the fall of 2008
As mentioned earlier, the Wells Fargo Arena now stands where the River Hills/Rivera Twin used to be.
Problem with the Century was it was located in the middle of a flood plain so kept getting flooded. The last time it got flooded was 1998 and never reopened.