MacArthur Park 4-Cinema
2230 N. MacArthur Boulevard,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73127
2230 N. MacArthur Boulevard,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73127
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Functions: Restaurant
Previous Names: MacArthur Park Cinema 4, MacArthur Park Twin Cinema and Dance Club
Nearby Theaters
The MacArthur Park was a four-screen early "multiplex" before that term came into parlance. Located on MacArthur Boulevard at NW 23rd Street in Northwest Oklahoma City, across the street from the old Westwood Theater (now a church).
The MacArthur Park Cinema 4 opened on December 29, 1971. The theater showed first-run and low-budget first-run films. For example this is where I saw movies like “Legend of Boggy Creek”, “Phantom of the Paradise”, and “When A Stranger Calls”. I have no idea who the architect was but it was part of a strip mall. Its best years were the 1970’s and 1980’s and then it fell into rapid decline, closing on April 22, 1990. It reopened in April 1992 operated by MI theatres as a discount house, but closed on September 30, 1992.
Two screen were opened as a dance club and the other two screen reopened for movies and it was renamed MacArthur Park Twin Cinema and Dance Club from May 21, 1993, closing on June 10, 1993. The 2 Dance club auditoriums continued to be used as a night club.
In 2009, the building is a restaurant named OK Corral.
Contributed by
David Savage
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
My recollection is that the MacArthur Park 4 was the first multi-plex in OKC. I saw my first R-rated film there: “200 Motels” starring Frank Zappa. I distinctly recall hearing the movie playing in the next auditorium through the walls.
The building was converted at some point in the early 1990s into a night club.
One correction to the description above: the Westwood Theater is not demolished, but is currently, and has been for many years, a church.
Thanks for the correction, Kevin. I must have missed 200 Motels but I’ll look for it in Netflix! —David Savage
This multiplex had the charm of a bus station. It had cement block walls, and this was the first OKC cinema not to have curtains over the screen. Instead of drapes, it flashed advertising slides during intermission. Seats were most uncomfortable, and there was always sound bleedover from other auditoriums.
I took a friend there once, and upon exiting the theatre he said (no matter what was showing) he never wanted to go there again. And he didn’t!
Shown here are recent pix of the former MacArthur Park Cinema 4.
http://www.roadsideoklahoma.com/node/804
We played the trailer to “BOGGY CREEK” a G rated movie and a parent complained it was too scary!
MacArthur Park Cinema today
View link
went there when I was little I think thats where I saw ET I thought the song MCarther park was about the theaterlol
Someone has the information wrong above. I saw Play Misty For Me there in January 1972.
Correction: This opened on December 29th, 1971. Grand opening ad posted again.
Ferris Shanbour of Oklahoma Cinema Theatres Inc. opened the MacArthur Park Cinema 4 on December 29, 1971. It was Oklahoma’s first quad-plex and it seated 1,400 patrons in its 4 identical 350-seat auditoriums. The neighboring Dino’s Steakhouse offered free movie tickets with dinner purchases. Shanbour would launch the new-build North Park Cinema 4 Indoor Theatres on March 15, 1972.
In 1976, Heritage Theatres took on the MacArthur Park Cinema. The MacArthur Park 4 Cinema closed with two first run films (“Joe v. the Volcano” and “Love at Large”) and two dollar films (“Look Who’s Talking” and “The Little Mermaid”) on April 22, 1990.
MI Theatres reopened the venue briefly as an ultra-discount house in April 1992 but found few patrons closing up five months later onSeptember 30, 1992. Two of the screens were combined into a dance club with the venue reopening May 21, 1993 as a $1.50 discount house under its final name as a movie theatre of the MacArthur Park Twin Cinema and Dance Club. That proved to be short-lived as the cinema part of the MacArthur Park Twin Cinema and Dance Club closed on June 10, 1993. It appears as if the other two theatres were made into a night club.