Northline Cinema

April 14th, 1965 grand opening ad (excerpt) posted.

Saw the Blues Brothers here back in 1980. My memory of the place has faded over the years, too bad there aren’t any pics of this theater.

Riseman designed all the General Cinema operations from about the early to mid-1950s through the late-1970s, when he either retired or passed. In the early days Smith Management/General Drive-In/General Cinema operated bowling alleys, Amy Joy Donut Shops, Peter Pan Snack Shop, Richard’s Drive-In restaurants as well as the drive-in and indoor theatres, everything built by the company, or remodeled after acquisition from others was the work of the Riseman firm, located in Boston. Riseman also did a lot of theatre work for Sumner Redstone/National Amusements, also headquartered in Boston.

just returned from a Houston visit.
as of winter 2008, this theater is gone.
completely razed to the ground…like it never was there.

When I was a kid in the 1960s and 70s my family drove down from NYC to spend summers with my dad’s parents in Houston. I remember it was always fun to go the the Northline Mall, and it was a short drive from my grandparent’s house on Catamore Street. We only attended a couple of movies at this theater and I don’t recall what they were, but I remember many times looking across the parking lot at the building. In the picture the vertical gray stripes on the exterior look much lighter than I remember them. In fact I remember them as nearly black. Sorry to learn it was demolished. Looks like many places from my childhood are disappearing, Astro World is gone and so is my grandfather’s old church on Little York Road. :(

I saw every single Star Wars film here…from SW in 77 to Jedi in 83. I remember riding my bike up to this theater in the summer of 1980 with my friends and seeing The Empire Strikes Back…week after week. Good memories. There was a great Shakey’s Pizza right next door.