Winwood Theater
42nd Street,
Odessa,
TX
79760
42nd Street,
Odessa,
TX
79760
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Hi everyone.
My last post here was in 2011. Funny how time flies. I was assistant manager of the Winwood Cinema from 1974 to 1977. Some time around the middle of that, the theatre was bought by United Artists. In December of 1977 I opened the newly constructed United Artist’s Cine 4 on Cuthbert in Midland.
Cinema National was a pretty cool company but they weren’t acclimated to southern practices, I think. They equipped all new theatres with a basic package including snow shovels. Including the Winwood in Odessa. My boss Lamont, the man in the newspaper clipping above, was required to wear a tuxedo with cummerbund every evening. UA was much more relaxed, serving sizes were larger and prices much better.
Odessa wasn’t happy with my presence there. The house I was living in is a soccer field now and the Winwood Mall along with this theatre (that I really loved) is gone – as if they wanted to remove every trace of my former presence. Oh well, c'est la vie.
I will check back in another 10 years. :)
I don’t know if it’s the case for this particular theatre, but according to a number of newspaper articles I’ve found in various archives, CinemaNational sold twelve of their non-New York locations to United Artists in 1976. It’s likely that this location was one of them.
I also don’t know that CinemaNational was a “Fly-by-night” operation as they were the theatre division of Carrols Development Corp which had been operating theatres around New York state since the 20s. CinemaNational later sold to USA Cinemas which in turn was sold to Loews Theatres.
This cinema did expand or split up to three screens on May 17th, 1985.
Listings:
Found on Newspapers.com
This was opened by Carrol’s of Syracuse, NY, which became CinemaNational in 1974. No mention of Rowley United in the article below:
Found on Newspapers.com
Well, since no one answered your question in a year and a half, No — It was never changed to 3 screens — it would have been a major remodel to do that.