Galleria Cinema IV

Poor Les, who wasn’t a young man, did a LOT of walking. Because he WAS so good—he couldn’t keep a decent assistant manager, either. He’d train them so well, that the company would transfer them out, to other assignments—as soon as he got them thru training.
I’ve lost track of him. Last time I saw him—he was managing a $ cinema—years ago.

I saw Soylent Green (Edward G. Robinson’s last film) & Jaws there, too.

Hi, My name is Philip Rebstock .When Star Wars came out in 1977 I was the Manager of both the Cinema in the main complex but also the Galleria II cinema. WJ Wilson was the division manager and had his offices in the galleria when I was hired in 1973. I worked as a trainee at Gulfgate then was transfered to Meyerland and on to the Galleria in April of 1973. I became the Assistant Manager under John Foster who was then the manager. Fred Riley was the Manager at Meyerland, and Clay Flueker was the manager of Northline. John Foster was a retired TWA pilot who’s family had owned a small chain of theaters in west Texas. He managed for them when he was in his early twenties. He returned to the theater business as a retirement job because he said he had always enjoyed being around theaters as a kid. He did it for fun. He definitely did not need the money. I found out as time went by, that it gets into your blood. I was only 24 years old at that time. John was extremely good teacher. I was on the shy side and he told me I had to grow thicker skin. This was of particular importance in learning to work the lines from the ticket booth as they would go down the skating rink and block other stores. I learned how to control crowds and people. With Mr. Wilson, district manager, having offices there , most assistants and trainee’s didn’t want to work there. He was a gruff, but fair man. I liked him. He was straightforward and I wasn’t afraid to make it or break it , under his watchful eye. I was there 6 months and a Manager of Quail Creek Cinema in Shreveport, La was leaving. Wilson came to me and asked I could go there and manage the theater until he could get a manager there. After leaving me there for month he said he very pleased with my work and I could stay on as manager if I felt up to it. I did. I stayed there and became City manager for Shreveports 2 theaters. I was the youngest manager in the South texas/Louisianna Division but was doing extremely well. At the end of 1976 he offered me a promotion to become the manager of the Galleria(our flagship theater in his division). I agreed. As a favor he asked me stop at Galvez Triple in Galveston to straighten out the operation(lots of theft) before coming to Houston. After a couple of months I got it back on track. In early 1977 before Star Wars I moved in to Galleria as manager. I had 3 Asst. Manager Dwayne Nicklen and Kurt Von Riechthoven (yes he claimed to be related to the Red Baroon) I had a chief of staff and asst. that I don’t recall and about 100 (believe it)employees in both units. As Star Wars time drew near I found we were going to have the exclusive grand opening for not only Texas but several surrounding states. Not even our GCC theater in Dallas was getting it. Only one location in California on a day earlier would get the Official Priemer Grand Opening. Only 2 other location in the USA would open on the same day as us. One was in New York and I don’t recall the other. Needless to say there was a lot of publicity. I believe(not sure) it was Ch 13 that contacted me about an interview. I declined-too busy and a question of GCC policy. However, I said they could come to the theater and speak to one of my not as busy assistants about things releated to what was happening with the film. They did come back after the film started and he did a pretty good job, as I latter noticed when I had time to watch TV. I was very busy with the lines that formed many hours in advanced wrapping itself around and down the skating rink. Counting the cash money(only form of payment ) was a task that was almost impossible. We were selling out every performance and would have500-1000 people left who wait for the next performance. This went on for weeks. Everyday my asst. & I were counting up to $25,000 in small bills(lots of ones). Turning over a new crowd every two hours was not a small feat. Somewhere at the beginning of the Star Wars run, we got in a second copy of Star Wars to run in Galleria II. I had Dwayne Nicklen, takeover in running the second unit. To Digress:The reason for the second print was GCC did not use the platter system that AMC was to develope later, they still used the 2 projectors on one screen(splicing the small reels onto 2 larger reels of about 1 hour each) and using a changeover que. Any way, things were starting to get stretched rather thin with staff. Unfortunately an unsavory character had been watching how we handled the money. All the money came to me upstairs beside the concession stand. You needed to use a key to enter and had to identify yourself at the door to my office. During one of very busy times, at the end of the day on Sunday, this character catches the downstairs door after the cashier enters, and follows her upstairs. There was a hall area going to the projectionist booth that he slips behind and hides until the cashier indentifies herself and starts to come in the room. He quickly comes in behind her with a gun. He had no mask and held the gun in a palming manner. Kurt, my assistant and Louanna McWhorter, the cashier were in the office with me. He points the gun at Kurt and tells him to “face the wall”. He tells Louanne to “sit still in the chair”. He has gloves on and reaches inside his Jacket and pulls out a white cloth bag and tells me to open and empty the safe. He points the gun at my head. I open the safe and start filling the bag. I start to put rolled quarters in and he stops me and tells me"no coin". He is very calm and collected. Not the least bit in a hurry. After he collects his money he pulls out a pair of wire cutters and cuts the office phone line. He then tells us “don’t leave this office for 10 minutes or you might get hurt” He exits and I wait maybe a minute then run down the hall to the 2nd office and call the police. He was already long gone. He had exited into the theater and went out the doors at the rear of the screen. Later the detectives told me he was probably a pro and likely an ex-cop. They said we were very lucky. He was never caught. It was about $14,000 in cash. Yes I got into trouble for it. Wilson went to bat for me. Stan Worthman advertising director at GCC Boston went to bat. My wife put her foot down and wanted me to quit.
Later , I believe a couple of weeks, the Windsor, that was south of the Galleria( a beautiful old theater with over a thousand seats) was robbed. They think by the same person. The manager had a gun in his safe and tried to shoot it out. He died. After a short while my wife convinces me to take a break from the theater. I am only 28 years old with 2 children. I agree but return to GCC for a couple more years at Lakeside in New orleans, Alexandria Cinema-Alexandria, La. I hope you enjoyed this. I have lots of fond memories of those General Cinema Years!

June 17th, 1977, Grand opening ad posted

The lower level Galleria I & II closed October 16, 1994.

The upper level Galleria III & IV closed January 15, 1995.

As noted by others, because the theaters were in different locations, with different phone numbers, and different opening & closing dates, they shouldn’t be contained in a single listing.