Flick Cinema 1 & 2

The capacity of this theatre is inaccurate. Flick #1 had 288 seats in that auditorium and Flick #2 had 208 seats, for a total of 496 seats in the complex. It also opened in June 1978, which was about a month after I was married.

It may not have been neon tho, but anyway, I liked the way the sign looked when I was young.

I managed the Flick as an assistant…..then moved to the Pines Mall 4 as an assistant until I got promoted to Manager of the Broadmoor Cinemas 3 Screen. It was a pleasure working for UA however Mr. Matthews was old school Commonwealth and THEY were producers. He was my mentor in many ways and taught me many things. There were a lot of people that was afraid of the “big guy”…..(Mr. Matthews)….but if you listened and did your job it was a blast. Like the above post said, it was fun to manage. I took the flick over when it was a 1.50 house and Harlem Nights was on one side and The Little Mermaid on the other. It was fun wearing many hats. Carmike and First International theaters wanted “House Sitters” and not managers in my opinion. UA gave some freedoms…..but those days are gone in Pine Bluff, sadly to say…..there is an 8 screen at the mall ….all automated….and less of a “Movie Experience”

I can speak about the Flick Twin Cinema, because I supervised the construction and managed it initially. The Flick Twin Cinema (2829 Camden Road) opened in June of 1978. I managed it until April 20, 1980. Commonwealth Theatres out of Kansas City, Missouri purchased the theatre in December, 1979, and I worked for them until I left to return to United Artists Theatre Circuit in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. The theatre was owned by SVB, Inc., which was composed of Robert A. Vogel of Little Rock (who owned the Flick Twin Cinema in Jacksonville, Arkansas, and several other businesses), Rick Beard, an attorney who lived in Pine Bluff at the time, and Grover and Scott Scruggs, who owned the property and the theatre building. They leased the building back to their corporation, and later to Commonwealth. The theatre did well. Commonwealth purchased it because they owned the other theatre properties in Pine Bluff at the time, including the Broadmoor Twin, the Malco downtown, and the Pines Drive-In Theatre. It’s a shame that the theatre closed. It was a nice house, well constructed and fun to manage.