North Town 4 Cinemas
1923 E. Kearney Street,
Springfield,
MO
65803
1923 E. Kearney Street,
Springfield,
MO
65803
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This location is now a Wal Mart.
June 22nd, 1979 and June 10th, 1983 grand opening ads in the photo section.
I worked here when I was 16 (1988). It was a fun job with great people, but Dickinson Theaters were tight and they paid us student wages totaling just over $2 an hour. On a good note, we never paid to see a movie or for popcorn and soda.
At first I started in concessions, but before my 17th birthday I was running projectors and even building up movies.
The manager during my time there was named Terrie. She was a musician who dated local musician the late Jim Wunderle.
Every Tuesday night was dollar-movie night. We never looked forward to Tuesdays as it was a chaotic mess. One of my responsibilities on Tuesday nights was to sit up in the projection room and watch for people drinking alcohol. Terrie would always reap the rewards after we would kick the guilty out.
One of our regulars was Sababa. He was a homeless African man living on Commercial Street who rode around with this unique bicycle he built from the junk. It was a cool bike with lights and other electronics—a beach cruiser. I don’t know how the little man ever pedaled it as it had to weight a ton. It was a rule in the theater that Sababa got in for free. He usually fell asleep quickly in the movie and was probably using it as a place to keep warm.
The first time Sababa came into the theater, I ran over to him as he was wheeling the bicycle in letting him know he cannot bring that inside. Terrie quickly ran out of her office letting me know that it was okay and that Sababa was a friend of the theater. Sababa then went on to show me his bike and told me his dream was for Tony Beason on KY3 to interview him so he could show all the children in Springfield his bike.
KSPR’s Sammy B. Good was also a regular and friend of Terrie’s. He came in to escape the nightmare of Halloween at the North Town Mall and snuck off to see a free movie. Shortly after, Sababa came in with his bike. I alerted him Sammy B. Good was in theater four and this was his chance to sell himself to get on TV.
I followed Sababa into that theater well aware Sammy would have a new nightmare to deal with. Sababa scanned the aisle and could not identify Sammy with his orange clown hair and came back to me asking if I would point him out. I did. Needless to say, Sammy didn’t get through his movie, but it was handshakes and pictures when Sammy escaped to the lobby to talk to Terrie with Sababa following.
the north town 4 cinemas along with the north town mall were demolished in september of 2007 to make way for a new walmart supercenter.
Just what we need, another Supercenter. Wal-Mart sucks the big one (this means everything about them).
This theater, along with North Town Mall, is about to be demolished by Wal-Mart in preperation for building a Supercenter on the property.
The theatre opened its fourth auditorium on June 10th, 1983, the day after its 52 (it wasn’t 53) week run on E.T. ended. Flashdance was shown in the auditorium.
The theatre opened as a Dubinsky theatre and became a Dickinson theatre on December 2nd, 1983.
The theatre opened June 22nd, 1979 with Players on Auditorium #1, Rocky II on Auditorium #2 and Prophecy on Auditorium #3. I was looking on microfilm and the fourth auditorium had not been added when Altered States opened. In fact, at the end of the E.T. run I mentioned, it was still three screens.
A friend and I nearly killed ourselves driving to the North Town (in a driving rainstorm) to see “Altered States” when it was first out. The fourth auditorium had just been added and it was an attraction because it was one of the first theaters in the area with Dolby Stereo. When the Town & Country 6 opened in 1983 both theaters suffered. The North Town mall now stands mostly deserted although rumors have persisted for years that Wal-Mart might built a Super Center on the site.
The area is has been closed since 1998. Since then, it was used for screenings for a couple of the Cinemagic (the name may be wrong) festivals (the name has since changed and the main screening venue is the wonderful Moxie Cinema downtown) but other than that, it’s been vacant like most of the dead North Town Mall.
This theatre showed E.T. for an amazing 53 weeks in 1982-1983. The final week had screenings for a dollar.
I remember going here for a showing of “Leave It To Beaver” when I was seven in 1997, when the theatre was on its last legs as a second-run theatre. I remember they actually had Mr. Pibb instead of Dr. Pepper (in an area dominated by Dr. Pepper)!
This theater opened in the 80’s as a three screen theater. Later a fourth screen was added and the name was changed. Dickinson Theaters later closed the theater down because business was rather slow.