Richardson Square 3

Richardson Square Mall was an Edward J. DeBartolo single level, 739,000 square foot shopping complex. And General Cinema was an original tenant of the mall opening one day after the Mall’s October 20, 1977 launch. General Cinema opened two theaters within a week of each other. First up was the Red Bird Mall Cinema I-II-III-IV in Oak Cliff which sat just outside of the mall. And inside of the Richardson Square Mall and opening a week later was the Richardson Square I-II-III opening October 21, 1977 with “Oh God!”, “The Other Side of Midnight” and “Young Frankenstein.” The theater was General Cinema’s ninth at that point in Dallas and its immediate suburbs with Big Town, NorthPark 1 & 2, NorthPark “East” aka 3 & 4, Valley View, Town East, Irving Mall, Treehouse (formerly Lochwood), Red Bird and Richardson Sq. The three auditoriums were equal in size with 325 seats in each auditorium. One of the biggest hits for the theater was “Saturday Night Fever” which played more than 20 weeks.

Reviled from the outset as being cramped, ill-sized, and totally lacking any charm, Richardson residents got a break ten years later when General Cinema provided a better designed theater across the street with the Richardson 6 theater. As one newspaper critic said, the theaters were an improvement over the Richardson Square Mall Cinema but “almost anything would be.” General Cinema tried to wring ever dollar it could from the Richardson Square Mall property converting it to second run and running it into the mid-1990s. When General Cinema shuttered the location, it was repurposed into a Barnes and Noble. When Barnes and Noble moved to the Firewheel shopping complex, the mass exodus was already on and the Richardson Square Mall, itself, became a casualty falling to the wrecking ball though leaving its major anchors standing and in business.

Ladies day at Richardson Square from the 1970’s from Film-Tech