North Star Cinema I, II, III

The North Star Cinema was originally built free-standing in the North Star Mall parking lot. Later a Joskes store was built free-standing just 300 yards or so east of the Cinema. In 1969 North Star Mall enlarged and engulfed North Star Cinema and Joskes, and they both ended up inside the mall, surrounded by other stores and businesses.

The North Star Cinema was designed by William Riseman Associates. Plans, sections, and detail sheets are in the J. Evan Miller collection of Cinerama Theater Plans at UCLA’s Charles E. Young Research Library.

I was the second manager of the NorthStar. The first, longtime and legendary manager was Mr. Ted Waggoner. (Ted insisted on being addressed as “Mr.”) Ted ruled his house with an iron fist. No one, including customers, dared challenge his authority. A projectionist told me of a night when Ted didn’t take kindly to the behavior of a particular customer. He ordered the film stopped and the house lights brought up. Ted marched down to the front of the auditorium and announced who he was and that he ruled the theatre and if anyone didn’t like it, they could leave. Half the audience got up and left!

During my tenure, I had the opportunity to screen “The Sting” for George Roy Hill, Robert Redford and the essential crew of “The Great Waldo Pepper.” They were in San Antonio filming “Pepper.” “The Sting” – which had not been released yet – had just been completed and Hill, et al had not yet seen the released version. So, they came in on a Saturday morning before opening for a screening.

After a couple of years, I was moved on to open the Greenspoint Five in Houston – GCC’s first five screen theatre. It was an abomination of a theatre! Five center aisle shoebox sized auditoriums lined up in a dead-end hall. First new theatre in NW Houston and, despite being an awful place to watch a movie, was packed every weekend, pretty much regardless of what was showing! Those were boom days in Houston!

Ram9214: I just reset the Google street view to what I believe was the location of the North Star Cinema, judging from the vintage photo uploaded by elmorovivo. The building occupied by Joske’s in the photo now houses a branch of Dillard’s. The center’s map on its web site shows several small shops flanking the new mall entrance (which can be seen in street view) that has been punched through the theater space. The stores displacing the theater include Lens Crafters, Pac Sun, Journeys, Gurinsky’s Jewelers, Justice, and Urban Cowboy.

Largest cinema split into two creating three screens opening on October 19th, 1979. No ad found.