Town & Country 2
1301 North Sandhills Boulevard,
Aberdeen,
NC
28315
1301 North Sandhills Boulevard,
Aberdeen,
NC
28315
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Should be read as 2 screens 925 seats demolished.
It opened on December 15,1966 as a single screener with 600 seats. By 1977 it was twinned with a second auditorium that seated 325.
Opened on December 15,1966 under Charlotte based Stewart and Everett Theatres.
FROM THE DECEMBER 15,1966 EDITION OF THE ABERDEEN-SANDHILL CITIZEN NEWSPAPER:
“Town and Country Cinema Opening”–(December 15,1966)
The new Town and Country Cinema will open tonight in its new building on Highway 1,north of Aberdeen and just south of the Howard Johnson’s restaurant. On the big 19 ½ by 44 feet screen for the first time will be “Not With My Wife You Don’t!” starring Tony Curtis, George C. Scott and Virna Lisi. The new building and equipment,an ultra-modern theatre designed for motion picture enjoyment cost approximately $225,000,according to Charles B. Trexler,president,of Charlotte. The building with bulit and is owned by Volt Gilmore and released to Stewart and Everett Theatres of the Carolinas of which Mr. Trexler is president. Town and Country Cinema makes the 71st theatre in the Stewart and Everett Theatres of which Mrs. Trexler is vice-president. Town and Country Cinema makes the 71st theatre in the Stewart and Everett theatre chain in North Carolina,South Carolina and Virginia. It has a seating capacity of 600 with 72 seats for smokers. The theatre will have four showings daily with Saturday and Sunday will have five showings with the last picture show ending at 9:00pm. The decor of the building is gold and olive. Special features of the new Cinema will be convenient parking,spacious lobby and lounge,lounge chair seating with deep foam cushions and backs scientifically designed and spaced for maximum comfort,and special smoking lounge with specialized exhaust systems for removing smoke quickly,and a hi-fidelity sound for your listening pleasure;automatic zone controlled temperature for ideal “weather” year round. The coming attractions for the grand opening of the Town and Country Cinema will be James Coburn in “Our Man Flint”,and James Coburn in “Dead Heat on A Merry-Go-Round”,and Charlton Heston in “Khartoum”
I also watched the 1999 Star Wars Episode I there to a packed crowd!
raysson – I watched Grease there and I saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit there too, amongst many, many others. I even walked out of Transylvania 6-5000 in this theatre!
I remember seeing the original Karate Kid at Carmike 4 amongst many others. I just don’t feel at “home” any more when I go visit my parents there. I grew up in Raeford/Aberdeen/Southern Pines but it’s not even close to being the town that it used to be.
Thank you U.S. Open!!
gunnarbiker: The Town and Country Twin got a lot of the big blockbuster hits…..I remember seeing not only “Star Wars” here but “The Empire Strikes Back”,and “Return of the Jedi” played here before capacity sold out crowds…..“Jaws” played here when it was a single screen theatre in 1975…I remember the lines that stretched from one end of the shopping center to the other. Also played here were “Superman:The Movie”, “Grease”,“Saturday Night Fever”,and “Close Encounters” first-run billing here.
Other movies that played here too from “E.T.”, “Indiana Jones”, “Back To The Future”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, the original “Die Hard” movie and the original “Batman” movie got first-run billing to “Jurassic Park” and I fondly remember seeing “Jurassic Park 2:The Lost World” which played to capacity crowds on two screens in June of 1997! Such great memories of this theatre. Like you it irrates me that they demolished it and replaced it with a high price/overbilled Texas Steakhouse Restaurant where the theatre once stood. I remember seeing movies in both Southern Pines/Aberdeen and as far away as Rockingham,but I’m like you that Southern Pines/Aberdeen is not the nice hometown that it used to be. It lost it with me when they put a 10-screen multiplex on the opposite end of town closing both the Town & Country 2 and the Carmike 4 indefinitely. Just to show you that the 10-screen multiplex is basically the ONLY movie theatre in town(The Sandhills Cinema 10 is listed on the Cinema Treasures site)with high price admission and outrageous prices they charge for a bag of popcorn.
I saw Star Wars in this theater as a kid. I’m still irrate that they tore it down. Aberdeen/Southern Pines is not the hometown it used to be. I can’t see myself ever living there again.
raysson: THE TEXAS ROADHOUSE OF STEAKS RESTAURANT opened in February of 2012 where the formerly Town and Country Twin Theatres once stood that closed in 2007 and was demolished by 2011. Reason? I pass by this theatre on a road trip through Southern Pines/Aberdeen right off Highway U.S. 1/15/501 on a Sunday afternoon to find out that this theatre was demolished and a restaurant was built on the same lot where the cinema once stood.
I passed by this theatre the other day,which was on a Sunday to find out that the Town and Country I & II in Aberdeen/Southern Pines has been demolished as of 2011.
A TEXAS ROADHOUSE OF STEAKS RESTAURANT has been built and opened in early 2012 where the former twin cinema once stood. As of now,the Sandhills Cinema 10 on Brucewood Road is the only multiplex theatre in all of Moore County serving Southern Pines/Aberdeen.
Open in 1966 as a 600-seat single screen theatre originally operated by Charlotte-based Stewart & Everett Theatres. By mid-1977,a newly construction 325-seat auditorium was added to the original auditorium,making it a twin cinema while it kept the original auditorium’s 600-seating capacity for the theatre’s booking of STAR WARS which came out around July or August of 1977. The theatre closed in 2007 and as of this writing it is still intact. It has shown signs of wear and tear.
HISTORY:
1966-1976 Stewart and Everett Theatres
1976-1985 Martin Theatres(was twinned in 1977)
1985-2000-Carmike Cinemas
2000-2003-All Star Theatres
2003-2007-Frank Theatres
A Town and Country Cinema opened as a 600-seat single-screener in the Town & Country Shopping Center in Southern Pines in 1966. Originally operated by Stewart & Everett Theatres, it was one of at least two theaters designed about this time for the chain by Charles H. Wheatley & Associates. S&E was then operating over 70 theatres in North Carolina and Virginia, the Sunrise in Southern Pines among them.
The June 6, 1977, issue of Boxoffice listed among new theater projects completed in 1976 a 325-seat Town & Country Cinema 2, at Southern Pines, for Stewart & Everett Theatres. This was apparently either a second screen added to (or carved from) the original Town and Country Cinema, or an entirely new twin built as a replacement for the 1966 single-screen house. Boxoffice does not specify. Old reports or ads from the area’s newspaper(s) could undoubtedly clear this up.
The cinema is still intact and I read somewhere it will be demolished sometime around early next year. At one time,the Town and Country twin theatres was the ONLY moviehouse in operation in all of Moore County.
Also once owned and operated by Martin Theatres,and later acquired by Carmike Cinemas. I can’t believe that its about to be demolished.